February 26, 2006

The Four Seasons–A Working-Man’s Group

February 26th, 2006

Atlantic City Weekly’s Steve Angelucci highlights the career of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, who appeared this weekend at Caesars this weekend on the heels of the successful Broadway show, Jersey Boys.

Long before the term “doo-wop” came into being, Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi sang street-corner harmony that they applied to such hits as “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Rag Doll,” and “Dawn.” Even during the British invasion, the Four Seasons kept America on the charts with a series of smash singles.

Reflecting on the Four Seasons’ success over the last four decades, Valli says,

“We were a working-man’s group. We appealed to that guy that was struggling a little bit more, who had not had an incredible opportunity to be educated. We were trying to say things that he would feel, in the way he would say them. So many of those songs were about kids from the wrong side of the tracks, about loving a girl who had everything when you had nothing. “

Were Frankie Valli and the Seasons more of a “guy’s group,” talking to men about their struggles with love and being from the wrong side of town? As I watched the men in the audience at Jersey Boys, I really think so. Seeing how the men in the audience were connecting with the great songs and the story—I’d have to agree with Frankie Valli—the Four Seasons were truly a working-man’s group.

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