For Bobby Vinton, old big-band sound is new again

By Jerry Fink

Thursday, June 11, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Bobby Vinton a rap star?

“Roses Are Red” Bobby Vinton? “Sealed With a Kiss” Bobby Vinton? That Bobby Vinton? A rap artist?

Senegalese singer Akon found something hip-hop in Vinton’s 1964 No. 1 hit “Mr. Lonely.” The producer sped up Vinton’s original (making him sound like one of the Chipmunks), and then Akon rapped and sang the original verses, turning “Lonely” into an international hit last year.

“My music has surfaced in a lot of different areas,” the 74-year-old pop star of the ’60s and ’70s says from his home on a beach in Englewood, Fla.

Sometimes a Vinton song pops up in a movie. In 1990 his son, Robbie, portrayed him in “Goodfellas,” singing “Roses Are Red.” His 1963 hit “Blue Velvet” was in David Lynch’s 1986 film noir “Blue Velvet.”

“In fact, David Lynch was in my dressing room at the New Frontier working on the script. He wanted me to be in the movie and I said nah. I had no idea it was going to be such a big hit,” says Vinton, who will perform Saturday at the Cannery in North Las Vegas.

He asked Lynch why he wanted to use “Blue Velvet.” “Because the subject matter is perversion and if I use a rock band it won’t shock anybody, but if I use the sweet voice of Bobby Vinton and go into perversion it’s going to shock people.”

Vinton was a huge success early in his career.

“According to Billboard magazine, in 1963 I was played more on the radio than any other artist,” Vinton says. “Bobby Vinton was No. 1, Frank Sinatra No. 2 and Elvis Presley No. 3.”

He had a knack for picking good songs that fans wanted to hear.

“I’ve been a musician all my life,” Vinton says. “My father had a big band. When I was 15 years old, I was playing big-band music. When I went to college I majored on the oboe and played with the Pittsburgh Symphony in a concert one time. So I always knew good music.

“In fact, in the early ’60s Dick Clark hired me to go on his tours and back up people like Connie Francis and Brenda Lee and Fabian and Frankie Avalon. All these early ’60s stars, when they would go on tour, they needed a band. I was able to arrange their hits for the big-band sounds. So I only knew big-band sounds. I only knew No. 1 records. I heard these kids screaming, heard these singers singing the hits of the day, so I had a flair and I knew what was happening out there because I traveled the country as a band leader. That’s the reason I could pick the right songs.”

Vinton has been performing in Vegas since he made it big in the ’60s, playing here enough to buy a house formerly owned by Harry James and Betty Grable.

“I performed there 20 weeks a year, bouncing from one place to another,” Vinton says. “I loved Vegas in those days. It was not as congested as it is now. That’s the Vegas I know and love.”

After Vegas, Vinton spent 10 years in Branson, Mo., where he owned the Blue Velvet theater.

“Branson was a nice city, but it overgrew,” he says. “Like any successful place, they want to make changes. Sometimes going with the times, you lose the little bit of magic that attracted people to the place originally.”

So he sold the theater and moved to Florida.

“It’s a pleasure for me to go to the Cannery. All I do is walk in. The band is there. I don’t have to worry about lawsuits or people complaining they aren’t making enough money, all the problems that go with owning a theater. It’s nice to not have to worry about it. I’m back to just showing up and singing and feeling good,” he says.

Vinton says he does what he has done for 40 years.

“I do my Vegas act around the country and it’s almost new and different. Today nobody really does that type of entertainment — with a big band, playing all the instruments, the comedy and the showmanship. What Vegas used to be. It’s almost a new thing. It’s like fresh and new and different because most acts today are videos and smoke and four guitars. My show is refreshing.”

Vinton no longer concerns himself with writing hits.

“The music business has changed,” he says. “When I was making my hits I was part of what was happening. I was thinking the music of the day. But the music is different today. The audience wants something different. I don’t know what that is and I don’t want to frustrate myself. I had my decade of hits. For me to try to do that today, I would be kidding myself. I would rather enjoy life. I wish I could have a No. 1 record, but that will never happen again.”