June 26, 2007

Jersey Boy Frankie Valli Also Has Ties to Pennsylvania!

June 26th, 2007

Josh McAliffe of The TImes-Tribune.com notes that although Frankie Valli is a Jersey boy through and through, Valli also has a fair amount of Northeastern Pennsylvania in him, too. After all, two of the most important women in the singer’s life hail from NEPA — the one who raised him and the one who gave him his stage name and introduced him to the music industry. As a result, the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer has a real soft spot for the region, which he’ll be visiting for the first time in a while Saturday night, when he and his legendary band, the Four Seasons, perform at the Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts in Bushkill.

In this terrific interview, Frankie talks about his fond memories of Northeastern PA; playing Rusty Millio on “The Sopranos”; the thrill of seeing Jersey Boys winning the Best Musical Tony Award; his string of hits over the past 45 years; and his upcoming album that will be released in September.

Here’s a preview of what Frankie had to say about Jersey Boys: The musical took about four years to develop, said Mr. Valli, who along with fellow Four Season and business partner Bob Gaudio were actively involved in the process from Day One. According to him, a number of ideas were tossed around before everyone settled on the concept to tell the Four Seasons’ story through the conflicting points of view of the four founding members, who also include Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito.

“We were very, very fortunate to get the writers we got, because I thought that’s what really made the difference,” Mr. Valli said. “The idea of writing this play from four different points of view was really a stroke of genius.”

Read the full interview on TheTimes-Tribune.com.

2 Comments »

  1. “We were very, very fortunate to get the writers we got… The idea of writing this play from four different points of view was really a stroke of genius.”

    Mr. Valli… You got that right!! The writing is truly brilliant and quoted hourly, no doubt, around the country.

    The Artspass video interview with Elice and Brickman posted here last week gave us a peak into the organic writing process that reflected egos secure enough to allow the best possible script to emerge. Throw in the comments about their intriguing ability to write with a production budget in mind, and bingo- a show to last forever!

    Comment by Audrey — June 27, 2007 @ 7:46 am

  2. Frankie and the guys have probably appeared about 2 dozen times in our area of NE PA, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre since 1964. I first saw the original group back in 1964 at the Scranton CYC. Later on during the summer they would make their first of 3 appearances at WARM Day. WARM was a very popular radio station in NE Pa, for a very long time. It is still in existence as an Oldies Station. The next year 1965, we would get our first look at Joe Long at WARM Day.
    Frankie always mentions his roots in the area whenever he comes back. I remember in the 60′s when the group would be appearing locally. There was always a ton of Frankie’s Uncles, Aunts and cousins sitting up front for the show. He would always talk about what he did when he was in Dunmore during the many summers he spent there at his grandparents home …

    Comment by Jerry D ... — June 27, 2007 @ 5:52 pm

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