Some guys just don’t know when to hang it up. Back in May Frankie Valli, who sold more records in the ’60s than anyone except the Beatles, canceled a string of shows for health reasons. The other day his younger brother Bobby said on Facebook that the 92-year-old Four Seasons frontman was retiring. Less than 24 hours later, Frankie denied it. One of his reps said he plans to resume his tour next year.
Valli certainly has earned the rest – he’s been at this professionally since 1953. The quartet that became the Four Seasons formed the next year as the Four Lovers, who muddled along with one minor hit until 1959, when keyboard player Bob Gaudio joined the band. He and producer Bob Crewe, who signed the group in 1961, wrote almost all their hits, including a fistful of No. 1’s. They were so prolific – they released almost a single a month in the mid-’60s – that some records were credited to the Four Seasons, others to Valli solo, and a few to a mystery band called the Wonder Who? At one point the quartet had three songs on the singles chart, one under each monikers.
Most of them featured Valli’s piercing yet expressive falsetto, which was why he was thrilled that “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” became a No. 2 hit without it. “I didn’t want to sing like that my whole life,” he later said. “Once we established the sound, the plan was that eventually I would do solo [records] and some things I really wanted to do.”
In case you’re wondering what the nonagenarian’s voice sounds like now, you won’t find out at his concerts. He sings what he can but relies heavily on pre-recorded vocals, and his frail physical condition has evoked more pity than plaudits from many fans. Others are just happy to see the singer whose music saturated AM radio 60 years ago.
Literally hundreds of people have covered the song, including Lauryn Hill, who included the song as a hidden track on her 1998 debut album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Some outlets have called it the best hidden track ever released.
It has been observed that the melody and chord structure are similar to Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian’s “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia,” part of his 1954 ballet, “Spartacus.” Crewe and Gaudio wouldn’t be the first songwriters to mine classical music that way. Here, judge for yourself.
