Tommy DeVito, the guitarist and co-founding member of the Four Seasons, died on September 21st, at the age of 92 due to Covid-19. The group's Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio issued a joint statement to The New York Post, which reads, “It is with great sadness that we report that Tommy DeVito, a founding member of the Four Seasons, has passed. We send our love to his family during this most difficult time. He will be missed by all who loved him.” According to DeVito's daughter, Darcel, a service is being planned for DeVito in his native New Jersey.
DeVito, who left the group in 1970 and later sold all his interests in the group back to Valli and Gaudio, performed on 27 Top 40 hits — including the Number Ones “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don't Cry,” “Walk Like A Man,” and “Rag Doll” — along with such classic Top Tens as “Candy Girl,” “Dawn (Go Away),” “Ronnie,” “Let's Hang On!,” “Working My Way Back To You,” among others.
DeVito and the Seasons' life and career was turned into the Tony Award-winning musical — and eventual big screen biopic — Jersey Boys. The Four Seasons were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
Frankie Valli told us that of all his hits, he was most surprised by the Four Seasons' first Number One the five week 1962 chart-topper, “Sherry”: “We recorded it, we didn't have a record deal yet and (our producer) Bob Crewe went and shopped a record deal and made a deal with a company in Chicago called Vee Jay Records. Vee Jay put it out and it didn't look like it was going to be an immediate hit. We were having difficulty even getting it played in the beginning. And then all of a sudden it went from nothing to Number One.”
Frankie Valli On Sherry Going From No Play To Number One :