Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons bring enduring legacy to Mountain Laurel

BUSHKILL, PA —American pop music icon Frankie Valli, with his group The Four Seasons, will come to Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, June 30 at 8:00 p.m.

Valli has produced 19 top-10 hits and sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Inspired by fellow New Jersey native Frank Sinatra and such jazz influences as the Hi-Lo’s and the Four Freshmen, Valli as a youngster always knew he wanted to perform. “We used to sing around the Newark area where I grew up,” he recalls. “I’d always wanted to be a singer, ever since my mother took me to see Sinatra at the Paramount Theatre in New York as a kid. I decided then and there that’s what I was going to do—be a successful singer.”

In 1962, Bob Gaudio, singer/songwriter for The Four Seasons, wrote a song called “Sherry.” It was written in about 15 minutes. The day after being performed on American Bandstand, “Sherry” sold 200,000 copies, catapulting Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons into rock ‘n’ roll superstardom.

With “Sherry,” The Four Seasons had crystallized a distinctive musical style: the popular doo-wop music of the 1950s inflected with the rhythm-and-blues influences that would come to define much of the music of the 1960s. The Four Seasons followed “Sherry” with such hits as “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Candy Girl,” “Rag Doll,” and “Let’s Hang On.”

Today they are riding the crest of a whole new wave of popularity, due to the smash-hit Broadway musical “Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.” Winner of the 2006 Tony Award for Best Musical, “Jersey Boys” follows the rags-to-riches tale of the blue-collar kids from the wrong side of the tracks who became American superstars.

Ticket prices range from $22 to $52, and are on sale via Ticketmaster at 570/693.4100 and online at mountainlaurelcenter.com, or by visiting MLCPA’s on-site box office.

Coming up at Mountain Laurel will be the Steve Miller Band on Saturday, July 7 at 8:00 p.m.; The Goo Goo Dolls on Wednesday, July 18 at 7:30 p.m.; and Lucinda Williams on Tuesday, July 24 at 7:30 p.m.