There is a scene in the hit Broadway musical "Jersey Boys" that represents the sustained success of Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio and their group, the Four Seasons, for more than 50 years.

It portrays a pact made by Valli, the singer, and Gaudio, a founding performer who soon stepped offstage to focus on songwriting for Valli and the group.

 

Valli and Gaudio realize their success is so intertwined, their human harmony so true, that they decide to be partners in each other's careers and share the revenue that each generated for the rest of their lives. And, in the manner of two guys raised in the housing projects of Newark, N.J., during the Great Depression, they seal the deal with nothing more, and nothing less, than a handshake.

The scene makes for great theater. It also happens to be true. The deal contained an escape clause-Valli and Gaudio could bow out of the deal at any time simply by saying so.

"I grew up in the projects, and we didn't know about giving lawyers contracts," Valli says. "You gave your word to somebody, and that was good enough. I still feel very strongly that way, although it's a very, very difficult thing to do nowadays."

It's also difficult for an individual and group to sustain the kind of success Valli and the Four Seasons have had since the act debuted in 1962 with "Sherry," which shot to No. 1 immediately after Dick Clark introduced it on "American Bandstand."

The distinctive sound was both intensely rhythmic (Valli says the earliest hits were "like chants"), with emphatic drum introductions and foot stomps, and melodically innovative thanks to Gaudio's brilliance. The lyrics, by multifaceted producer/entrepreneur Bob Crewe, made most of the Four Seasons' hits aspirational story songs, concise and evocative as the tunes written by Carole King & Gerry Goffin and Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil.

Front, center and top was Valli's voice, crowned with the kind of falsetto rarely heard before or since in pop music. It was a street fighter's falsetto, a cocky, muscular sound that could go from hope to heartbreak in a New Jersey minute. It was a sound as distinctly regional as California's Beach Boys-and just as universal. It's no coincidence that the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons, along with Motown and Memphis soul, were among the few American acts to remain entrenched on the charts during the full run of the Beatles and the British Invasion.

After a largely unproductive move from Phillips to Motown's Mowest subsidiary, Valli and the Four Seasons resurfaced at the top of the charts in 1975, with "My Eyes Adored You" and "Swearin' to God" on Private Stock, "Who Loves You" and "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" on Warner/Curb.

"Jersey Boys," the story of the Four Seasons as told by each member, won four Tony Awards including best musical after its premiere in 2005 at Broadway's August Wilson Theater, where it is still going strong.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Four Seasons, Valli met with Billboard for an expansive conversation at a coffee shop in Manhattan.