Franki Valii of the Four Seasons band passes away at 79
Entertainment
Franki Valii of the Four Seasons band passes away at 79
Former band member for the Four Seasons Franki Valii has reportedly passed over into the great beyond according to his fellow bandmates.
The news was announced by Valii in an official Facebook post that read, “It is with great sadness that we learned that our dear bandmate, Joe Long, has passed away. We send our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and fans. We will miss Joe.”
He was 88.
“It is with great sadness that we learned that our dear bandmate, Joe Long, has passed away,” said Four Seasons members Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio in a statement on social media. “We send our deepest condolences to his family, friends and fans.
“We will miss Joe.”
Long was born Joe LaBracio in Elizabeth. He played music to support his family after his dad became ill when Tommy DeVito of the Four Seasons called.
They were looking for a replacement for departed original bassist Nick Massi.
“I got a call from Tommy DeVito who had been talking to a friend, an agent who was booking me, a guy named Frankie Fame,” said Long to Stuart Miller of the Genuine Imitation Life Gazette Four Seasons fan site. “That was when Nick left abruptly and they were looking for another guy and Frankie said, I think I ve got the guy for you. He plays bass, he s got a gruffy voice like Nick, sounds like he has a cold all the time, and he might be the guy.
Four Seasons Joe Long passes away at 88
I never know what s going to happen when I begin my show on New Jersey 101.5. Today I was informed by Tony Newell of the Jersey Four that Joe Long of the Four Seasons passed away at the age of 88. Joe had been battling COVID. I had the pleasure of both interviewing Joe at a Jersey Four show and performing with him when the band brought me up on stage at iPlay America. He was a truly great guy and a class act all the way.
February 9 marked the 55th anniversary of The Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Back then in 1964 New Jersey, The Four Seasons were so big that VeeJay records would put out an album called The Beatles vs The Four Seasons with each groups songs on each side. It was in 1965 that Joe Long replaced Nick Massi who left the group on bass. I caught up with Long who s now the music director of the Jersey Four, a Four Seasons Tribute Band at iPlay America and we talked about his time with the originals, It was great,
The two other images featured Long alongside the likes of Valli, now 86, and Bruce Springsteen.
According to New Jersey Arts, Long joined the vocal group in 1965 and stuck around until 1975. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame along with the band in 2018.
Long was a bass player for the band, having replaced Charles Calello, who served as a temporary replacement for original member Nick Massi.
UpdatedWed, Apr 21, 2021 at 7:18 pm ET
Reply
Italian-American vocal group The Four Seasons with their album The 4 Seasons Gold Vault Of Hits , which has gone gold after a million dollars in sales, circa 1966. Left to right: Joe Long, Tommy DeVito, Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
NEW JERSEY – A New Jersey native who was a former member of the Four Seasons music group has died from complications due to COVID-19, according to his former band and reports.
Joe Long, an Elizabeth native who also lived in Long Branch, died on Wednesday, Anthony Newell, a close friend and member of the Jersey Four tribute band, told NJ Advance Media.