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" It's always very special for me to work Chicago. Both of the record companies I was with, early on, were based in Chicago. The music was always huge there. "
Frankie Valli
Special
Early
Me
Related Quotes:
" The very first time I ever heard anything of mine on the radio, I was in New Jersey, and I was in my teens. I did my first record, which was an old standard called 'My Mother's Eyes.' It was the old Georgie Jessel theme. I heard it on local radio out of Newark. And it was very exciting! "
Frankie Valli
Eyes
New
Mother
" My name actually is Francesco Castaluccio. "
Frankie Valli
Name
Actually
" I have to believe that most people know that 'Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You' is my song. But the reaction we get from the audience at 'Jersey Boys' is that they didn't remember how many hits we had. A lot of 'Oh yeah, I forgot they did that song.' We had 20 Top 10 hits in the U.S... people forget. "
Frankie Valli
Believe
Remember
People
" I'd seen so many people become stagnant in New Jersey - I had this fear I'd just stay there. They'd come out of high school, get a job, get married, have kids and die in Jersey. I wanted more. "
Frankie Valli
People
Job
High School
" In 1967, I found out I was losing my hearing. I went 10 years without any help. I had otosclerosis - hardening of the bone in the middle of the ear. "
Frankie Valli
Losing
Help
Without
" I spent many a summer early morning with the radio very low, half sleeping and half listening. "
Frankie Valli
Summer
Early
Listening
" When I was a kid, I used to listen to my Emerson radio late at night under the covers. I started by listening to jazz in the late 1940s and then vocal harmony groups like the Four Freshmen, the Modernaires and the Hi-Lo's. I loved Stan Kenton's big band - with those dark chords and musicians who could swing cool with individual sounds. "
Frankie Valli
Cool
Listening
Loved
" Where I grew up, in New Jersey, there was a lot of organised crime activity. It was a part of life. "
Frankie Valli
Life
Crime
Activity
" I went to school to learn to be a hairdresser. I worked at a wholesale florist, where I delivered to florists all over New Jersey. I'd come home and go out to work down at the Shore. The early jobs, I remember, were $5, $6 a night. And I lived in the projects right until the time I became successful. "
Frankie Valli
Early
Work
Time
" I grew up beyond proud - we didn't have much, but we had a lot of love. "
Frankie Valli
Up
Proud
Much
" You can take the guy out of the neighorhood but you can't take the neighborhood out of the guy. "
Frankie Valli
Take
Neighborhood
Guy
" I think Lady Gaga is talented. Madonna is talented, and the flair that Michael Jackson had. He was talented! Whatever it is that they do, they must be doing something right. They do have an audience out there, so I respect that. "
Frankie Valli
Audience
Doing
Lady
" Becoming successful is a relentless pursuit. It's good that it's that way: When it does come, you learn to know how to appreciate it, and know how lucky you are to be doing something that you love so much. "
Frankie Valli
Love
Appreciate
Doing
" I always believed a singer should be able to sing any kind of song. If I wanted to sing a Cole Porter song, I should be able to do that. Or 'Sherry,' I should be able to do that. Or a Dylan song. "
Frankie Valli
Singer
Able
Always
" Starting in my teens, I was always standing on the corner near our apartment singing harmony with friends. We'd also go to the park and sing under the bridge near the lake for the echo. When it was cold out, we'd stand in the little heated lobby in the project's administration building, where my mom paid the rent each month. "
Frankie Valli
Mom
Friends
Stand
" It's unconditional love with your kids. "
Frankie Valli
Kids
Unconditional Love
Your
" With 'Sherry,' we were looking for a sound. We wanted to make the kind of mark that, if the radio was playing one of our songs, you knew who it was immediately. But I didn't want to sing like that my whole life. "
Frankie Valli
Want
You
Kind
" Establishing a style is important, it really is, but a lot of singers get so involved with their instrument, and more so than they do in what they're singing. I think you really have to think about what you're singing. You have to make the public believe what you're singing. And in order to do that, you have to believe it. "
Frankie Valli
Singing
Think
Style
" One day, when I was still living at home, a friend told 'Texas' Jean Valli about me. She was originally from Syracuse, N.Y., and lived in New Jersey but sang country. One night, she had me come up on stage where she was performing. I sang 'My Mother's Eyes,' and she was knocked out. "
Frankie Valli
Night
Day
Eyes
" I learned by listening to other people sing and doing impressions of them. And there are things no one can ever teach you, like phrasing. By listening to Sinatra, for instance - you felt that everything he sang had happened in his life. "
Frankie Valli
Doing
Life
Listening
" People don't get married to get divorced. Maybe people weren't meant to be together forever. "
Frankie Valli
Meant To Be
People
Together
" I don't play golf or tennis, I don't ski, I don't snowboard. If you love what you do, you never get enough of it. "
Frankie Valli
You
Enough
Love
" There were a lot of R&B groups that were my heroes, but the funny thing about my career and the way it went and where it went, at first I didn't really want to do pop music. I was a little bit more into jazz and R&B. "
Frankie Valli
Jazz
Career
Want
" At school, I'd sing in groups in the locker room or in the bathroom, which was like an echo chamber. The problem is I didn't know how to get started singing professionally. The pool hall was my Facebook. I'd hang out there to keep up with what was going on and to let people know where I could be reached if singing jobs came up. "
Frankie Valli
School
Singing
Know
" Jazz was my first love. "
Frankie Valli
Love
Jazz
First Love
" When somebody is making a movie about your life, that's different. A show is a live performance. Things are going to go wrong. You are going to get away with things. A movie is indelible. A movie is through a microscope. "
Frankie Valli
Wrong
Go
Life
" I cherish the memory of being a friend of Frank Sinatra on a friendship level to the point where we really hung out. We worked in Vegas, we'd talk on the phone, and if I wasn't doing anything, I'd fly out, and I spent time in Palm Springs at his house - on a level the way friends would be, not with a whole crowd of people. "
Frankie Valli
Friendship
Fly
People
" I'm not doing contemporary songs unless something comes along that really knocks my socks off. "
Frankie Valli
Off
Really
Songs
" I thought everybody had falsetto. And since I wasn't a schooled singer who studied with anybody, I just thought anybody who had a voice could do anything they wanted with their voice. "
Frankie Valli
Singer
Voice
Anything
" I do belong to Jersey. There's no doubt about that in my mind. They have been so loyal and so good to me; how could I possibly belong any place else? "
Frankie Valli
Mind
Place
Doubt