Bobby Vinton loves The Villages almost as much sauerkraut pierogies.
“I’m a Polish boy who grew up near Pittsburgh; I’ll always love Polish food,” Vinton said in a telephone interview. “I keep a microwave in my dressing room in case my fans bring me sauerkraut pierogies.” For Vinton’s non-Polish fans, a pierogi is like a dumpling filled with sauerkraut.
And what about The Villages, where Vinton plays two shows on Nov. 18-19 at 7 p.m. in the Savannah Center?
“No kidding, I love The Villages,” said Vinton who first gained fame in the 1960s with such songs as “Blue Velvet,” “Roses Are Red” and “Mr. Lonely.” The Villages has, “great restaurants; the people are nice – and everybody is old enough to know my music,” he said with a laugh.
Vinton lives in Florida and said it only takes him a couple of hours to drive to The Villages. “I never knew what The Villages was all about until I played there. Now I come back at least once a year and I bring my wife (Dolly). She loves it, too.”
This year, Vinton performs here during the holiday season and his story might be called, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Like the theme to the famed Christmas movie, Vinton understands and appreciates the joy of living.
“There is a God and I’ve been so blessed,” Vinton, 79, said. “I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been and how wonderful my life has been. I was just a Polish kid from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and all I ever wanted to do was be in a big band. Look what happened.”
It all started when Vinton was just a teenager. He played in and conducted various big bands in his hometown area. “I wanted to be the teenage Glenn Miller,” said Vinton, whose father, Stan, had a successful local band.
Eventually Bobby Vinton moved on to lead the orchestra for the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars that toured the country. By arranging and playing for the young singers on that show, Vinton came to understand, “what makes a hit record. I knew what the public wanted and I knew what teenagers wanted.”
His record company gave him one last chance to release a single, or they were going to dump him.
Finally, in the summer of 1962 Vinton released “Roses Are Red” on Epic Records. It soon became a No. 1 record. For the next decade, Vinton produced such hits as, “There I’ve Said It Again,” “Blue Velvet” “Please Love Me Forever,” “Long Lonely Nights” and “Coming Home Soldier.”
By the mid-‘70s the big hits stopped coming but that would all change thanks to Vinton’s mother.
“I came home from a tour in Italy and I made a record in Italian,” Vinton said. “My mom was in the audience and I sang it, but she seemed upset. She was pouting.
“I said, ‘Mom, what’s wrong?’
“She said, ‘How come you can make a record in Italian but you can’t make a Polish record?’
“I said, ‘Mom, they don’t make Polish hit records.’
“Well, why don’t you try and make one?’”
So, in 1974, Vinton released “My Melody of Love.” To see and hear it go tohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5E6sS21Xirs
The song sold millions of records and reached the top of the charts. Vinton soon landed a syndicated television show and was back on top again. “All thanks to my mom,” he said.
Just when you think Vinton’s career has slowed down he has a way or roaring back. It happened again in 1986 when director David Lynch released the hit film, “Blue Velvet,” named after Vinton’s song.
“David Lynch came to Las Vegas and spent a lot of time with me,” Vinton said. “He wrote a lot of the movie in my dressing room. He wanted me to be in the movie, I was supposed to play a detective.”
But Vinton was a bit leery of being in Lynch’s film. “Listen, this guy wasn’t exactly Cecil B. DeMille,” Vinton said. The film is hard to describe but it might be called a surrealistic murder mystery, with evil and violence thrown in for good measure.
It became a smash and people all over the world rediscovered Bobby Vinton and his hit single. “But that movie was a little strange for some people,” Vinton said. “Some of my fans saw it and walked out. They said, ‘Bobby, how could you put your song in a film like that?’ I told them, it’s just a film and the music is still good.”
Vinton took a trip to England while the movie was out, and the song reached No. 1 on the British music charts. In the mid ‘80s, Bobby Vinton was right up there with Michael Jackson, Madonna and David Bowie when it came to selling records in the UK.
“It was wild,” Vinton said. “Everywhere we went in England, people were playing that song.”
Movies were nothing new for Vinton. Another one of his songs, “Roses Are Red” was in the hit film, “Goodfellas.” Vinton also appeared in a couple of John Wayne films, “Big Jake” and “The Train Robbers.” He became close to John Wayne.
“He was the greatest,” Vinton said of Wayne. “It’s still feels strange to say this, but I was close friends with John Wayne – the Duke. That means so much to me. He would come to my house for dinner. We would hang out together. Do you know how cool it is to walk into a department store with John Wayne? Wow.”
Like Wayne, Bobby Vinton’s career just keeps going. He built a theater in Branson, Mo., and entertained there on a regular basis. His music is still reaching new listeners. A few years ago a rapper named Akon sampled Vinton’s song “Mr. Lonely” on a single called “Lonely.” Vinton said he “listened to song, but I couldn’t really understand it. My daughter told it was a big hit. Maybe I’ll make a Polish rap record some day.”
These days Vinton picks and choses select concert dates like the ones in The Villages.
“I don’t have to work anymore, but I’ve got to keep working,” Vinton said. “Music and entertaining has always been a big part of my life. I love singing the old songs because they hold up so well.”
Just like Bobby Vinton.
