In 1959, the music died: Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens died in the most infamous plane crash in the history of Rock 'N' Roll, and Elvis Presley was drafted into the army. In music a number of one-hit wonders entered and left the pop-culture music stage until a bunch of street hoodlums formed a singing group which would become the defining sound of the early 1960's prior to the Beatles. They went under a host of different names, until they settled on the Four Seasons and eventually Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli and Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio lead a tremendous cast of superb actors in this thoroughly enjoyable and intricate behind-the-scenes exposé of one of the biggest pop music phenomena prior to the Beatles. Some of the story techniques are similar to Amadeus and Goodfellas in which voice overs of the different characters tell the story at different times. The very beginning of the story is somewhat confusing. Eventually we learn that Valli's older friend Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) is a kind of Jersey equivalent of Santino "Sonny" Corleone of "The Godfather". He gets into trouble in the streets, convincing Valli and a few other friends to hijack a safe from a local business. Eventually he decides to form a singing group and he asks Frankie and Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) to join.For a time they are a trio with different drummers. Their sound isn't bad but their songs are a bit "derivative" of other songs already on the radio. Then they solicit the help of Bob Gaudio, a song-writer who had one hit under his belt as co-writer of "Short Shorts". They become studio back-up singers under Bob Crewe but they can't land a recording of one of their own songs. Crewe claims their songs still aren't unique enough, until Gaudio presents the group with "Sherry" which becomes the group's first hit single which will define most of the group's sound during the early 1960's with Valli's falsetto the trademark voice occasionally punctuated with the bass voice of Massi.Simultaneously, a sub-plot is developing in which Tommy has gotten in with loan sharks and the meter keeps running high. Eventually, it's time to pay the piper and the group is left holding the tab. The group disbands leaving just Valli and Gaudio. Gaudio writes a song which would become a kind of farewell anthem of the sound of the early 1960's but in a way looks forward to some of the music of the 1970's. Unlike the sound of "Sargent Pepper" of the Beatles, the song becomes an unlikely hit. Initially the records producers and executives felt the song would bomb because it wasn't Rock but wasn't really Pop/Easy Listening either. It's not Rock per se but a pop sound which would become part of the pop sound of music which appealed to a slightly older audience apart from the sound of Rock which was taking over the teenage Baby Boom audience. It would become Frankie Valli's biggest hit up until that time.With the rise of the Beatles, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and the Rolling Stones, the Four Seasons became somewhat eclipsed. Music enthusiasts sometimes forget the Four Seasons were the Beatles of their day, producing a string of hits some of which have withstood more or less: "Sherry", "Walk Like a Man", "Ragdoll". I would certainly not crown the Four Seasons as the best group of the 1960's but they certainly had something to say in music. And Frankie Valli became the most popular falsetto singer of the late 20th century until Michael Jackson.

I don't often attend live stage shows, but being a big fan of the 4 Seasons music, did catch the live production a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a bit disappointed the first time I saw the movie, it seemed that Eastwood tried to stay too faithful to the stage production, although I must admit I don't have a clue as to the process of adapting from stage to film. After 3 months I tried it again last night, catching it on HBO and enjoyed it much more. Maybe I wasn't comparing it to the stage show. In any case, it was enjoyable, a great ensemble cast and at the heart of it was the terrific music. The Seasons had an incredible run of hits from the early to late 60's and it turned out that their evolution was an engrossing story. My complaints-the story does drag in a few places, thought about .15 minutes or more could have easily been trimmed. The scene where they were riding in a convertible with the camera on the hood shooting at them in the car looked incredibly campy, obviously done in a studio. Also thought that the method of having each of the original 4 Seasons introduce a portion of the story may have worked well on a stage, but was unneeded for the film adaptation.One interesting thing-their biggest hit, 1975's "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" was used in the overture and in the grand finale, bringing out the cast in the stage and film production. This song, which also coincided with the beginning of disco dominating the Top 40 charts, is done by a different group of 4 Seasons, with only Valli left from the original group and this may be one of the only songs that Frankie didn't sing the lead. with Gerry Polci doing the vocals and Valli singing the bridge. Their comeback with this hit isn't mentioned, but the song is used.

As far as I'm concerned, Clint Eastwood is a music lover and rendering this biopic of the Four Seasons makes one more in his resume.Adapted from a Broadway musical, Jersey Boys tells the story how Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons rose to success after being so patient. Yes, there were some pitfalls (especially Tommy's shady deals which almost cost the band's career) but at the end, it brought the group to introduce the "Jersey Sound" with Frankie Valli's unique voice.At the end, the result is a piece of pop music history worth to watch.Even if critics panned this movie, the people decide. And Clint went ahead and "made his day" again.

You might think it's quite odd that Clint Eastwood directed a musical this year with 'Jersey Boys', which is an adaptation of the Broadway stage play that is currently the 13th longest running show in history based on the careers of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, but you'd be wrong. In fact, Eastwood is very big in the music scene and always has been. You remember the film 'Honkytonk Man' and 'Bird', don't you, which were both about musicians. And you can add to this the eight films he wrote and composed the music for. My point is that Eastwood is a solid choice for this great musical adapted into a feature film.But the question is , how well does it transfer to film from the stage? Where 'Jersey Boys' the film might lack in the glitz and glamor that you would find on stage, it makes up for in emotional depth as we jump from each point-of-view from each band-member throughout the 134-minute film, which in my opinion was about twenty minutes too long. 'Jersey Boys' has a 'Goodfellas' - light backdrop that follows a young Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) getting into trouble with his friends Tommy Devito (Vincent Piazza) and his brother Nick in early 50's New York. They all do odd jobs for the local mob boss Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken) by day and play in a band by night. It seems that everyone in the neighborhood, including the police know who young Valli is and constantly ask him, "Don't you need to be home by 11", when he's out late?At home, his parents are good Italian working class people who have a framed picture of the Pope and Frank Sinatra paired together watching over Valli's every move. With Valli's impressive high pitched falsetto voice, people start to take an interest in their band called 'The Four Lovers' as they are going from lounge to bar to bowling alley, performing their tunes, but they don't seem to be cutting record deals yet. Since the Devito brothers can't seem to stay out of jail for short periods of time, the band takes on Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) as the bass player and things pick up. But it's when Joe Pesci, yes that Joe Pesci, introduces Frankie, Nick, and Tommy to Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), a writer and musician, where the band really takes off. Gaudio previously wrote the hit tune 'Short Shorts' that previous summer, and was known to be a class act. Tommy, the band's self made manager whose temper is fire hot, eventually agrees to bring on Bob, and when they do the hits roll in including 'Sherry', 'Big Girls Don't Cry', 'Walk Like A Man', 'Rag Doll', and 'I Can't Take My Eyes Off You'. All of these were #1 hits and provided the band with big money and concerts, and television appearances.They even changed their name to 'The Four Seasons'. But while the band was doing well, Tommy was secretly spending their hard earned money on gambling and becoming increasingly in debt with the mob. Needless to say, it was a rocky road for 'The Four Seasons', despite all of their money and fame, but all are still alive and well and eventually reunited for their induction in to the music hall of fame in the early 90s. Eastwood did a great job of showing us the more dramatic and emotional moments with each character, followed by a fun and energized scene or two of their big musical accomplishments that actually had people clapping and dancing in sync with the songs throughout the film.And let me also credit Eastwood for hiring Young and Lomenda for these roles, as they were the original Broadway actors for the first run on stage. And they pull it off flawlessly. Young's Valli is pitch perfect and spot on, never missing a beat, while the others fall into place. And Piazza (whose known as Luciano from HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire'), pulls out a great performance as the hot-tempered band-mate, but he gives his character Tommy Devito (Joe Pesci's character name from 'Goodfellas') so much charm and wit, that it's easy to see why Frankie always stood by his side no matter what kind of trouble he got into.However, Eastwood is also known for having a slower-than-desired pacing with his films, and this one is no different. There are a few scenes that could have been cut out that while they offered some emotional depth to some of the characters, they were not given the proper amount of set-up time to make us grieve and didn't go with the basic story he was trying to tell. But other than that, 'Jersey Boys' the film is a solid gold hit. And the end credit scene with the Broadway vibe and dance routine was outstanding. I only hope the younger generation takes to this film and appreciates the music.