Bobby Vinton (born
Stanley Robert Vinton, Jr.; April 16, 1935) is an
American
pop music singer of Polish
origins.
Early life
Vinton is the
only child of a locally
popular
bandleader,
Stan Vinton. At 16, Vinton formed his first
band, which played clubs around the
Pittsburgh area.
With the money he earned, he helped finance
his college education at Duquesne University
, where he studied music and
graduated with a degree in musical composition. While at
Duquesne, he became proficient on all of the
instruments in the band:
piano,
clarinet,
saxophone,
trumpet,
drums and
oboe.
Vinton's birthplace of Canonsburg is also the birthplace of
Perry Como. His hometown named a street,
Bobby Vinton Boulevard, in his honor. Canonsburg town fathers had
plans to erect a statue in his honor, but Vinton vetoed the idea
noting that the $100,000 planned cost could go to far more
important town needs.
Career
1960s
After a two-year hitch in the
U.S. Army,where he served as a chaplain's
assistant, Vinton was signed to
Epic
Records in 1960 as a bandleader: "A Young Man With a Big Band."
Two albums and several singles were not successful however, and
with Epic ready to pull the plug, Vinton found his first hit
single literally sitting in a reject
pile. The song was titled "
Roses
Are Red ." It spent four weeks at
No.1 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Arguably, his most
famous song is 1963's "
Blue
Velvet", originally a minor hit for
Tony Bennett in 1951, that also went to
No.1. Twenty-three
years later,
David Lynch named his movie
Blue Velvet after the
song. In 1990, "Blue Velvet" climbed to the top of the music charts
in Great Britain, after being featured in a
Nivea commercial. In 1964, Vinton had two #1 hits,
"
There! I've Said It Again" (a #1 hit in
1945 for
Vaughn Monroe) and "
Mr. Lonely". Vinton wrote "
Mr. Lonely" during his service in the U.S. Army
in the late 1950s where he served as a Chaplain's Assistant. The
song was recorded during the same 1962 session that produced
"
Roses Are Red" and launched Vinton's
singing career. It was released as an album track on the 1962
"
Roses Are Red (and other
songs for the young & sentimental)" LP. Despite pressure from
Vinton to release it as a single, Epic instead had Buddy Greco
release it and it flopped. Two years and millions of records sold
later, Bobby prevailed on Epic to include "
Mr. Lonely" on his "
Bobby Vinton Greatest Hits" LP.
Soon DJ's picked up on the song and airplay resulted in demand for
a single release. "
Mr. Lonely" shot up
the charts in the winter of 1964 and reached #1 on the charts in
December 1964. Epic then released an LP "
Bobby Vinton Mr. Lonely", giving the
song a unique claim to fame since it now appeared on three Bobby
Vinton albums released within two years. The song has continued to
spin gold for its author in the 45 years since it hit #1. Harmony
Korrine named his 2007 film
Mister
Lonely after the latter, and it is now also the basis for
Akon's hit "
Lonely."
Vinton's version of "
There! I've Said It Again" is noteworthy
for being the final U.S. Billboard number one single of the
pre-
Beatles era; it was deposed from the top
of the Hot 100 by "
I Want to
Hold Your Hand." Also noteworthy is the fact that Vinton
continued to have big hit records during the
British Invasion, scoring 16 top ten hits,
while
Connie Francis,
Ricky Nelson, the
Shirelles and other major artists of the early
1960s struggled to reach even the Top 30.
In 1965, Vinton continued his "lonely" success streak with the self
written "
L-O-N-E-L-Y".
"Long Lonely Nights"peaked at #12 and spawned an
album, "
Bobby
Vinton Sings For Lonely Nights" Vinton's self written 1966 hit
"
Coming Home Soldier" was a
favorite on request shows on the
American Forces Network during the
Cold War and
Vietnam
Era, often called in by soldiers about to board the
Freedom Bird that would take them back to the
"Land of the Round Doorknobs." 1967 saw Vinton's lush remake of
"
Please Love Me Forever"
reach #6 and sell over a million copies. His 1968 hit "
I Love How You Love Me" surged to #7,
sold over one million copies and was awarded a
gold record by the
R.I.A.A.
1970s
In the 1970s, the "Polish Prince" continued to hit the Top 40,
notably with "
Ev'ry Day of My
Life" which peaked at #18 in January, and "
Sealed With a Kiss" hitting #14 in June,
1972. That same year, Epic Records decided to drop Vinton from his
contract (despite the notable success of these two hits), claiming
that his days of selling records were over. Undeterred, Vinton
spent $50,000 of his own money on a self-written song sung
partially in
My Melody of Love".
After Vinton was turned down by seven major labels,
ABC Records bought Vinton's idea, and the result
was a multi-million selling single that hit #2 on the
Cashbox Top 100 chart and #1 on the
AC charts in 1974. A gold
album,
Melodies of Love,
followed as well as more Top 40 pop hits ("
Beer Barrel Polka" and "
Dick And Jane" in 1975), a successful
half-hour variety show
The
Bobby Vinton Show (which aired from 1975 to 1978), which
used "My Melody of Love" as its theme song; ABC Records
subsequently released an album of songs performed on the show. In
1978, CBS TV aired "
Bobby
Vinton's Rock N' Rollers" a one hour special that achieved top
ratings. Earlier in the decade, he also starred in two
John Wayne movies:
Big Jake and
The
Train Robbers.
Honors and achievements
He owned,
and performed at, the Bobby Vinton Blue Velvet Theatre in Branson,
Missouri
until 2002,
when the theatre was sold to David King, creator and producer of
Spirit of the Dance.
Vinton returns to Branson annually for limited engagements at the
theatre.
Billboard Magazine called Bobby
Vinton "the all-time most successful love singer of the
'Rock-Era'". From 1962 through 1972, Vinton had more Billboard #1
hits than any other male vocalist, including
Elvis Presley and
Frank Sinatra.
In recognition of his recording career,
Bobby Vinton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6916 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal
Vinton and his wife Dolores "Dolly" Dobbins Vinton have been
married since
December 17,
1962, and they have five children: Robert, Kristin,
Christopher, Jennifer (who later changed her name legally to Hannah
after getting married) and Rebecca. His oldest son, Robbie Vinton,
played Vinton in the movie
Goodfellas (1990).
The Vintons make their
home in Englewood,
Florida
.
Discography
References
- Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult
Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications)
External links
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