Drizzly in Durham

 

It rained when we left Virginia on Saturday morning and rained for our drive to Durham, North Carolina.

Bill and I were heading off to see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons!

It was raining when we got there and raining for our  walk to the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC), and again for our drippy walk back to the hotel after the concert, but we didn’t care.

The drive was delightful with virtually no traffic and we never even got lost once!  The only things missing were Burma Shave signs.  Does anyone remember them?

But the best part of the trek was the “senior citizens happening” in Durham.

We joined 2,698 other devoted old fans all drifting in and out of musical reveries.  Bill and I were seated in the “best available” seats (high balcony left!) since “DPAC” was sold out.  Many of us climbed interminable heights and stairs to get to our seating. 

It was an impressively huge audience.  Our heydays were in the 60’s , 70’s, and 80’s and we waved and swayed and tapped and clapped and hollered as we all forged a mutual link to a never-forgotten musical past.

Frankie Valli  is now 80 years old!  Imagine?  And he sang on August 9th  almost non-stop in his characteristically high voice for an hour and 45 minutes.  With each announced song we could hear voices yelling, “Yeahhhhh” and  “All Righttttt.”

He covered the musical renditions from when he began in 1962 and onward through the generations and we all recognized our earlier selves.

 And for just those fleeting moments we were once again who we were then –

fresh and young and dreaming of things to come.

It was  over so fast no one wanted to leave.  There was a standing ovation with yelling and whistling that went on and on.

Yes, it was a drizzly drive to Durham but happiness was tripping back through time.

Wet?  Who cares?  We would do it all over again.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons began filling the air with love and romance way back in the 60s.  They scored 29 Top 40 hits, one Top 40 hit under The Four Seasons’ alias ‘The Wonder Who?’, and nine Top 40 hits for Frankie Valli as a solo artist.  They marked the seasons with their biggest hits like ”Sherry” (1962), “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (1962), “Walk Like a Man” (1963), “Rag Doll” (1964) and “December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)” (1975).   “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, which reached number two in 1967, is one of their best-loved hits.    As a solo artist, Frankie Valli released his number one hit — “My Eyes Adored You” (1974) and “Grease” (1978).

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Whistling for Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons

It was a busy weekend for this imported country girl.  Bill and I went back to “the big city” to visit son and grandgirls for a sort of summer reunion.  The family are all hale and hearty with one girl waitressing at a local pizza spot, another baby sitting, and another looking for gainful summer employment.  They are all beautiful and funny and sweet.

After lots of catch-up conversation and dining out to torment the grandgirl at her pizza spot, we decided to go to the movies.  The film of choice for this ancient grandma was “Jersey Boys” and everyone (in an effort to be kind to their elders) agreed.

The Jersey Boys

The music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons still haunts me.  They were a popular group in our halcyon days of youth – the “in sound” playing on the radio while I dealt with diapers and dishes.  I am all grown up now (though still dealing with dishes) and thought I had moved on from those lilting lyrics and tunes.

That was until the story of the boys from New Jersey was resurrected as a biographical take on their music and their lives.   The show was  Jersey Boys!  It was playing in San Diego several years ago and Steve and Viv (my brother and sister-in-law) got tickets.  The performance was complete with look-alike musicians and fabulous singing, and the group sounded just like the originals.

Bill lapsed into what I call one of his “Bronx Reactions,” yelling and whistling for encores.  Thank goodness everyone else in the audience was yelling and whistling too although I must admit he was louder.

Turns out Bill knew what he was whistling for because the same show became so popular it went to Broadway in 2005 amid predictions it would flop.  It just got more wildly popular and became an award winning Broadway musical. We saw it again in Las Vegas.  

More whistling of course.

Jersey Boys is now a movie and we just saw it with the grandgirls.   The shocker for the uninitiated is always that high pitched falsetto voice of Frankie Valli’s.  His music is still haunting and keeps running through your head long after you hear it.  Now four days later, I am still mentally humming Sherreeee!

Now lo and behold Bill and I are going once again to see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in person, for real,  this summer!  I have the tickets!

Valli is 80 years old and still performing!  Imagine?  People With Money reported that he is the highest-paid singer in the world, pulling in an astonishing $82 million between May 2013 and May 2014, a nearly $50 million lead over his closest competition.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons began filling the air with love and romance way back in the 60s.  They scored 29 Top 40 hits, one Top 40 hit under The Four Seasons’ alias ‘The Wonder Who?’, and nine Top 40 hits for Frankie Valli as a solo artist.  They marked the seasons with their biggest hits like ”Sherry” (1962), “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (1962), “Walk Like a Man” (1963), “Rag Doll” (1964) and “December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)” (1975).   “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, which reached number two in 1967, is one of their best-loved hits.    As a solo artist, Frankie Valli released his number one hit — “My Eyes Adored You” (1974) and “Grease” (1978).

 

 

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