A painful final concert capped the career of legendary singer Frankie Valli, who at 90 years old struggled with lip-syncing at a show earlier this month.
Valli and his Four Seasons quartet delivered some of pop’s greatest hits of the 60s and 70s, including “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and “Walk Like a Man.” However, all the magic vanished during an August 3rd concert at the Mountain Winery in the San Jose suburb of Saratoga when Valli appeared strikingly frail. In a clip viewed online more than 4.1 million times, he can be seen climbing stairs to the stage and barely moving his lips to the 1978 hit “Grease.” The New York Post reported Valli attempted to weakly snap his fingers along to “Can’t Keep My Eyes Off Of You” while backup vocalists kept the tune going, but the lip-syncing act was more than obvious.
A representative for Valli told the Post he is doing “just fine” and doesn’t see the staged set as a death sentence to his 71-year singing career. “Frankie is doing just fine and super happy to still be performing. The audiences are filling venues and listening to some great music,” the rep said in response to the controversy, adding “Frankie is doing what he loves to do at 90. We should all be so lucky.” Most of the attention began with an Instagram video post by the user @cecchinitrucking who was in Saratoga that day to catch Valli in action. “Great show!!!! Frankie shows his age but at 90 years old he still can draw a crowd and rock the house,” they wrote. “Was definitely a #millivanilli lip sync concert but what would you expect from a 90 year old guy!!!!”
WATCH:
I just discovered that 90 year old Frankie Valli is still performing. This is incredible. pic.twitter.com/XiviYXyoQl
— 𝙳𝙾𝙻𝙻𝚈 𝙵𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙸𝙽’ (@DrGorillaFarts) August 5, 2024
Viewers on X said it was sad to see Valli receiving the “Joe Biden treatment” after his failed performance. Others blamed the singer’s rep for letting him on stage at 90 years old. “What promoter forced this poor man on stage?” one Instagram user wrote. Another added, “Lip sync embarrassment. Let the man retire already.” Others stuck up for the legendary singer, with one fan wrote, “Be respectful. This is Frankie Valli and these songs are fantastic.
Everybody should be able to do what they like until they want to.”
Some of yesteryear’s biggest pop stars have delivered heartbreaking news this year. Ann Wilson, who has led the five-member group Heart since its inception in 1967, recently made known her cancer diagnosis in a heartfelt social media post where she thanked her millions of followers for their support while she takes the rest of the year away to recover. Peter Frampton, 74, the iconic guitar frontman for Humble Pie, is continuing his battle against Inclusion Body Myositis and recently reported worsening symptoms in his arms and hands.