SIX DEGREES OF KISS: FRANKIE VALLI

Rodney Dickson I accept your challenge and will connect Frankie Valli to KISS in six steps or less.

Frankie Valli is an Italian-American singer from New Jersey who is probably most famous for his ludicrous falsetto voice. His group The Four Seasons had thirteen top ten hit singles in the sixties. How am I going to connect a Jersey Boy to KISS in six steps or less? Like this:

1. Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons had a number one hit in 1963 with a song called "Walk Like a Man."

2. A cover of "Walk Like a Man" was released as a single by iconic drag queen Divine in 1985.

3. Divine starred in many John Waters films in the seventies and eighties including the 1988 film Hairspray which also featured veteran comedian Jerry Stiller (who would later portray George Costanza's father on Seinfeld).

4. Jerry Stiller's son Ben Stiller was a featured player in Wes Anderson's excellent 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums.

5. Wes Anderson's first film (and my favorite movie ever) is called Bottle Rocket and features the song "2000 Man" by The Rolling Stones prominently in a climactic scene. Here's legendary director Martin Scorsese's take on the interplay between song and scene in the film:

"I love the scene in Bottle Rocket when Owen Wilson’s character, Dignan, says, “They’ll never catch me, man, ’cause I’m fuckin’ innocent.” Then he runs off to save one of his partners in crime and gets captured by the police, over “2000 Man” by the Rolling Stones. He and the music are proclaiming who he really is: he’s not innocent in the eyes of the law, but he’s truly an innocent. For me, it’s a transcendent moment. And transcendent moments are in short supply these days."

Now watch:

6. The song "2000 Man" was wonderfully transformed by Ace Frehley and KISS for the 1979 album Dynasty. 

And there you have it: