Bobby Vinton

Stanley Robert Vinton born April 16 1935 is an American pop music singer At 16 Vinton formed his first band which played clubs around the Pittsburgh area With the money he earned Vinton 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 After a brief spell in the US Army 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 My Love It spent four weeks at No1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Arguably his most famous song is 1963s Blue Velvet that also went to No1 23 years later David Lynch named his movie Blue Velvet after the song In 1964 Vinton had two 1 hits There Ive Said It Again and Mr Lonely the latter now being the basis for Akons hit Lonely