Tommy DeVito (musician)
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Tommy DeVito (born June 19, 1928) is an American musician and singer, best-known as a member and the lead guitarist of the pop group The Four Seasons. He was born in Belleville, New Jersey.
DeVito's musical career began in the early 1950s when he formed the Variety Trio with his twin brother Nick and Hank Majewski. They were performing in nightclubs when Frank Castelluccio (later known as Frankie Valli) joined the band. They renamed themselves the Four Lovers and had a minor hit with 1956's "Apple of My Eye".
After a couple of name changes, the name the group became famous with, "The Four Seasons", was adopted in 1960. Nick DeVito and Majewski left the band in 1960 and were replaced by Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi. The group's string of hits began in 1962 with their #1 hit "Sherry".
Tommy DeVito left the band in 1970 and moved to Las Vegas, in the wake of a dispute with the other group members over financial matters and his relationships with certain organized crime figures). In Vegas, DeVito has done a number of different things, including running a recording and producing studio for a while, and these days is a self-described part of the entourage of actor Joe Pesci, who had been instrumental in originally bringing together the Four Seasons in the 1960's.
DeVito, along with fellow original Seasons Valli, Massi and Gaudio, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
Nick Massi died in 2000, and while DeVito's relationship with Valli and Gaudio is still positive (the other two have been close business partners for over 40 years and own all the rights to all the Seasons material, name, and touring act), the three of them rejoined on stage at the opening of Jersey Boys, the new hit Broadway musical chronicling the story of the group's early days, and Valli and Gaudio ensured that DeVito (as well as Massi's family) will profit from the show's success. Valli describes his current relationship with DeVito as "cordial"
DeVito has written a lengthy, but as-yet-unpublished, autobiography (with the help of the late Rex Woodard) about his days with the group, which served, along with other accounts, as background material for the musical.
[edit] External links
- Jersey Boys is the Broadway musical story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.
[edit] Notes
- ↑ Many sources list DeVito's birth year as either 1935 or 1936, but these stemmed from label publicity releases during the Four Seasons' heyday. In the years since, DeVito has acknowledged his real birth year as being 1928.
- ↑ Although DeVito's and the group's ties to locally known New Jersey crime figures, including Gyp DeCarlo, were vehemently denied at the time, they have since been admitted by all the participants, and the relationship (including the effect it had on the group's breakup) plays a crucial part in the.musical Jersey Boys, based on interviews with, and original material from, DeVito and the others.
