Jersey Boys preview: Harmony, handshake, history

Opinion

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This article was published 21/05/2015 (3261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A quiet moment in the jukebox musical Jersey Boys sees Four Seasons lead singer Frankie Valli shaking hands with keyboardist Bob Gaudio on a verbal deal that has assured their mutual financial security for the last 50 years.

Valli, known for his otherworldly falsetto, and Gaudio, the quartet’s main tunesmith, agreed in 1962 to link their fledgling careers, sharing the revenue generated from performance fees and songwriting royalties for the rest of their lives. For two guys raised in Newark housing projects, no contract-waving lawyers were needed — their word was enough.

The unique pact is not musical fiction meant to heighten the drama but a real linchpin moment in the history of the Four Seasons, who topped the charts in autumn 1962 with Sherry, the first of a series of hits that saw them running briefly neck and neck with their cooler rivals, the Beach Boys and the Beatles.

“We’re still friends, of course, like brothers,” says Gaudio, 72. “We talk a couple of times a week.”

While 81-year-old Valli is still on the road performing as the only original member of the Four Seasons left, Gaudio carries the Four Seasons torch as spokesman for the stage musical, currently the 13th longest-running Broadway show in history and successful touring property that stops at the Centennial Concert Hall Tuesday for an eight-performance run.

He also served as the executive producer for last year’s movie version of Jersey Boys, directed by Clint Eastwood.

With a worldwide audience of 22 million people, Jersey Boys has introduced a new generation to a relatively unexplored pop culture era — the cusp of the 1960s, in the gap between Frank Sinatra and the Beatles.

“I don’t think the majority of people, besides hardcore fans, knew the music we did,” Gaudio says. “We weren’t glamour boys. We didn’t travel in the Maharishi’s circles. We weren’t with the hipper crowd.”

The foursome weren’t the clean, all-American young men they appeared to be. Why they kept a lower profile is revealed in Jersey Boys — the jail time served by the other two members, headstrong guitarist Tommy DeVito and bass-singing bassist Nick Massi, as well as bad debts, egos and mob connections.

Jersey Boys and an impressive string of hits — most of them co-written by Gaudio — has shed another spotlight of the musical legacy of the Four Seasons.

“Our story is a little bit tougher than our music,” Gaudio says. “Our story is little bit more fitting for the Rolling Stones or some other bad-boy band. Our music was lighter and poppy.”

It was that dichotomy that got him thinking about a Four Seasons musical. The band story that had never been told, he thought, would be a natural match for chart-topping music with the ability to lift listeners.

Gaudio was a pop star long before he joined the Four Seasons in 1960. You might remember his first hit, Short Shorts, the novelty tune he penned in 1958 while a member of the Royal Teens. At 15, he was out on tour with the likes of Bo Diddley, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson.

“It was the first song I wrote and having a hit record first time out was pretty stunning,” says Gaudio. “How could you not want to keep going?”

It wasn’t until the more business-savvy Gaudio joined with Valli, DeVito and Massi that the band found its signature sound. Then they spotted their name at a bowling alley called the Four Seasons.

His happiest moment was hearing Sherry on the radio for the first time.

“I remember having to pull off the highway in New York and almost killing myself,” he says. “I just became frozen and listened. It was such a rush.”

But life on the road was not for the straight-laced Gaudio, and he left the band in 1971. He was not a man for all seasons.

“I’m not a performer; I never was,” says Gaudio, who hasn’t been onstage since 1991. “I can’t say it wasn’t fun. It was not my calling. The sooner I could get off the stage, the better I liked it.”

Gaudio continued composing for the Four Seasons but moved into producing songs, such as the Barbra Streisand/Neil Diamond duet You Don’t Bring Me Flowers. He also collaborated with Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross before writing the music for the 2001 Francis Ford Coppola stage musical Peggy Sue Got Married.

While he searched for another venue for the Four Seasons’ music, he ran into Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff, who told him that the group’s debut album, Sherry and 11 Others, was the first record he ever bought.

The one-time artistic director of the Stratford Festival offered his services if Gaudio every wanted to create a musical based around the Four Seasons songbook.

Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice were recruited to write the book for Jersey Boys, which premièred at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse before hitting Broadway in 2005. The bio-musical won four Tonys, including one for best direction by McAnuff.

Gaudio credits Valli’s multi-octave range and trademark falsetto for the sweet harmonies of the Four Seasons that still take listeners down memory lane.

“He had it all,” Gaudio says of his old pal. “As a songwriter, to have a voice like that to work with was a godsend. Frankie could rise to any occasion. We took advantage.”

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca