Gerald Michael Polci (born June 9, 1952) is an American singer and musician who was a member of the American rock and pop band The Four Seasons.
Polci played and sang in the band variously between 1973 and 1990. He sang lead and played drums on a number of their major hits, including the 1976 and 1994 worldwide hit, "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)". [1]
Polci was married briefly to Antonia Valli, the daughter of Frankie Valli. [1] [2] Their daughter, Olivia Valli, is now a musical theatre performer, including taking the role of her own grandmother in the musical Jersey Boys that dramatizes the early days of the band. [3] [4] He was also married to Rhea Gay Chiles, daughter of late U.S. Senator and Florida Governor Lawton Chiles and Rhea Grafton Chiles. [5]
Interspersed with performing with the Four Seasons, Polci arranged for Barry Manilow for his television specials and did other musical work. After leaving the Four Seasons, he returned to college at Montclair State University in New Jersey and, at the age of 43, began a teaching career at New Providence Middle School. He also performed with the band he co-founded in 2007, 'The Hit Men' — fellow members included his former bandmates in The Four Seasons, Lee Shapiro and Don Ciccone. [1] [2] [6]
The Four Seasons is an American rock band formed in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey. Since 1970, they have also been known at times as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. They are one of the best-selling musical groups of all time, having sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide.
Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer and occasional actor, best known as the frontman of the Four Seasons. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice.
Robert John Gaudio is an American songwriter, singer, musician, and record producer, and the keyboardist and backing vocalist of the pop/rock band the Four Seasons. Gaudio wrote or co-wrote the vast majority of the band's music, including hits like "Sherry" and "December, 1963 ", as well as "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" for Valli. Though he no longer performs with the group, Gaudio and lead singer Frankie Valli remain co-owners of the Four Seasons brand.
Nicholas E. Macioci was an American bass singer, songwriter, and bass guitarist. He is best known for his work as the bassist and bass vocalist for The Four Seasons, for whom he performed under the stage name Nick Massi.
Gaetano "Tommy" DeVito was an American musician. He was best known as a founding member, vocalist, and lead guitarist of rock band the Four Seasons.
"December, 1963 " is a song originally performed by the Four Seasons, written by original Four Seasons keyboard player Bob Gaudio and his future wife Judy Parker, produced by Gaudio, and included on the group's album Who Loves You (1975).
Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and breakup of the 1960s rock 'n' roll group The Four Seasons. The musical is structured as four "seasons", each narrated by a different member of the band who gives his own perspective on its history and music. Songs include "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Sherry", "December, 1963 ", "My Eyes Adored You", "Stay", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "Walk Like A Man", "Who Loves You", "Working My Way Back to You" and "Rag Doll".
Who Loves You is an album by The Four Seasons. It was released in 1975 on Warner/Curb Records.
Robert Stanley Crewe was an American songwriter, dancer, singer, manager, and record producer. Crewe co-wrote and produced a string of Top 10 singles with Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons.
Ryan Molloy is a British actor, singer and songwriter. He has been successful in stage and musical theatre at West End and Broadway, appearing in a number of hit musicals, like Taboo, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Tonight's the Night, Godspell and six years in Jersey Boys playing as Frankie Valli made him the longest-running star in a West End musical. In 2004, he replaced Holly Johnson as the lead singer in Frankie Goes to Hollywood for a charity concert at Wembley Arena being a band member until 2007, and since 2012 is often active with the Trevor Horn Band with whom recorded the album Made in Basing Street. He is known for his countertenor voice and falsetto.
"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is a 1967 song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, and first recorded and released as a single by Gaudio's Four Seasons bandmate Frankie Valli. The song was among his biggest hits, earning a gold record and reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, making it Valli's biggest solo hit until he hit No. 1 in 1975 with "My Eyes Adored You".
John Lloyd Mills Young is an American actor. In 2006, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Frankie Valli in Broadway's Jersey Boys. He is the only American actor to date to have received a Lead Actor in a Musical Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Award for a Broadway debut. Young sang lead vocals on the Grammy Award-winning Jersey Boys cast album, certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Young reprised his role as Frankie Valli in Warner Brothers' film adaptation of Jersey Boys, directed by Clint Eastwood and released June 20, 2014.
Joseph Louis LaBracio, better known by his stage name Joe Long, was an American musician. He was best known for his tenure as the bass guitarist and vocalist for the Four Seasons from 1965 to 1975, having succeeded original bassist Nick Massi in those positions.
"My Eyes Adored You" is a 1974 song written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan. It was originally recorded by The Four Seasons in early 1974. After the Motown label balked at the idea of releasing it, the recording was sold to lead singer Frankie Valli for $4000. After rejections by Capitol and Atlantic Records, Valli succeeded in getting the recording released on Private Stock Records, but the owner/founder of the label, Larry Uttal, wanted only Valli's name on the label. It is from the album Closeup. The single was released in the US in November 1974 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1975. "My Eyes Adored You" also went to number 2 on the Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1975.
The Critters were an American pop group with several hits in the 1960s, most notably "Mr. Dieingly Sad", a U.S. and Canadian Top 20 hit in 1966.
"Who Loves You" is the title song of a 1975 album by The Four Seasons. It was composed by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker and produced by Gaudio. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1975.
Jersey Boys is a 2014 American musical drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, based on the 2004 Tony Award-winning jukebox musical of the same name. The film tells the story of the musical group The Four Seasons. Original band members Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio serve as executive producers.
Donald Joseph Ciccone was an American singer, songwriter and musician. He was a founding member of the pop group the Critters, singing their biggest hits "Younger Girl" and "Mr. Dieingly Sad". The latter he wrote about his girlfriend Kathy Cobb before he entered the Air Force during the time of the Vietnam War. Cobb later became his wife. When the Critters' first album started to take off, Ciccone was in the Air Force and the band had to tour without him. This is why many videos on YouTube do not feature him, but instead have Ken Gorka lip-syncing Ciccone's part.
Lady Put the Light Out is an album by Frankie Valli, released in November 1977. It was his final album for Private Stock Records, which folded in early 1978.
Lee Shapiro is an American musician/arranger who was a member of the band The Four Seasons and the founder of The Hit Men, a brand of supergroups featuring session and touring musicians from other bands.