A Handshake for All Seasons

What do Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Miami Vice, Little Shop of Horrors and Nair hair-removal cream have in common? They have all generated earnings for an obscure Los Angeles company, the Four Seasons Partnership. Like many businesses in the entertainment field, the firm employs technicians, musicians and other professionals, but the heart of the company is a 25-year- old creative and financial partnership between two men — Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli — that is highly unusual, if not unique, in the world of business. Gaudio, 46, is a composer, pianist, arranger and producer who has worked on records with Sinatra, Ross, Diamond, Michael Jackson and Barry Manilow. Valli, 53, is the veteran pop singer whose high-pitched voice (a critic once likened it to an air-raid siren) still packs in audiences at basketball arenas, concert halls, nightclubs and casinos. Both men were original members of the Four Seasons, the famed rock group that next month will launch its 25th anniversary concert tour. The dozens of Four Seasons hits, including such Gaudio tunes as Big Girls Don’t Cry and Who Loves You, have sold more than 100 million records and tapes.

Though Gaudio stopped performing with the group more than 15 years ago and his career took off on a different course from Valli’s, their fortunes have remained intertwined. Reason: they are still partners despite their professional separation, and they split all income — whoever earns it — down the middle. When Gaudio co-produced the music for Manilow’s TV special Copacabana, he gave half of his earnings to Valli, who had nothing to do with the show. When Valli headlined a big concert last year at New Jersey’s Meadowlands Arena, Gaudio got half the profits even though he was in London producing the sound track for the movie Little Shop of Horrors. Naturally, Valli got half the profits for Gaudio’s film work.

The arrangement dates back to 1962, when Gaudio and Valli, who came from working-class Italian neighborhoods in the Bronx and Newark, respectively, were only dreaming of hitting it big. At the time, Valli was a barber, Gaudio worked in a printing plant, and the Four Seasons was an unknown group playing on weekends in small clubs and bowling alleys. Sitting one evening in Valli’s apartment in a Newark low-income housing project, the two friends decided to be partners forever and share their earnings equally. Recalls Gaudio: “We said, ‘Neither one of us knows where we’re going to wind up, but maybe we should hedge our bets. You get 50% of me, and I get 50% of you.” They shook hands on the deal.

In September 1962 the partnership struck gold when Gaudio’s song Sherry and Valli’s shrill vocals put the Four Seasons on top of the pop world. In 1971 Gaudio, who never liked performing, stopped touring with the Four Seasons but continued to produce the group’s records and started working with other artists as well. Valli agreed to stay with the Seasons as lead singer. All the while, Gaudio and Valli never felt the need of a written contract. They have divided well over $50 million on the strength of their original handshake. Says Valli: “If you trust your partner, contracts are not important. We have never had to police one another.” Indeed, they see each other only occasionally. Gaudio is based in Los Angeles, while Valli’s home is in Fort Lee, N.J.

The Four Seasons Partnership has various music publishing and production subsidiaries. But the proceeds from Valli’s concerts, TV appearances and record sales, plus royalties from Gaudio’s writing and production work, are ultimately funneled to the Los Angeles office of the Manhattan-based Barash, Goodfriend & Friedman accounting firm. It pays the partnership’s employees, including the band members who back up Valli in the Four Seasons. The accountants divide the net profits between Valli and Gaudio.

The two admit that the partnership would be strained if one of them consistently earned much more money than the other. But over time things even out. In 1978 Valli was the big breadwinner because he sang the title song from the movie Grease, which brought in an estimated $2 million for the partnership. In 1981 Gaudio starred, when the music he produced for the Neil Diamond movie The Jazz Singer earned him perhaps $1 million or more after divvying up with Valli.

The partnership has endured several crises. In 1967 Valli realized he was losing his hearing because of otosclerosis, a rare inner-ear ailment. One doctor told him that he would go completely deaf. At about the same time, sloppy management of the Four Seasons’ business affairs plunged the group some $2 million in debt. To recoup, Valli embarked on a grueling schedule of about 300 concerts a year from 1969 to 1973. During that period, his ears got so bad that at times he had trouble hearing the band playing behind him. Finally, a series of operations restored most of Valli’s hearing, and a string of No. 1 hits in the 1970s put the Four Seasons back on easy street.

Today, Gaudio and Valli could retire and still earn a splendid living. Every time a radio station plays one of their records, the partnership makes money. Royalties from past hits bring in as much as $700,000 a year. Many of Gaudio’s perky compositions seem to be perpetual money-makers. The first song he ever wrote was Short Shorts; more than two decades later it became the theme song in commercials for Nair hair-removal cream.

Gaudio and Valli are always looking for new ways to fill their joint coffer. Valli, for example, is trying to launch an acting career. He made a guest appearance on Miami Vice last year and has a major role in an upcoming film comedy called Dirty Laundry. Whatever directions Gaudio and Valli take, they have no thought of breaking their deal. Says Gaudio: “That would be like telling your brother that he couldn’t come to dinner anymore. We’re family.”