1953–1960: Before the Four Seasons In 1954, Frankie Valli, who had already had a minor hit with his cover of "My Mother's Eyes" a year prior, joined Tommy DeVito's Variety Trio to form The Variatones, a group that rebranded as
the Four Lovers, based upon a
Latin lover gimmick, in 1956. The band released several singles, the only successful one being "
You're the Apple of My Eye" (1956), which peaked at No. 62. In 1959, DeVito revamped the Four Lovers, leaving only himself and Valli. Bob Gaudio left The Royal Teens and became the group's keyboardist. and a mentor of Valli's who had occasionally played with Valli and DeVito throughout the 1950s--joined the band, which by this point was performing and recording under several aliases. In 1960, the quartet failed an audition for a lounge at a
Union Township, Union County, New Jersey bowling establishment. According to Gaudio, "We figured we'll come out of this with something. So we took the name of the bowling alley. It was called the Four Seasons."
1961–1963: Rise was the Four Seasons' bassist from 1960 to 1965, and briefly returned in 1973. He featured prominently on countermelodies during his tenure. The Four Seasons signed as artists to Crewe's production company, and they released their first Crewe-produced single under their new name in 1961 ("
Bermuda"/"Spanish Lace" on
Gone Records); the non-charting record would be their only record for Gone, which was itself gone by July 1962 when
Morris Levy bought and dissolved the label. The band continued working with producer Bob Crewe as background vocalists and sometimes leads under different names, for productions on Crewe's own Topix label. As a follow-up, Bob Gaudio wrote a song that, after some discussion between Crewe and Gaudio, was titled "Sherry". After the song was recorded, Crewe and the members of the band solicited record labels to release it. It was Frankie Valli who spoke with
Randy Wood, West Coast sales manager for
Vee-Jay Records (not
the founder of
Dot Records) who, in turn, suggested the release of "Sherry" to the decision-makers at Vee-Jay. "Sherry" made enough of an impression that Crewe was able to sign a deal between his production company and Vee-Jay for its release. They were the first white artists to sign with Vee-Jay. In 1962, the band released their first album, featuring the single "
Sherry", which drew the attention of
WPOP in
Hartford, Connecticut, known for launching new hit songs; WPOP disc jockey
Joey Reynolds heavily promoted the record. "Sherry" gave the Four Seasons their first No. 1 song. Under the guidance of Bob Crewe, the Four Seasons followed up "Sherry" with several
million-selling singles, generally composed by Crewe and Gaudio, including "
Big Girls Don't Cry" (their second No. 1 hit), "
Walk Like a Man" (their third No. 1), "
Candy Girl" (written by
Larry Santos), "
Ain't That a Shame", and several others. Also, they released a Christmas album in December 1962 and charted with a unique rendition of "
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town". From 1962 to early 1964,
the Beach Boys were the only band to match the Four Seasons in record sales in the United States, and their first three Vee-Jay non-holiday single releases (i.e., ignoring their version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") marked the first time that a rock band hit No. 1 on the
Billboard singles charts with three consecutive entries. The band was purposely marketed as clean-cut Italian boys, even shaving several years off the ages of most of the members' ages, in contrast to the
greaser style of many of the rock and roll acts of the era, and deliberately hid some of the members' criminal pasts (particularly DeVito, who had a sizable rap sheet of petty crimes). Their traditional stylings combined with a songwriting style that appealed to lovelorn younger listeners gave them a broad, all-ages appeal. In 1962, they were invited to perform their hit "
Big Girls Don't Cry" on the show
American Bandstand. 1964: From Vee-Jay to Philips In January 1964, after several successful albums but a lack of money from Vee-Jay, the Seasons left Vee-Jay and moved to
Philips Records, then a division of
Mercury Records. In the 1965 settlement of a lawsuit between the two parties, Vee-Jay retained release rights for all material the band recorded for the label. Vee-Jay exercised those rights liberally over the following year. The group was obligated to deliver one final album to Vee-Jay, which they did in the form of a "faux" live LP. At the same time, Vee-Jay was overwhelmed when it found itself as the rightsholder not only to the Four Seasons, but
the Beatles, which it had acquired in a sidecar deal with
Frank Ifield in 1962; unable to meet demand for both bands, and with the Beatles' rights eventually reverting to
Capitol Records in October 1964 after another protracted legal battle, Vee-Jay was finally declared bankrupt in 1966. With the bankruptcy, the Four Seasons' Vee-Jay catalog reverted to the band, who promptly licensed the rights to Philips. The change of label did not diminish the popularity of the Four Seasons in 1964, nor did the onslaught of the
British Invasion and
Beatlemania. However, "
Dawn (Go Away)" was kept from the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 by no fewer than three
Beatles singles in the March 21, 1964, edition (two weeks later, the top five slots were filled by Beatles singles). In a two-record set dubbed
The Beatles vs the Four Seasons: The International Battle of the Century!, Vee-Jay created an elaborate two-disc package that the purchaser could use to write on and score individual recordings by their favorite artist. The discs were reissues of the albums
Introducing... The Beatles and
Golden Hits of the Four Seasons, featuring each original album's label, title, and catalog number. Today, this album package is a collector's item. Valli credited the band's continued success in the face of the British Invasion to staying true to their original mission of an original sound and not trying to imitate British acts. The summer of 1964 saw the Seasons achieve their fourth US No. 1 single with "
Rag Doll", which also became their biggest hit in the UK to that point, reaching No. 2 there.
1965–1968: Departure of Nick Massi; One band, several acts (seen here in 2018), in addition to briefly being a band member in 1965, did extensive arrangement for Valli and the Seasons throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Nick Massi left the Four Seasons in September 1965, the same month another big hit for the band, the No. 3 charted "
Let's Hang On!", was released. Although this was Massi's last "Four Seasons" single, he also appeared on the band's follow-up single, a cover of
Bob Dylan's "
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", which was issued under the name "
the Wonder Who?", and went top 20. The band's musical arranger,
Charles Calello (a former member of the Four Lovers), stepped in as a temporary replacement. During Calello's brief tenure as a member, the band scored their first hit without Massi, "
Working My Way Back to You", which went top 10. A few months later,
Joe Long was hired to replace Calello, who returned to his role as musical arranger. Long would be a member of the band, on bass and backing vocals, until 1975. His first single with the Four Seasons was "
Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'bout Me)", which reached No. 13 in mid-1966. Massi's departure coincided with the addition of new songwriters, such as
Sandy Linzer and
Denny Randell, who eased the burden on Gaudio, while Randell absorbed some of Massi's arranging duties. This period also saw Valli launch a parallel solo career, although every Valli "solo" recording from 1965's "
The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" to 1974's "
My Eyes Adored You" was recorded with the Four Seasons at the same time and in the same sessions as material released under the Four Seasons' name; these were usually distinguished in that material written and marketed as Valli solo numbers did not have Valli's trademark falsetto. Valli's first post-1960 single without the Seasons was 1975's "
Swearin' to God". More top 20 singles followed in 1966 and 1967, including "
I've Got You Under My Skin", "
Beggin'" (later covered by Norwegian duo
Madcon and Italian band
Måneskin), "
Tell It to the Rain", and "
C'mon Marianne", as well as Valli "solo" singles "
Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "I Make a Fool of Myself". Also, other Crewe/Gaudio songs that did not become hits for either Valli or the Four Seasons became international hits in cover versions, such as "
Silence Is Golden" for
the Tremeloes and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" for
the Walker Brothers. 1968's "
Will You Love Me Tomorrow" would be the band's last top 40 hit for seven years, reaching No. 24, following Valli's last "solo" hit of the 1960s, the No. 29 charted "To Give (The Reason I Live)".
1969–1973: The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette; Departure of Tommy DeVito; Declining record sales; Move to Motown By 1969, the band's popularity had declined, with public interest moving towards rock with a harder edge and music with more socially conscious lyrics. Aware of that, Bob Gaudio partnered with folk-rock songwriter
Jake Holmes to write a concept album titled
The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette, which discussed contemporary issues from the band's standpoint, including divorce ("Saturday's Father"), and
Kinks-style satirical looks at modern life (e.g., "American Crucifixion and Resurrection" and "Genuine Imitation Life"). The decision to create a concept album was a major departure for the group, which Bob Crewe had purposely marketed as a singles act (so much so that the group's early albums were simply the name of a major hit single appended with
some variation of "and Other Songs"). and led to the band's departure from Philips shortly after that; but it did catch the attention of
Frank Sinatra, whose 1969 album
Watertown involved Gaudio, Holmes, Valli, and Calello. The Seasons' last single on Philips, 1970's "Patch of Blue", featured the band's name as "Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons", but the change in billing did not revive the band's fortunes. Reverting to the "Four Seasons" billing without Valli's name up front, the group issued a single on Crewe's eponymous label, a rendition of "
And That Reminds Me", which peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard chart. Frustrated by the group's workload, and facing debts from gambling and a divorce, DeVito accepted a buyout and left the band in 1970. DeVito's mismanagement had left the band millions of dollars in debt, forcing the band to perform daily for several years. Following a UK tour with Bob Grimm on guitar, later acknowledging that he had been behaving wildly during his time with the band and chose to resign voluntarily rather than risk being fired. After leaving Philips, the Four Seasons recorded a one-off single for the
Warner Bros. label in England, "Sleeping Man", backed by "Whatever You Say", which was never released in the USA. John Stefan, the band's lead trumpeter, arranged the horn parts. Following that single, the band signed with
Motown. The first LP,
Chameleon, released by Motown subsidiary label
MoWest Records in 1972, failed to sell. A 1971 Frankie Valli solo single on Motown, "Love Isn't Here", and two Four Seasons singles, "Walk On, Don't Look Back" on MoWest in 1972, and "How Come" on Motown in 1973, sank without a trace. A song from
Chameleon, "
The Night", later became a
Northern Soul hit and reached the top 10 of the
UK Singles Chart, but was not commercially released in the United States as a single, although promotional copies were distributed in 1972, showing the artist as Valli. Valli has consistently spoken of how much of the group's late 1960s and early 1970s material was poorly marketed and only later received the appreciation that he felt it deserved. The band recruited Clay Jordan as their new keyboardist. Jordan was unable to handle the vocal strain of Gaudio's tenor parts; ,
Joe Long,
Frankie Valli,
Bob Gaudio. Valli was soon persuaded to return; Bob Crewe (who joined the Seasons at Motown in 1973) Valli rehired Callas, while Jordan agreed to temporarily return until Valli recruited two new members; 19-year-old
Lee Shapiro as keyboardist and arranger,
Don Ciccone, whose career with
the Critters had come to an abrupt end due to his entry into the armed forces, also joined in 1974, and for a brief time, the Seasons were a sextet, before Joe Long chose to leave in 1975. (seen here in 2022) joined as keyboardist and arranger in 1973. As "My Eyes Adored You" climbed the Hot 100 singles chart in early 1975, Uttal was persuaded to release
The Four Seasons Story, a two-record compilation of the band's biggest hit singles from 1962 to 1970. It quickly became a
gold record, selling over one million copies before the
RIAA started awarding
platinum records for million-selling albums. Uttal was unwilling to sign the group as a whole, but left a loophole in Valli's contract allowing him to stay with the group if they signed with another label. Gaudio then approached
Mike Curb with a new song, "
Who Loves You," with Ciccone on lead vocal due to Valli being overseas during the recording; Curb, who appreciated the band for their drug-free, clean-cut reputation, helped secure an agreement with
Warner Bros. Records, who was intrigued by a new Four Seasons lead singer. Valli was unwilling to give up lead vocal duties and managed to halt the release of "Who Loves You" until he could replace Ciccone's vocal with his own. Polci began working for
Barry Manilow, and Valli—who also had surgery to restore his worsening hearing—accepted an offer to sing
the theme song for the movie
Grease. Both the film and song were major hits, the latter reaching No. 1, and by 1980 the band had reunited, with a lineup consisting of Valli, Polci, Ciccione, and two new members, singer and keyboardist
Jerry Corbetta, who had been lead singer of
Sugarloaf, and guitarist Larry Lingle, with Gaudio back for studio work. Corbetta would remain with the group until the mid-1980s, while Lingle would remain until the mid-1990s. Polci and Ciccione both left the group in 1982, though Polci would return during the late 1980s, before leaving again in 1990, when he married Valli's daughter Toni. In January 1981, Warners released
Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons Reunited Live. Produced by Bob Gaudio, it was a double album of concert recordings which included the two studio recordings "
Spend the Night in Love" and "Heaven Must Have Sent You (Here in the Night)" sung by Valli. The latter became a UK single but failed to chart, while the former was released as a single in America, inching its way into the
Hot 100 and became a top-5 hit, the group's last, in
South Africa. Valli had planned to add his daughter Francine to the act in 1980, but Francine unexpectedly died that year. The early 1980s saw the addition of keyboardist/music director
Robby Robinson. He remained a member of the group until 1996, before returning in 2004 and remaining with the Four Seasons ever since. In 1984, a long-awaited collaboration between the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys, "East Meets West", was released on FBI Records, owned by the Four Seasons Partnership, which included most of the surviving Beach Boys (including Brian Wilson). However, the record did not sell well. Even after the rise and fall of the band's sales in the disco era, the Four Seasons, in one version or another, continued to be a popular touring act. The touring contributed to roughly half of the group's income in the late 1980s, with the other half coming from royalties and Gaudio's songwriting and production work for other artists; under the terms of his original partnership with Valli, any songwriting revenue Gaudio earned would be split evenly with Valli. In 1990, the original four members – Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi – appeared together for the first time in 25 years, at the Four Seasons' induction to
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Valli had unsuccessfully fought to have Joe Long included in the induction. In 1994, "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" re-entered the Hot 100 by way of a remix.
2000–present: Valli-led tours and Jersey Boys By the early 2000s, the Four Seasons tours were falling in attendance and revenue, prompting Valli to seriously consider retirement. He instead assembled a new backing quartet consisting of Landon Beard, Todd Fournier, and brothers Brian Brigham and Brandon Brigham. The success of the musical
Jersey Boys largely saved the Four Seasons. Also in 2008, Gaudio and Robinson recorded
Jersey Babys: The Instrumental Music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons for Kids, an instrumental
children's album, under the Four Seasons brand but without Valli's direct involvement.
Jersey Babys was originally envisioned by Danielle Lahlezar, Gaudio's daughter from his first marriage to Brit Olsen (to whom the album was dedicated).
Jersey Babys was re-released in 2024 with an additional bonus track. Members of the 1970s lineup of the group (Polci, Ciccone, and Shapiro) reunited without Valli in 2011 as
the Hit Men; it toured with several other
session musicians of good repute. Shapiro has continued the Hit Men as a standalone project after Ciccone died in 2016 and Polci withdrew from the group in 2017. Long and Polci both have had stints with the
Jersey Four, a Four Seasons tribute act based in New Jersey. In 2015, former longtime guitarist Larry Lingle rejoined the band, and he left for the second time after a concert on May 1, 2016. On September 10, 2016, the band performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra in
Hyde Park, as part of the
BBC Proms in the Park. In 2018, the Beard/Fournier/Brigham quartet spun off and began performing as
the Modern Gentlemen, with Valli's blessing, and Valli recruited a new quartet of singers to back him. Beard, Fournier, and the Brigham brothers performed as the Four Seasons for 15 years, longer than any other lineup and longer than any of the band's other members except Valli, Gaudio and Robinson. In 2020, the group launched a
YouTube channel. During that same year, and continuing into 2021, during earlier phases of the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the group virtually re-recorded three of their songs ("Harmony, Perfect Harmony", "Let's Hang On" and "Silence Is Golden"), as well as Valli's hit, "Grease", for their YouTube channel. The channel has since added archival videos from the group's television appearances and records by Four Seasons
tribute acts, such as former
Jersey Boys cast members. A limited-edition 44-disc career box set called
Working Our Way Back to You: The Ultimate Collection was initially going to be released in the summer of 2021 by The Four Seasons Partnership and Snapper Records, but it missed the release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the box set was later rescheduled for release on December 9, 2022, before the release date was pushed back to April 14, 2023. The box set was eventually released on June 2, 2023, by The Four Seasons Partnership and Madfish/Snapper Music. It includes every album released by the band (including both mono and stereo mixes, where available), a CD of unreleased tracks from the band's Mowest years, three live shows taken from soundboard recordings as well as numerous other rare tracks and alternative versions. The Four Seasons announced their farewell tour, The Last Encores Tour, to run through 2024, including several extended stays at the
Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. In an interview with the
Los Angeles Times, Valli did not rule out future appearances after the tour, stating that "I'm not sure whether I'm gonna keep going out." The tour was eventually extended into 2025, with representatives for Valli responding to criticism of him touring at such an advanced age and fears of
elder abuse by assuring that Valli was "doing just fine and super happy to be still performing." In a statement to
People, Valli indicated a willingness to continue performing as long as audiences continued to buy tickets, responding to accusations of
lip syncing by noting that his touring production was using a strategy it had long relied on for studio recordings "layering vocals and instruments" to allow the Seasons to maintain a sound similar to that heard in the 1960s despite Valli's age. The tour was abruptly halted on September 29, 2025, due to Valli suffering an illness, and most remaining tour dates were cancelled. Limited touring resumed in February 2026; after these three shows, Valli announced that the shows scheduled in April and May 2026 would be his last in those cities. Throughout the Four Seasons' -year existence, no incarnation of the group has ever won a competitive
Grammy Award. In 2025, Valli was awarded the
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the only Grammy the group has yet received. == Other names ==