Jersey Boys Blog

How many of you remember Lee Shapiro, who was a member of The Four Seasons back in the 1970s? Check out this great story on the former Seasons’ keyboardist and musical director!
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As “Jersey Boys” comes to Detroit’s Fisher Theatre, a Jewish member of the 1970s Four Seasons picks up where the play leaves off.

The Tony Award-winning musical “Jersey Boys,” which opens Thursday, Dec. 17, at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, tells the story of the legendary singing group the Four Seasons in the 1950s and ’60s. In the ’70s, lead singer Frankie Valli performed with four new members, including New Jersey-bred Lee Shapiro. In a Detroit Jewish News exclusive, Shapiro, “the Jewish kid” of the group, for the first time tells his own story about the latter years of the Four Seasons to David Sachs.

In the mid-1960s, 11-year-old Lee Shapiro and his mother sat in their Glen Rock, N.J., living room, watching the Four Seasons perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” But what especially caught the eye of Lee, a prodigious young pianist, was that the Four Seasons’ key musical player was their keyboard player, Bob Gaudio. The Beatles, Lee’s fave at the time, featured no piano — just John and George on guitar, Paul at bass and Ringo on drums.

Excited and intrigued by the Four Seasons’ keyboardist, Lee pointed at the TV and said, “See, Mom, someday I could play piano and be in a rock band just like this!”
Little could the talented sixth-grader imagine that only eight years later he would live out his fantasy and become the Four Seasons’ new keyboardist — and the legendary Italian American rock group’s first Jewish member.

“It was beshert,” mused Shapiro, looking back.

It could only have been destiny that made his dream come true. In 1973, Shapiro was a college sophomore at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where his interest was orchestration (composing the musical text for each instrument in a song’s arrangement).
A musician whom Shapiro had played club dates for heard the Seasons needed a keyboardist and recommended him to their road manager. He, in turn, dropped in to hear Shapiro’s Buddy Rich-style jazz gig at a New Jersey nightspot. Impressed, he tipped off lead singer Frankie Valli.

“At my audition,” Shapiro remembers, “I began by playing the first chord of the intro of ‘Dawn’ and Frankie began singing, ‘Pretty eyes of midsummer’s morn …’ I stopped cold — I couldn’t believe that before me was the great voice I heard so many times on the radio.”

Valli offered to make the fresh-faced 19-year-old the group’s new keyboardist and musical director. Besides all his piano talents, Shapiro had the smarts to write arrangements for any new songs they added while on the road. Gaudio, the band’s creative genius, remained the group’s producer and songwriter, but no longer wished to tour.

“I told my parents of Frankie’s offer,” Shapiro said. “My father wanted me to take over his electrical contracting business. But my mom was more into the arts, and she was for it — although she wanted me to finish school first.

“When I asked my orchestration professor, a classical music follower, if I should join the Four Seasons, she said, ‘I don’t know who that is — but if they’ll pay you to orchestrate and play, I think you should leave. You can always go to school.’
“She seemed old to me then, but she gave me some pretty cool advice!”

On his first day, Shapiro was asked by Valli to compose and arrange a completely new orchestral opening for the group’s concert that night in Chicago. “I was so scared,” Shapiro said. “But I wrote it; we rehearsed it; we played it that night; and Frankie didn’t change one note.”

Visit TheJewishNews.com website to read the entire fantastic interview with Lee Shapiro!