Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons will perform on Maui on Friday. More of “a local hit before we had any success,” the group struggled its way through the 1950s before a string of top hits put them on the map. With a career spanning more than seven decades, Valli says he still loves to get on stage and connect with fans. Photo courtesy of the MACC

Making his Maui debut on Friday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Frankie Valli still loves entertaining fans.

“It’s a thrill to get up on the stage and get a response from an audience that has been waiting for you to come,” said Valli. “It feels incredible. Fans have become so important to us, it’s like they are a part of family. Just being able to do what I do has been great. It’s sometimes overwhelming to think that people will follow you until you’re not doing it anymore.”

Performing for more than seven decades, singing with the Four Seasons and as a solo artist, Valli’s memorable hits include “Sherry,” “Walk Like A Man,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Rag Doll,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” and “Grease.”

With more than 100 million records sold worldwide, Valli and the Four Seasons were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Born in New Jersey in 1934 as Francesco Castelluccio, his life changed when he attended a Frank Sinatra concert as a child.

“My mom took me to see Sinatra in New York City,” he recalled. “I was just blown away. I couldn’t believe it. I said that’s what I want to do, and I had no idea how I was going to do it. I couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7.”

Known for his striking falsetto vocals and three-octave range, Valli did not realize his voice was special early on.

“I never really realized it. I just thought everybody could sing,” he said. “If we could all talk, why couldn’t everybody sing? There was no formal training. I did a lot of impressions and I got a good feel as to what you could do with a vocal mechanism.”

From singing on street corners with friends, he practiced in “closets in the house and in the shower and the bathroom.”

He grew up loving jazz and would hang out at the famed Birdland jazz club in New York.

“My favorite band was Stan Kenton,” he said. “There were several groups I really liked, The Four Freshmen, The Hi-Lo’s, and the Delta Rhythm Boys, the variation of different kinds of singers.”

Trying to make a career singing with various vocal groups during the birth of rock ‘n’ roll was not easy, though he got on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in 1956, as a member of The Four Lovers.

“It was tough,” he said. “We didn’t have our first hit until 1962. In the ’50s we were struggling to try to get something going, just struggling to get in the door so that we might be able to record. We were a local hit before we had any success.”

Changing their name to the Four Seasons after a cocktail lounge in a New Jersey bowling alley, they hit No. 1 in 1962 with “Sherry,” composed by the group’s tenor Bob Gaudio. A remarkable string of top hits soon followed — “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man” and “Rag Doll.”

“It was amazing,” he said. “I almost didn’t believe it. It was really strange to want something for so long and then it comes. It’s almost like it’s going to change your life, but it really doesn’t, it just broadens it. The first three records were No. 1 and then when ‘Dawn (Go Away)’ was No. 3, I thought it was over.”

As a solo artist, his hits included “My Eyes Adored You,” and then “Grease,” the title song from the smash movie starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. Composed by Bee Gee Barry Gibb, it was the opening track on the biggest selling soundtrack album of all time.

“Barry got in touch with me, and said, ‘I wrote a song that I’d like for you to do.’ We loved it, and the rest is history,” Valli said. “Because of the absence of hits for some years, it brought in a new audience. ‘Jersey Boys’ did the same thing.”

A musical biography of Valli and the Four Seasons, “Jersey Boys,” debuted on Broadway in 2005 and won four Tony Awards. It’s still running in London’s West End.

What was it like for him seeing his life portrayed in the show?

“It was tough in the beginning,” he admitted. “You don’t quite see yourselves the way somebody else might. It took about six months for me to get used to it.”

Reflecting on his storied career, Valli said, “I love what I do. You should never do things that you don’t love doing. I feel privileged to have been able to make a living at something that I absolutely loved for most of my life.”

Valli and The Four Seasons perform on Friday in the MACC’s A&B Amphitheater and Yokouchi Pavilion. Gates open at 6 p.m. and the concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $65, $85 and $125, with a limited number of $195 Gold Circle seats plus applicable fees. Advance ticket sales are available online only at MauiArts.org.