Donald Joseph Ciccone (February 28, 1946 – October 8, 2016)[1][2][3] was an American singer, songwriter and musician. He was a founding member of the pop group the Critters, singing their biggest hits "Younger Girl" and "Mr. Dieingly Sad". The latter he wrote about his girlfriend Kathy Cobb before he entered the Air Force during the time of the Vietnam War. Cobb later became his wife. When the Critters' first album started to take off, Ciccone was in the Air Force and the band had to tour without him. This is why many videos on YouTube do not feature him, but instead have Ken Gorka lip-syncing Ciccone's part.[4]
Ciccone was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on February 28, 1946. He was the son of an immigrant father, Vito Ciccone, who owned and operated Bill Williams Auto Sales in the 1950s. From the age of 5, Ciccone grew up in a 56-room mansion in Plainfield, New Jersey.
During his time with the Critters, he wrote "Mr. Dieingly Sad", produced by Artie Ripp, which reached #17 for the group. He also wrote and recorded "There's Got to be a Word",[5] which was later recorded and released by the Innocence in December 1966. Their version reached #34 on the charts. Facing the threat of being drafted into the Armed Forces, Ciccone left The Critters to enlist in the United States Air Force.[6]
After Ciccone's time in the service, Frankie Valli recruited him to join a revamped lineup of The Four Seasons, where he played guitar and bass and contributed lead vocals to songs including "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" and "Rhapsody".[7] Ciccone was the original lead singer on the Seasons' comeback hit "Who Loves You" before Valli, who was overseas during the original recording, refused to relinquish his role as lead vocalist and replaced most of Ciccone's vocal with his own.[6] After leaving the Four Seasons in 1981, he spent time running a commercial jingle business.[6] He joined Tommy James and the Shondells as their bassist through 1987.[8]
In the early 2010s, Ciccone, at the time performing with a partially re-formed Critters lineup, suggested to his former Four Seasons bandmate Lee Shapiro that they assemble a supergroup consisting of musicians assembled from other bands. Ciccone recruited his Critters bandmate Jimmy Ryan to join Shapiro and Gerry Polci (partially capitalizing on the Jersey Boys resurgence in the Four Seasons' popularity) to form The Hit Men, a group that continues several years after Ciccone died with Shapiro as its manager.[9][6][10]
Ciccone, who was a long time resident of Ridgewood, New Jersey and Port Saint Lucie, Florida had moved to Sun Valley, Idaho, a few years before he died of a heart attack on October 8, 2016, in adjacent Ketchum at the age of 70.[11]
