Clint Eastwood Doesn't Care Much For The Music of The Four Seasons

Despite having taken 'The Jersey Boys' from Broadway to the big screen, Clint Eastwood has admitted that he doesn’t really enjoy the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Instead, the legendary actor, famous for his roles in westerns and crime dramas, prefers the sounds of the 40s and 50s; singers like Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine.

Christoper Walken and Clint Eastwood attend a Jersey Boys screening dinner. (Photo: Getty 2014 - Mireya Acierto)

"I wasn't a big fan of the music that came out of the Sixties but I think The Four Seasons did some great stuff. Can't Take My Eyes Off You was probably the closest thing to a classic song that came out of the Fifties and Sixties," he explained. 

"I was brought up during the '40s and '50s music-wise, when you had the great singers - the men were Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstine and the women were Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee. You were just used to great singers," he added to The Telepgraph (paywall).

John Lloyd Young who won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his role as Frankie Valli in the Broadway show has admitted that Eastwood initially struck him as a surprising choice of director for The Jersey Boys movie, in which he also stars. 

"It did feel odd and I think it's because Jersey Boys has an interesting, strange communication problem when it comes to its legacy. It won best musical at the Tony Awards and people call it a jukebox musical. But it's unlike any other jukebox musical,” he explained, according to The Independent.

The Four Seasons Broadway show. (Photo: Getty 2008/Gareth Cattermole)

“When you look what Jersey Boys is – a drama about a band – you see the connection of Clint Eastwood to a Broadway musical in this instance makes complete sense. There is a compelling biographical story. If you just heard the music you wouldn't necessarily know that a bunch of Mobbed-up boys from New Jersey were responsible for it. That underbelly, that shadow within the light, is Clint's signature style."

‘Jersey Boys' opens on 20 June, and you can watch the trailer below.