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.