It’s July, 1960. Brian Hyland, a 16-year old kid from Queens, finds himself backstage on a hot Saturday night in the Little Theater at 240 West 44th Street in Manhattan. Hyland, wearing cut-off clam diggers and a slick pompadour, is waiting to be introduced for “Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Beechnut Show” on ABC television.
Clark is sitting in the audience holding a microphone. “The song about the bikini, depending on how you look at it, is either the hottest or coolest record in the country,” Clark says. “It’s the biggest thing right now. A very handsome young man does it – you know, Brain Hyland.”
Girls in the audience scream. The curtain goes up and Hyland looks at the camera and sings:
She was afraid to come out of the locker
she was as nervous as she could be
she was afraid to come out of the locker
she was afraid that somebody would see
Two three four
tell the people what she wore
It was an Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
that she wore for the first time today
an Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
so in the locker she wanted to stay
Watch the clip below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge9Ou3-YyqU
Flash forward to the summer of 2014. Brian Hyland will appear Thursday Aug. 28 for two shows at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. in Katie Belle’s at Spanish Springs Town Square. Doo-wop singer Tommy Mara is also on the bill along with the band, Rocky and the Rollers.
Hyland might have gone down as a one-hit wonder. But here he is more than a half-century after “the bikini song,” still touring and still singing. Thanks to his tenacity and willingness to grow as a singer and performer, Brian Hyland is still going strong.
“After that record came out, anyone who had a novelty song was trying to get me to sing it,” Hyland said in a telephone interview. “I must have had dozens of offers to do novelty songs. I wanted to do something else. I was hip to the songs they wanted me to do with no melody and no meaning.”
Hyland found a couple of songwriters named Gary Geld and Peter Udell. He scored a hit in 1962 with a slow song with smooth harmony called “Ginny Come Lately.” It had a touch of the Everly Brothers sound and that wasn’t an accident. “I learned to sing harmony by listening to the Everly Brothers,” Hyland said.
He grew up in a family with 6 brothers and one sister. He and his brother often would sing Everly Brothers’ songs. Other influences included Jackie Wilson, Elvis and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.
“When I was a kid I used to go the rock and roll shows in New York City,” Hyland said. “I loved them all, especially Frankie Lymon. He was so young – just like me – but he was already a rock and roll star. If he could do it, I wanted to do it.”
In 1962, Hyland scored his second top ten hit, “Sealed With A Kiss.” This was a haunting love song brimming with melancholy. Hyland delivers the vocal with just the right blend of angst and longing. That was his second classic.
“Making records was a lot different in those days,” Hyland said. “These days, artists and producers think about making albums and downloads. Back then, all we cared about was the single. You wanted to make one record that would sell and you wanted it to be a masterpiece.”
Although he was still a teenager, Hyland was a major draw and toured with the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. That meant jumping on and off busses and doing about 60 shows in two months. It was grueling, hard work.
“But for me, it was like going to rock and roll school,” Hyland said. “I worked with people like Jackie Wilson, Jerry Lee Lewis and Etta James. You would be on a bus all night. Then you had to go out and perform. You grow up in a hurry in this business. You have to.”
By 1964, Hyland was moving into a country and folk sound. But the Beatles came along and the British invasion of bands knocked many American rockers and pop stars off the charts.
Once again, people were ready to write Hyland off but he came back. He teamed with famed producer Snuff Garrett and session musicians such as J.J. Cale and Leon Russell. The result included a couple up-tempo rockers that turned major hits, “The Joker Went Wild” and “Run, Run, Look and See.”
It brought more respectability.
“In the years after his teen idol stature faded, he enjoyed a creative renaissance…” rock critic Jason Ankeny wrote.
Hyland kept going after the 60s ended. In 1970, he made one of his biggest hits, “Gypsy Woman,” written by Curtis Mayfield. The song was produced by rocker Del Shannon. Hyland’s inspired soft, vocal turned it into a shimmering pop classic.
“Del and I had been in the studio doing other songs,” Hyland said. “We weren’t planning on ‘Gypsy Woman,’ being the big hit, but as soon as we heard it, we knew it would work. It had a mysterious quality to it, that I really like.”
It sold over a million copies and one day, Hyland ran into Curtis Mayfield backstage at a concert. “He said, ‘Hey Brian, thanks for Gypsy Woman. You bought me a Cadillac.’”
Hyland has played The Villages before and praised the resident’s knowledge and passion for music. “It’s also great to play with a band like Rocky and the Rollers. They know this music and they know how much it means to people. And they’re great musicians.”
The band includes leader Gerry “Rocky” Seader, Bruce Wallace, Al Layton, Jimmy Miller, Bruce Nardi and singer Al Morse. The band is bringing Hyland here and often does so with doo-wop and oldies shows. “It’s our way of keeping this original music alive,” Seader said.
Hyland has kept his career alive but the one song people remember is about the bikini. Over the years it has appeared in movies such as Billy Wilder’s “One Two Three” and also “Sister Act 2” and “Revenge of the Nerds II.” Devo even recorded a spaced out cover the song. The tune was also used in a Yoplait yogurt commercial.
The bikini song will go on, just like Brian Hyland.
