HE WAS the trainee hairdresser who proved to be a cut above the rest.
Frankie Valli is still performing professionally just has he did back in the 1960s [REX]Castellucio changed his name to Frankie Valli and he and his group The Four Seasons went on to sell more than 100 million records.
A new film Jersey Boys, based on the West End musical of the same name, opens today and tells the remarkable rags-to-riches story of Valli and his friends.
The man whose powerful high-pitched voice was highlighted to such great effect on classic hits such as Walk Like A Man, Sherry and Big Girls Don’t Cry has had to show enormous determination to get to the top and stay there.
He has overcome problems with his hearing, family tragedies and marriage breakdowns.
He has also been the subject of negative publicity. Only this week ex-lover April Kirkwood called him “disgusting, rude and callous”.
Kirkwood was a fan of Valli and after she met him backstage when she was 16 and Valli was 39 the pair began a relationship.
Heat came from the kitchen stove that ran all day on coal and if you needed hot water to wash, a huge kettle was put on
“I thought we were going to be married,” she says.
Kirkwood has written a book about her relationship with Valli which is due to be published in August and while her allegations might harm his reputation, it’s doubtful the singer will be too concerned bearing in mind the difficulties he has already faced.
The first of those was escaping the poverty in which he grew up.
“There wasn’t any heat or hot water. Heat came from the kitchen stove that ran all day on coal and if you needed hot water to wash, a huge kettle was put on,” he revealed in a recent interview.
His parents moved into a public housing estate when he was six and although the new apartment had better facilities he still had to share a bedroom with his two brothers.
North Ward in Newark was a tough environment and it wasn’t hard for young people to get involved in criminal gangs.
Many of Valli’s friends, including Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi, who became founder members of The Four Seasons, spent time in jail. Valli himself was arrested for breaking and entering.
“There were no opportunities to go to college so you didn’t have many options. You got a job on an assembly line or you got mobbed up,” he said in 2008.
Valli set his heart on being a singer at seven when his mother took him to a Frank Sinatra concert.
“It made the deepest impression. Right then and there I realised this was what I wanted to do,” he recalled.
It wasn’t easy to get his career off the ground. He sang in nightclubs run by the Mafia but says he never signed up.
Valli with Clint Eastwood on the set of the Jersey Boys film [GK FILMS]Times were hard but his musical career really took off when his friend Joe Pesci, who later found fame as a tough-guy Hollywood actor, introduced him to songwriter Bob Gaudio.
Valli and Gaudio decided to share their future earnings and the deal was sealed with a handshake.
“We didn’t know about giving lawyers contracts,” Valli said. “You gave your word to somebody and that was good enough.”
The Four Seasons were originally called The Four Lovers but they got their new name from the bowling alley where they had failed an audition.
In 1962 they took the music world by storm, registering three number ones in the US.
Valli had made it at last. But while things were looking good on the music front his personal life was in crisis.
He and wife Mary, who had two daughters Toni and Francine, divorced after 13 years together.
Professionally there were problems too as in 1967 Valli found out that he had otosclerosis – a hardening of the bone in the middle of his ear which meant that he couldn’t hear himself sing when he went on stage.
It was an anxious time but after an operation the problem was rectifi ed. In the 1970s the hits kept coming and in 1976 came his fi rst British number one with December ’63 (Oh What A Night).
Then personal tragedy struck. In the space of six months in 1980 he lost both his stepdaughter Celia and his youngest daughter Francine. The former died in an accident, the latter from a drugs overdose.
“It’s not something you ever, ever get over. It’s just not supposed to be that way,” he said many years later.
Although Valli would marry twice more, both would end in failure. After eight years with second wife MaryAnn Hannagan he married Randy Clohessy, 26 years his junior, in 1984.
One point of contention was the fact that The Four Seasons frontman had taken out a life insurance policy in 2003, months before he separated from his wife, and she was listed as the owner of the policy as well as sole benefi ciary in the event of his death.
But in May a judge ruled that the singer was entitled to half of the value of the £2.45million insurance policy.
It has also been claimed that Randy was seeking increased payments from Valli to take into account earnings from the Jersey Boys musical.
Valli admits that his focus on his career might not have helped his marriages.
“Success requires your work must come first,” he once said. Now his former mistress has come forward to tell her story.
“I loved Frankie Valli but I don’t think he ever realised what love was,” April Kirkwood says.
She claims that one night after having sex with her in a fi ve-star hotel room Valli casually informed her he was marrying his girlfriend.
“I was abused. He took advantage of a good thing. A young virgin who loved him and he was an opportunist.”
Kirkwood claims that Valli is a “diva” and paints an unattractive picture of the star yet even she admits that she still regards him as a “god”.
Others talk of a man who despite his success is down-to-earth and a kind and loving father. Valli has never forgotten his roots.
“I’ll have you know that I am an Italian- American and I’m proud of it,” he says.
It’s been a long, tough road for the Jersey Boy yet in a 2010 interview he said he had no regrets.
“I couldn’t be prouder of all that I have done. I wouldn’t change a thing even if I could.”
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