He met Michael Wayne's wife, Gretchen Wayne (aka Gretchen Diebel), on the set of the John Wayne film The Alamo (1960), in which he had a part. Four years later he married beauty pageant winner Kathryn Diebel, Gretchen's sister. So he is part of the extended John Wayne family.
Due to the popularity of Grease (1978) and its soundtrack, he considers "Beauty School Dropout" to be his most popular song.
He and his wife have eight children and they are, in order of age, Frank Burt Avalon,
Tony, Dina, Laura, Joseph, Nicolas, Kathryn and Carla.
He had the last #1 hit of the 1950s with the ballad, "Why," the shortest title of any chart-topping song (as of 2018). In January 1960, "Why" was bumped from the #1 spot by singer Marty Robbins' "El Paso", the first #1 hit of the 1960s.