(From Tammy Fine, TODAY producer)
Without offending anyone, I have to ask the question: can anyone under 40 name five songs by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons?
If you answer no, then I hope you were able to see the profile we ran on the show this morning. WATCH VIDEO
Because the truth is, Frankie and the boys have a catalog of music that blows your mind away. "Sherrie"... "Big Girls Don't Cry"... "Walk Like a Man"...
While those aren't songs that I was spinning on my record player at age 12, they are special to me just the same. It's been said that music at its best touches the soul, and for me, this music does because it brings back some of my sweetest childhood memories.
It seems like yesterday that I was sitting in the backseat of the family station wagon, squished between my sisters, listening to the local AM station in Wilmington, Delaware, and hearing my mother singing along to the songs.
There were the Neils (Sedaka and Diamond). There was Barry Manilow. But the king, the one that had us all aiming for our best falsetto, was Frankie Valli. Those were songs that brought a smile to our mom's face and made us all feel happy.
It's the treat of working here that occasionally we get to meet the people behind the music of our lives. Recently, I produced this profile piece and met the legend in person, along with the genius who wrote much of the music, Bob Gaudio.
You couldn't meet two nicer men. And in this age of dollars and cents, it's remarkable that they continue to be partners after 50 years together, sharing all their profits without a contract -- based on nothing more than a handshake.
Who Loves You? (MY personal favorite of their songs) I do.