Still a part of the music scene in 1974, Frankie Valli turned 40 years old. Problem was he had not had a Top 40 hit of any kind in six years since his popular days as the lead voice of the legendary Four Seasons.
But Valli believed in a song that was given to him, a song co-written by young songwriter Kenny Nolan and a man whose work Valli was familiar with as the main producer for the Four Seasons, Bob Crewe. It was originally called "Blue Eyes In Georgia."
The song began as a Four Seasons project with the label they were signed to at that time, Motown Records, in '74. They recorded the song, but the company had no plans to release it as a single. However, Valli believed in the song and its beautiful story of a boy and girl who grow close to one another at the shore in Valli's native home state of New Jersey, she in fifth grade, he in sixth, and how they would walk home every day over "Barnegat Bridge and bay."
For the record, the bay exists ... but good luck in finding the bridge of that name. It was simply made up for artistic purposes.
Still, the tale of innocent love which plays a small role in both the play and movie version of Jersey Boys, the story of the Four Seasons, was one that Valli believed in. If Motown was not going to release this song with his group, at least they can let him out of his contract and give him the song.
Motown agreed. But the price for taking "My Eyes Adored You" with him was a pretty one for 1974 -- $4,000. Today, that'd be the equivalent of nearly $20,000.
Some ransom to get a song back for, huh?
But Valli had the money from the success of the Four Seasons -- and he believed in the song enough -- to buy it back from Motown. The next job was to shop the song around throughout the latter half of 1974. He tried big labels such as Capitol Records and Atlantic Records. They weren't introduced. He tried smaller labels trying to establish a name for themselves. Nope, no dice either.
This is Frankie Valli, the golden, falsetto voice of one of the legendary acts in the history of rock 'n roll. Someone had to believe in him and his group, right? He was still 40 years old, not 80.
Finally, after banging on doors and numerous phone calls, someone did give him a chance. It was Larry Uttal, the owner-president of small Private Stock Records. The company had been founded that year of 1974 and the 52-year-old Uttal was looking to make an immediate name for himself and the company.
When Valli came knocking on his door, Uttal was warm and welcoming. Uttal had been a part of the Bell Records company for five years and helped to establish a number of acts, such as The Fifth Dimension, The Box Tops, The Partridge Family and Tony Orlando and Dawn. By 1974, Bell was going through transition and a veteran of CBS Records named Clive Davis was ready to take over at the company and change the name of it to Arista. And 1974 was a perfect time for Uttal to get out and establish a new company.
Uttal, too, fell in love with "My Eyes Adored You" and didn't want Valli to re-record the song like a number of acts are asked to do when they come on to a new record label. He was willing to make the original version of the song he recorded at Motown the release, but he had one stipulation Valli had to abide by.
The song had to be a solo hit and not have the Four Seasons name on it. Valli was dejected, but again, he believed in the song. Private Stock released the song under Valli's name. It entered the Hot 100 the week of November 9, 1974, and began a painful and slow climb up the chart until it hit the Top 40 the week of January 18, 1975. From there, the trip to the top seemed to be a faster-paced ride. By February 15, the song entered the Top 10 at No. 9. From there, it moved to No. 7, No. 4, No. 3, No. 2 and on the weekend of March 22, 1975, reached No. 1 in its 19th week on the chart, the slowest a song had ever climbed to No. 1 in Hot 100 history at that time.
Valli fought for the rights to the song, won those, then celebrated a second win of having the song he believed in climb to No. 1, a victory as well for little Private Stock Records and Uttal. Uttal and the company capitalized on Valli's success by having him make an album called "Closeup," which also included the Top 10 followup "Swearin' To God" and Top 15 remake of the Ruby & The Romantics song "Our Day Will Come" as well as "My Eyes Adored You."
But Valli was signed to a one-album deal with Uttal and because of his success with those hits, he and the Four Seasons got Mike Curb's attention and signed with Curb Records, a subsidiary to Warner Brothers. Late in 1975, the group hit the Top 5 with "Who Loves You" and then No. 1 with the follow-up, "December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)," the group's fifth No. 1 hit and first chart-topper in 12 years.
Valli's second career as a star, though, could not have happened had it not been for the song he believed in so much he bought it from Motown Records and took it to the little record company trying to make a name for itself.
It became the perfect wedding of partners needing one another.
And the perfect gift for loyal Valli/Four Seasons fans and music fans everywhere.
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