Latest Jersey Boys Podcast–Interview With Tommy DeVito!
November 27th, 2007Jersey Boys Podcast has just posted Part One of a four-part interview with the one and only Tommy DeVito! In the first segment, Tommy talks about his childhood, how he got interested in playing guitar, his interest in playing country music, his days with the Variety Trio, the Variatones, and the Four Lovers! This interview is truly fascinating!
I’ve listened to both Parts of Tommy’s podcast interview, and the information Cristy Holden extracts is astounding. I had learned a lot from my pal, Four Seasons Historian David Cace (who also contributes on the podcast), but there was still an enormous amount I didn’t know.
–Tommy was the youngest of nine children. He taught himself to play his big brother Danny’s guitar.
–Frankie actually did hang around the bars and Tommy actually did pull him on stage before he was a member of Tommy’s group.
–Collecting all the money due the group from the promoters (in this case, Peter Paul) was no easy task.
–The first actual Four Seasons recortding was “Bermuda” whose flip side was “Spanish Lace.” A clip of Bermuda is played.
–The Four Lovers were offered “Don’t be Cruel” before Elvis, but instead chose “Apple of My Eye”–David had told me his. Tommy was a bit hard on himself, though, when he said they made the wrong choice….Elvis had already had the monster “Heartbreak Hotel” and of course “Hound Dog” was the A side of DBC. Otis Blackwell wrote both Apple and DBC.
–There seemed to be a lot of disputes over who wrote what songs…Blackwell had to go to court to prove he wrote “Cruel”, while Tommy notes that his composition “Joyride” was claimed by another party.
–Ed Sullivan was a fine, compassionate man, per Tommy.
–Tommy went into the genesis of the Four Seasons comedy and his banter w/Joe Long (again told me by David), but the funniest part of the interview was his description of being visited by some priests at Notre Dame after performing some “blue” comedy.
–Tommy knew Joe Pesci since Pesci was 11 yrs. old and although Tommy and Frankie had met Bob Gaudio while both the Seasons and Royal Teens were on the road (I believe in Michigan), it really was Pesci who convinced Tommy to consider Bob for the Seasons.
There’s so, so much more that I didn’t touch on, and I am still anxious to hear Parts III and IV, since we haven’t even gotten to any discussion of Jersey Boys. It’s worth a tune-in. Thanks Steve, Cristy, Tommy, and David.
Comment by Howard Tucker — December 2, 2007 @ 11:27 pm
Right now, I only have access to dial up, so I’ll download this podcast later.
I assume that the brother “Danny DeVito” mentioned is not the actor Danny DeVito, sicne the ages don’t seem to match up, but I always wondered if they were related. I see that actor Danny DeVito is from New Jersey, though. There have been conflicting stories about Don Ciccone and Madonna Ciccone being related.
Comment by Ted Hammond — December 4, 2007 @ 12:25 pm