With the fifth anniversary celebration of Jersey Boys currently taking place in New York, Danielle Gaudio-Lalehzar, Four Seasons’ founding member and songwriter Bob Gaudio’s daughter, continues to celebrate her two year-old CD project Jersey Babys–The Music Of Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons For Kids.

The disc passed down Gaudio-Lalehzar’s father’s music to her own children in enchanting instrumental versions produced by Gaudio himself along with keyboards programmer Robby Robinson, Frankie Valli’s longtime music director.

“When my kids were younger there was a Beatles For Babies CD that was just amazing,” recalls Gaudio-Lalehzar. “So I said to Dad, ‘I’d love to have that with your music.’ There’s a lot of children’s music out there that isn’t done very well, and having been around music my whole life–and my dad!–I know something good when I hear it.”

Her father’s involvement, along with Robinson’s, made Jersey Babys “so much more special,” she notes. “I had high expectations because the Beatles CD had been done so well, and when it was finished I was seriously blown away! They put in so many special things in each song that it came out better than I imagined. And my brother Shannon Gaudio designed the artwork, which made it special, too.”

Gaudio-Lalehzar was born in 1966, “when my dad was still touring,” she recalls. “I remember seeing him on stage and sitting off to the sides with my sister.”

She worked as a jewelry buyer at Fortunoff, but left retail when her two kids started school. The Long Island resident has since been doing “odds and ends” long distance for her Nashville-based father.

“He gets bombarded with things now, but he’s such a normal person–so humble,” she says. “I always say my dad is like this well-kept secret: He has such a great personality and is so funny, and talks so well–which he does more often now because of Jersey Boys. But what makes me so proud of him as an adult is with everything he’s been through, he’s a normal, grounded person, who lives his life so even-keeled.”

Gaudio-Lalehzar knows that “the way things are today in the music business as far as getting music out there, you have to be out and performing your own music for it to be extremely successful,” she says. “Four Seasons’ fans love [Jersey Babys] but you don’t need to be a fan to love the music–as Jersey Boys has shown. I probably don’t do what I should to promote it, but with the Jersey Boys movie being made and coming out there are all these different ways for people to find out about the music from top to bottom.”

She notes that Four Seasons music has been featured on Dancing With The Stars, and that Jersey Babys is also available through iTunes. So she’s especially happy that younger generations are discovering her father’s music “and becoming aware of songs that have been around so long,” she adds.

“But it’s really a personal accomplishment for me because it’s something I wanted for myself,” she says. “Music today is so different than what it was, and the Four Seasons’ was such innocent music that everybody can enjoy. I’m sure there’s a lot more I could do, but the project is there and the music is never going out of style.”

And while it’s geared for babies, Jersey Babys, which also includes Gaudio’s 1958 hit “Short Shorts” (which he performed with the Royal Teens when he was 15), works “for all ages,” Guadio-Lalehzar insists.

“Hearing my dad’s music in different arrangements–and just the melodies without the lyrics–you get to feel the emotions it brings,” she says. “It can make you happy, content, calm, relaxed. When I heard [the Four Seasons' 1964 No. 1 hit] ‘Rag Doll,’ it made me cry! And he was so young when he wrote the songs, and they’re all so different! I appreciated his talent so much more.”

Unfortunately, she adds, “I didn’t inherit those talents! I just hope my children did.”

Jim Bessman