Frankie Valli: Jersey Boy looks back on Four Seasons, Broadway hit that revived his career

They took their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, 28 years after topping the charts with a breakthrough hit called "Sherry." From 1962 to early 1964, the Beach Boys were the only group whose U.S. record sales were any match for theirs. Even after the British Invasion, the hits kept coming well into the '70s. But Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' profile was given a serious boost when their story and music provided the basis for a jukebox musical called "Jersey Boys," which hit Broadway in late 2005 and went on to inspire a film adaptation by Clint Eastwood.

Valli says he isn't wild about what Eastwood did (or didn't do) with "Jersey Boys," but he's a big fan of the Broadway play, and he's clearly enjoying the impact its success has had on his career.

We caught up with Valli as he was about to return to Phoenix, and talked  about the musical and the life that made that story possible. Here's what he had to say.

Question: Thank you for taking the time to talk

Answer: Oh, don’t be silly.

Q: You’re playing here right before Christmas, and you just released a Christmas album. Are you doing any Christmas songs?

A: I don’t think we're going to be doing any Christmas songs. People come to see us primarily to hear the hits. If I were doing a Christmas show, I would be sure that they advertised it that way.

Q: Are you happy with the way the Christmas album turned out?

A: Yes, I am. Have you heard it at all?

Q: Yes, I listened today.

A: What do you think of it?

Q: I thought it was a really nice selection of material. I like that there’s a lot of stylistic diversity on it, and it’s cool that Jeff Beck is on it.

A: You know, we tried to go with tradition but also give it our own flavor, which I think is really important, so that you keep your own identity intact. Every time you hear “White Christmas” by somebody, it’s exactly the same as someone else did it before.

Q: And you wanted to avoid that.

A: I think you have to put your signature on anything you do.

Q: It’s been 11 years since “Jersey Boys” hit Broadway. I was wondering what impact you thought that had on your touring.

A: I’m sure that it certainly has affected our touring and probably made more people aware of the different kinds of music that we did over the years. It was a wonderful experience to do something like this, to take your life and put it out there on the line and let people know some of the intricate parts of things that have gone on in your life. It’s an autobiography, about 95 percent of which is absolutely accurate. And for putting-a-play-together reasons and making it move when it is in play form or movie form, the writers had to use a little imagination.

Q: Ninety-five percent is pretty accurate.

A: Right. I mean, it’s almost impossible to get the story of four different guys’ lives in two hours. And there’s still a lot more. I mean, there could be a “Jersey Boys 2.” But 11 years on Broadway is pretty amazing. And I hope that us going on Broadway and having a success like that has helped and I do see in some ways where it has. Now, there’s Carole King and there’s Gloria Estefan. It’s really nice to see this happen. It’s given a totally different look to Broadway in some ways. Because most of Broadway is stories that are made up and for people to go on and do their autobiography, I think the public is really interested in those kind of plays.

Q: How did it feel to see that made into a movie by Eastwood?

A: Well, I saw the movie from a different perspective than he did. Although I think Clint Eastwood is a sensational director, I don’t think we were both tuned into the same thing. And when we first met, I thought we really were. When he took the project on, it was not gonna be done exactly like the play. What I wanted it to do was to touch on some of the things that were not in the play. And it didn’t go there. So I wasn’t that happy with it. I didn’t see any reason to do a movie exactly like the play and that’s what it developed into.

Q: What do you think it is about your story, as presented in that play, that made it as successful as it was?

A: I think it’s a human story about guys that grew up in a relatively poor environment and made something of themselves. Some of them got in trouble and went away. And it’s a great message, I thought, to kids out there who might get into trouble when they’re very young to understand that there’s always a possibility of creating something good for your future. I hope that’s the message. You know, we live in America. Anything can happen in America. We just saw a presidential race where everybody, from the media to just about every politician I can think of, thought it was a joke and it was never gonna happen. And all of a sudden, here we are. He’s never been in politics in his whole life. That’s the story of America. That’s the beauty of America. That you can make a mistake or two. That you can come from nowhere and be successful.

Q: Do you feel like growing up in that environment had an impact on the music?

A: Most of the creative parts of what we’ve done were created by Bob Gaudio, who was my partner, and Bob Crewe. But my concept was never about my next hit. I was just doing music. In the very beginning, I wanted a hit. I’ll tell you that. And that would be the truth. But I just wanted to do music that I liked with the hope that the public might like the same music that I was doing. And fortunately, that is exactly what happened.

Q: You released a string of singles in the ‘50s – as Frankie Valley and eventually with the Four Lovers. What do you think it was about “Sherry,” the first Four Seasons hit, that it connected in a way those earlier recordings hadn’t?

A: Well, “Sherry” was kind of a new sound. You know, the secret to having a hit is not really a secret. You should really start out with a great piece of material, something that’s different, something that might be catchy. There is no exact formula. You have to do what you do. Before we had any big success, I really had nothing to do with the material. I had a producer and he found the material and he thought it was right. And in most cases, he wasn’t right. I was thrilled to be recording but I knew that I needed material that I would also be happy with. And when Bob Gaudio and I hooked up and he played me some songs early on, I felt that he was the guy.

Q: Do you have a favorite era of the Four Seasons?

A: I don’t have a favorite era. I understand everything that went down and what we did in the beginning. It was all about establishing a sound as a group so that when you heard us on the radio, whether the announcer said who it was or not, you knew who it was. And then later on, we had an opportunity to be a bit more artistic or get away from what we had originally done. We probably have recorded more different bags than anyone I know of. But the kind of music for me that has really left a mark is the period of Sinatra and Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Little Jimmie Scott, the big band era. That was the music that really had an impact on me, that made me want to get into music.

Q: You mentioned having a sound that would be instantly identifiable on the radio without anyone even announcing who it was. And obviously, a huge part of that sound for you was the falsetto. How did that become your signature?

A: You know, I did not invent falsetto. Falsetto has been used as long as there were groups singing. In most cases, it was used as background. We decided that instead of the falsetto being the background, it would be the lead, singing the melody. And not doing it in an inside soft sound. A full falsetto. And it certainly did create a sound for us. The difference between what we did as far as the sound of the falsetto and the Beach Boys, they did it soft, we did it full. And we both were big fans of some of the same artists. They were big Four Freshmen fans and so was I. The Hi-Lo's. Modernaires. The Delta Rhythm Boys. These were some of the greatest singing groups that ever lived.

Q: You and the Beach Boys were kind of the two big American rock group in the early ‘60s.

A: Well, they were the West Coast, and we were the East Coast. They did a lot of car songs and beach songs, and we were more ghetto. We were the guy from the poor neighborhood. Dawn, go away, I’m no good for you. There’s a better guy out there who’s more successful. It was a different kind of thing.

Q: Was there ever any sort of rivalry between the two groups?

A: I don’t think so. We were big fans of the Beach Boys. We were big fans of the Beatles. And the Stones. I mean, music is so broad. And then there was a whole bunch of R&B people that have left their mark. Glady Knight, Marvin Gaye, the Tempts and the Tops, the list goes on forever.

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Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Twitter.com/EdMasley.

Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 9-10.

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix.

Admission: $70-$130.

Details: 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.