Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons had their first No. 1 hit 50 years ago this month. "Sherry" was the start of a career that has lasted half a century. 19.

Valli spoke to Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon about singing impressions and hair products. Hear the radio version at the audio link and read more of their conversation below.

"I had a manager that thought that Castelluccio was too long and no one would understand it. At that time, he could've called me anything he wanted as long as I was getting this shot."

And I'm told that the group wasn't always called The Four Seasons.

"Well it was called so many names. It was everything from The Varitones to The Romans to The Topics to The Village Voices. And there were some names we can't use on radio that might upset a lot of people."

Now I'm told that there was an actual 'Four Seasons,' but not the fancy hotel or restaurant.

"Right, it was a cocktail lounge in a bowling alley. We went there to play in the cocktail lounge and didn't get the job, and on the way out, looked up and said, 'Boy, what a great name for a group!' "

I gotta ask you about the falsetto. What made you decide to sing up there?

"I don't know. You know, I thought everyone 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. Not until much later on in life did I realize I had been blessed with an incredible range, and then I saw it from a different perspective."

Is it any harder to hit those notes nowadays?

"I'm sure there's a note or two that may not air. What happens is that you gain some lows and lose some highs as you get older. In most cases you change keys in songs you'll come down a half tone or a full tone and that's about it. Singers are no different than bodybuilders. You have to sing every day. You have to try to stay in great shape. So anybody out there that wants to be a singer, it's no smoking, no drinking and no substances if you really want to keep it and be able to go out there and continue to do it. So basically you have to live a pretty clean life."

The musical Jersey Boys has been so successful. I gather there were some stories that are related in the musical that you didn't necessarily feel that it would help you for the public to know when you were actually living those years?

"Well, all through the early days of our success, the one thing that I was afraid of more than anything was that the public might find out we were not clean cut kids who went to church every Sunday. Some of the guys in the group had prison records. So we just prayed and hoped that nobody would ever find out.

"When it came down to doing the play, Bob Gaudio said to me, 'Ya know, if we do a play, and it's going to be about our lives, we have to lay it all out there. Are you ready to do that?' At that particular time, there were so many record artists that had not made it yet until they got arrested. So at this point in time, I said, 'What difference is it going to make?' So he went along with that and so did I. We were just very careful to try not to hurt anybody."

Was music your step up and out?

"That was my only way out. I mean I don't know what would've happened if it wasn't for being involved in the music business. You know, I started out very young, and I was really convinced as to what I wanted to do. And I would buy these songbooks. It was lyrics to all the songs that were popular at the time. And I would sing along when these songs were being played on the radio, and then I started to mess around George Blanda Raiders Jersey a little bit with doing impressions. And by doing impressions, I began to realize what this vocal mechanism was really capable of doing. And I took a little from the various different people that I liked a lot and created a style of my own.

Singers are no different than bodybuilders.

"Impressions Authentic Jack Tatum Jersey really open it up for you and make it wide. You have to think of it this way: If someone goes to a singing coach in most cases, if there were 20 people who went to this singing coach and they were all baritones, they probably would all sound pretty similar. That's his way of teaching. But by doing impressions, you can broaden that scope. You can learn how does this guy do this and that guy do that and this lady do this and that one do this. And by doing these impressions and getting as close as you can, you will develop things. There will be more possibilities when you're singing, depending on the Authentic Howie Long Jersey song you're singing. As far as lyrics were concerned, in my opinion, there was never anybody quite as good as Frank Sinatra. There was no one that could sing a lyric like he could.

"When you think about it, the interpretation of a song is very, very important. Hit records are a combination of a lot of things, but first of all and most importantly, in my opinion, you have to have a song. The performance is very important and the arrangement is very important and the production is very important. But without the song, all of those other things don't mean quite as much.

"Having a style is very important in making it. Even as time went by, the first time you heard The Four Tops, you knew right then and Authentic George Blanda Jersey there was nobody that you'd ever heard in your life that sounded like Levi Stubbs. There just wasn't! That goes all the way down with every singer, whether it was Clyde McPhatter and the days when he was a Drifter. You knew it was him. Elvis Presley had a very unique voice.

"Establishing a style is important. It really is. But a lot George Blanda Jersey of singers get Howie Long Jersey 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."

I have also read that if you hadn't become a singer you would have been a hairdresser.

"Right, until I realized that you couldn't sing and do hair at the same time. . I loved doing hair because it was very, very creative. But working in a shop was just not for me. I've always considered myself to be a creative person. Doing hair means to do someone's hair to complement their face. When the customer's telling you what they want and it's not right for them, it can be very frustrating."

You know, Joe Pesci began as a hairdresser in a hair salon.

"Right, and Jack Tatum Jersey Joe Pesci used to cut my hair. . Joe Pesci and I are really close friends from a family place to a one on one place. Joe Pesci comes from an incredible family. We all hung out in the same neighborhoods and knew all the same people. Joe Pesci is also one of those people who probably if he didn't get involved in the acting business would've probably been mobbed up. That's the way we grew up when we Jack Tatum Raiders Jersey were kids. That's the way it was. Joe Pesci was as talented when he Howie Long Raiders Jersey was a kid as he is right now. But sometimes things are not happening or you're not in the right place at the right time or whatever. Joe Pesci's also an incredible singer and musician. He plays the guitar and sings very well."