Tallying sales of over 100 million worldwide, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Four Seasons are true survivors, carving out a massive string of hits in the ’60s numbering classics “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Rag Doll,” “Dawn (Go Away),” “Opus 17 (Don’t You Worry ’Bout Me),” “Let’s Hang On!” “Working My Way Back to You,” “C’mon Marianne,” “Tell It to the Rain” and “Beggin’.” With a new lineup, they would reinvent themselves in the early ’70s, thanks to the chart smashes “Who Loves You” and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).” More recently, Jersey Boys, their remarkable long-running Broadway play, was a spectacular success, eliciting critical raves and helping to foster and broaden the band’s appeal to a multi-generational audience.
In June 2023 came a massive 44-CD box set, Working Our Way Back to You: The Ultimate Collection, which exhaustively chronicles their golden career. The set has the entire Four Seasons and Frankie Valli recorded catalog alongside a wealth of rarities, demos, alternate tracks, long unavailable mixes, vintage live recordings from the ’60s and ’70s and unreleased material. The package also has a hardback coffee table book by Paul Sexton chronicling the group’s story, a portfolio showcasing single and EP sleeves from around the world, including chart placings and a Collectors Notes Book from Four Seasons archivist Ken Charmer. Also in the package is the group’s underrated The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette vinyl album, in its original mono mix.
Enjoy conversations with Four Seasons members Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Joe Long (DeVito and Long interviewed just prior to their passing), plus we’ll hear from longtime fan Billy Joel, who lends insight into what made the group an essential part of music history.
‘‘There’s a lot of songs we had on our albums that never really got the exposure they deserved, and they’re some of the most incredible shining hours of our career.’’
— FRANKIE VALLI ON FOUR SEASONS SONGS
AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANKIE VALLI
GOLDMINE: Growing up in a no-nonsense, tough, blue-collar town like Newark, New Jersey, in what ways did that locale impact upon the sound of The Four Seasons?
FRANKIE VALLI: Being so close to New York City, there’s always the feeling of a pulse when you live in big cities. Something’s always happening. There’s traffic. It’s a cop blowing a whistle. It’s an accident. It’s an ambulance going by. It’s an emergency. It’s all of these things. It’s the ghetto. It’s the dream of becoming successful. It’s “How do I get out of here?
How do I take this step to this plateau since no one is sending me to college? What am I going to do with my life? Am I going to work in a factory for my whole life? Am I gonna get a job with the mob picking up numbers? Or am I gonna go and get involved with various crimes? What am I going to do?” When you’re very young and you grow up that way, you touch on a lot of those things and then the time comes for you to make up your mind as to whether that’s what you really wanna do. And The Four Seasons’ music came out of that. Listen to some of the songs, “Big Man in Town,” (recites lyrics) “I’ll be a big man in town, just you wait and see, you’ll be proud of me.” (Then recites lyrics for “Dawn”) “Dawn, go away. I’m no good for you.” We were saying, I’m not the right guy for you. You’re from the right side of the tracks, and I’m from another place. We were saying things that people from neighborhoods all over the United States were thinking. Guys especially could relate to us.
GM: Take us back to 1962 when you landed your first No. 1 with “Sherry.”
It was a big “Oh yeah” moment. There was also a little bit of, “Is this really happening?” I remember we had three number ones in a row, and we decided to change up a little bit and we did “Dawn” and it only went to No. 3. I thought it was over. (laughs) “Oh sh*t, it’s over. We’re done. We’re finished! It didn’t go to No. 1.“ Little did I know that our success would continue. In the beginning I wasn’t even sure what was happening. I thought I might be dreaming. I was afraid to say or do anything ’cause I might wake up and find out that all of this was not really happening. When you wait for any kind of success, certain projects become such a labor of love. was one and there’s at least five songs on that album that are real standouts, a song like “Love Has a Mind of Its Own.” was another great album. It had some incredible songs: “Once Inside a Woman’s Heart,” “Moonlight Memories.” “Veronica” was unbelievable. It was a real standout. There was a Bob Crewe song on there called “Commitment” that was great. The whole idea coming from an entertainer’s point of view ... (recites lyrics) “Getting to the time where a one night stand don’t make it anymore. Baby, are you ready for the real things in your life?”
