Abbot Genser, HBO Frankie Valli has appeared in a few "Sopranos" episodes and may do three or four more, he says. Click photo for larger image. Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons Where: Palace Theatre, Greensburg. When: 8 tonight. Tickets: $49.50-$44.50; 724-836-8000.

Frankie Valli never meant to be a pop star.

He was more a standard guy at heart.

"I grew up in a time when Broadway was heavy with really great songs," he says, "so I have a great appreciation for the Gershwins and Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart."

What brought him around to the top of the charts with "Sherry," Valli says, was "being broke and saying, 'Well, hell, I can do this, too.' I never thought I'd enjoy doing it as much as I have. But how can you not enjoy doing something that gives millions of people so much pleasure? That's really the main purpose of what you're doing when you are a performer."

Valli's early heroes ranged from the marquee jazz vocalists (Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett and so on) to such early soul greats as Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. But he also loved vocal groups, from hardcore R&B acts to his all-time favorites, the Four Freshmen.

Formed in Newark, N.J., Valli's own group, the Four Seasons, started as a cover band, The Varietones, who became the Four Lovers and then the Four Seasons.

"A lot of standards and hits of the day," he says. "We did some pop, some standards, a little light jazz, a little bit of everything. Making a living. Or I might say just about making a living. I remember I started working for three bucks a night for three or four or five sets, whatever it was."

He had an early taste of fame in 1953 as Frankie Valley with a standard called "My Mother's Eyes." But that was nothing compared to the breakthrough he enjoyed in 1962 when "Sherry" topped the charts for five weeks, followed by a five-week run at No. 1 for "Big Girls Don't Cry" that same year.

But it was all a blur to Valli, who says, "No matter how much you want success, when it happens, it's hard to believe that it's happened. I didn't realize the success for at least two years after we'd had it."

As for the records he made between "My Mother's Eyes" and "Sherry," Valli says, "Everyone talks about the successes in life. Before we became successful, I think I recorded for just about every record company there was. Having a hit record, there's a lot to it, with the right song and the right performance and the right arrangement and some luck and radio giving it a shot. There's so many songs that got lost and never got played."

But there were plenty that got played a lot. By 1964, the year they scored their fourth chart-topping smash with "Rag Doll," Valli and his group were big enough that Vee-Jay decided to package its two big stars together on one double record called "The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons," billed as "The International Battle of the Century."

"I thought that was terrific," Valli says. "I was a Beatle fan before they became successful in the United States. I went to Europe in '63 -- they hadn't even happened here yet -- and I heard some records, so I brought them back. I thought they were great."

He even met them once. In Italy.

"They were staying at a hotel," Valli says. "So I gave 'em a call, and they invited me to come up. We hung out for about three or four hours."

The hits kept coming well into the '70s for Valli, as a solo artist ("Can't Take My Eyes off You," "My Eyes Adored You" and "Grease") and with the group -- "Let's Hang On!," "Who Loves You" and "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," which spent three weeks at No. 1 in 1976 and launched a comeback in the '90s, hitting No. 14 as a remix, a 40th Top 40 entry for Valli.

When his partner, Bob Gaudio, first brought in "December 1963," the words were different.

As Valli recalls, " 'December 1963' was a song that was written about Prohibition, and the day we were in the studio recording, we had a discussion and talked about the fact that kids would not relate to a song about Prohibition."

He laughs, then says, "We almost took the song off the date but the track was so strong, and I said to Bob, 'Before we do that, why don't you just rethink this and see if you can come up with something new and fresh that would fit within the time period that we're in right now.' And he came back with 'December 1963' and a guy's first experience. It was really amazing."

Valli quit the group a year later, vowing never to return, but he and Gaudio said, "Let's hang on to what we've got."

As Valli describes their partnership, "He hasn't been on the road in over 20 years, maybe 25 years. But he and I are still partners. We have a lot of projects together. We have a publishing company together. We own our masters together. We have a play right now that just closed in La Jolla, [Calif.], at the La Jolla Playhouse, about the life and times of the Four Seasons. It's called 'Jersey Boys,' and it just broke all records. They're getting it ready to go to Broadway."

Valli himself has done some acting, including four notable episodes of "The Sopranos," in a role he may reprise next season.

"There's a very strong possibility I might do three or four more," he says. "It's lot of fun, because it's really challenging. Acting, every time you do a part, it's different. It's not like a song where you sing it over and over again."

Not that Valli has a problem with singing over and over again. He may be recording an album of standards, his first love, but Valli still does "Sherry," "Rag Doll," "Grease" and any other hit that springs to mind within a half a second of hearing his name an average of 100 nights a year. And chances are, you'll hear your favorites if you make it to the Palace Theatre tonight.

"Most people expect us to do our hits, and that's what we do," he says. "It's like going to Billy Joel and he doesn't do 'Uptown Girl.' People get disappointed."

Anyhow, he says, it's not as though he doesn't still enjoy it.

"It's like asking, do you enjoy seeing your children over and over again?" he says. "Those songs have made so many people happy over the years, how could you not enjoy it?"

Asked if there are songs he might enjoy a little more than others, Valli says, "There are some songs I lean towards. 'I Can't Take My Eyes off You,' 'My Eyes Adored You' and 'Swearing to God.' But then I think, and I say, 'Well, geez, how could I not like 'Sherry' and 'Big Girls Don't Cry'? I mean, that was the beginning. It's like saying, 'Well, I like these three kids of mine, but the other four, I don't like that much."

There is a favorite part of his career, though. And it isn't what you'd think.

"I appreciate everything that's gone on in my career," he says, "but I think sometimes of the days before I had any success and I was working little clubs, and you could do whatever you wanted to do. You could change your material every single night, and it was acceptable. That was really a lot of fun for me. That's where I got the experience and the education, as far as a singer was concerned, and doing different kinds of material."