Frankie Valli Born: The Falsetto Behind Four Seasons

Frankie Valli sang falsetto for a decade before anyone thought it was a valid musical choice for a male lead vocalist. Born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio on May 3, 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, to an Italian-American working-class family, he began performing in nightclubs as a teenager. He formed the group that became the Four Seasons in the early 1960s with Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi. Their breakthrough came in 1962 with "Sherry," which went to number one. It was followed by "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like a Man," giving them three consecutive number-one singles in their first year, a feat matched by few artists in rock and roll history. The distinctive element was Valli's falsetto, a high, piercing voice that cut through radio speakers and live audiences alike. Nobody else sounded like that. Gaudio wrote most of the hits, and his compositions combined doo-wop harmonies with increasingly sophisticated pop arrangements. The Four Seasons sold over 100 million records worldwide. Their career was later dramatized in "Jersey Boys," a Broadway musical that opened in 2005 and ran for 11 years, becoming one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history. The musical earned four Tony Awards and generated over $2 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Valli continued performing into his late 80s, still touring, still singing the falsetto that had defined his career for six decades. The voice, remarkably, remained largely intact. He has been performing professionally for over 70 years, one of the longest continuous performing careers in American popular music.