On aging, legacy and Frankie Valli

You may be aware of Frankie Valli. The driving force behind Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. He is a true living legend, whose career spans 7 decades and hit songs such as “Grease,” “Sherry,” “December, 1963” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” He turned 90 in May 2024 and, amazingly, is still touring. 

A recent video posted by a popular video editor/shitposter, Vic Berger from Office Hours Live by Tim Heidecker, absolutely shocked me - which sent me down a Frankie Valli rabbit hole. (Editor's note: in the weeks since i wrote this, the internet has also become enamored with this story. We are all deep in the Valli together)

To step back a bit – According to some Youtube comments, Frankie Valli has been using vocal tracks since about the year 2000. I saw a compilation video of someone documenting him using the same vocal track on “Sherry” since at least 2013. I looked up videos and can confirm it was AT LEAST 2005 that he started using the vocal tracking.

This means he hasn’t been singing live for nearly 20 years, not that you can blame a then-70-year-old for not having the chops he did 40 years prior. But he was still moving around, looking like he was having fun. Working the crowd. For all intents and purposes, both Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and his crowd were benefiting from the live show continuing, even if he was no longer able to sing live.

But between 2012-14, he began showing obvious signs of significant facial plastic surgery. Whether it was filler or botox or a lift or something else, he could no longer emote the same.

Jumping forward post-Pandemic, the wheels were absolutely flying off around 2022. Frankie Valli did a facetious interview wherein he says he sings every day for at least 30 minutes, like a bodybuilder warming up before a rigorous set of lat pulldowns, and that’s how he keeps his falsetto so crisp.

Coincidentally, in 2022 he began looking like a lost child at the county fair. Confused, unable to emote, almost entirely immobile. Like a ghost, unable to pass on through the firmament. Mr. Valli, it appears, has unfinished business.

His backing band, the Four Seasons, are by all accounts still an excellent band and the crowds were, for the most part, having fun. But the cracks were beginning to show. Reviews online were starting to sour against him as early as 2016, with concertgoers complaining of his obvious lip-syncing and steadily declining on-stage mobility.

Now, back to what sent me down this rabbit hole to begin with. Vic Berger posted that video, and I became obsessed. Frankie Valli legitimately looks like a reanimated corpse on stage. His face like that of a broken theme park animatronic in the dark, scary part of a Disneyland ride from the 1960s. Uncanny, scary, haunted, decaying. The world has moved past what was once the pinnacle of pop culture.

Reviews, even from as recently as this year, from older folks are overwhelmingly positive about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. “He’s still got it!” and “Been listening since 1965, and he sounds as good as ever!”

But one review stuck out to me. Beyond the optimism lied existential horror. “I saw some people say he’s lip-synching. I don't want to believe that. I had fun, and hope he wasn’t faking it. That would taint my memory of the show.” 

These boomers are desperately grasping onto their fleeting youth, seeing their hero not only age, but age beyond the point of recognition. His eyes unfocused, downcast. As if returning from war. His fans reticent, hesitant to acknowledge that their childhood hero is now nothing more than a real-life hologram tour. Like watching a ghost trapped on earth, reminding us of the fragility of each passing moment. When will the youngest of our heroes pass? When is it my turn? Will I have the grace to leave this coil with dignity? Or will I become he who haunts, unwilling to move on?

So what’s the point of all this? Well to put it Frankie, he’s in the uncanny Valli and I'd be surprised if he made it another Four Seasons.