Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet” for a Blue Album
"Blue Velvet" is a still and always popular romantic song whose best known version is the one made by Bobby Vinton. The song was written and composed in 1950 by Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris. Bernie Wayne wrote over 1,000 songs and music for commercial jingles but he was best known for "Blue Velvet". By the way, another notable production of Bernie Wayne was the soundtrack of the 1964 movie "Zorba the Greek". "Blue Velvet" became a minor hit by Tony Bennett in 1951 and in 1955 by the R&B group The Clovers. Since then it has been re-recorded many times, with the 1963 version by Bobby Vinton reaching No. 1.
By 1963, Bobby Vinton was quite well known, mainly for his Top 1 hit "Roses Are Red (My Love)". Bobby Vinton did a really original promotion campaign for it: he bought one thousand copies and hired a young woman to deliver a copy of the record and a dozen red roses to every local DJ.
In the summer of 1963, Bobby Vinton was compiling his sixth studio album for his latest hit, "Blue on Blue" and was looking for songs with "blue" in its title. The one he really liked was "Am I Blue". His publisher and friend Al Gallico suggested "Blue Velvet" as a track and sent his secretary with a dollar to a music store to purchase the song's sheet music. Vinton never expected this song to be a hit but liked the idea to incorporate it to his “blue” album and an hour later had recorded it in two takes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn8vK1NMK5g
Other cover versions included were the jazz songs "St. Louis Blues" and "Blueberry Hill", "Am I Blue", "Blue, Blue Day", The Fleetwoods' hit "Mr. Blue", "My Blue Heaven" and three show tunes ("Blue Skies", "Blue Hawaii" and "Blue Moon"). The complete track listing of the original "Blue on Blue" album is:
Side 1
1. "Blue on Blue"
2. "Am I Blue"
3. "Blue, Blue Day"
4. "Mr. Blue"
5. "Blue Velvet"
6. "St. Louis Blues"
Side 2
1. "Blue Skies"
2. "Blue Hawaii"
3. "Blue Moon"
4. "Little Miss Blue"
5. "Blueberry Hill"
6. "My Blue Heaven"
When "Blue Velvet" became a hit, the album's title was changed, with it being the title track. After the title change, the album managed to enter the Billboard 200 list of popular albums reaching #10. On 21 September 1963 Vinton's version of "Blue Velvet" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, remained at No. 1 for the subsequent two weeks and it became his all-time most popular song.
Vinton's recording failed to make the British charts when originally released. 27 years later, in 1990 it was used as the jingle of a Nivea commercial and consequently was included as the B-side of a single, reaching No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart.
By the way, even if it sounds strange, Bobby Vinton NEVER recorded a cover of "Red Roses for a Blue Lady". You may happen to have one in your discography or you may find the title attributed to Bobby Vinton in some mp3 download sites but if you check, most probably it will be the original, recorded by Vic Dana or the excellent cover by Wayne Newton! The mismatch probably was made by some P2P uploader wanting to be "original".
Another romantic song with a version frequently and erroneously attributed to Bobby Vinton is the “The Most Beautiful Girl” by Charlie Rich. Bobby Vinton did record "The Most Beautiful Girl" but it is kind of a "parody". The romantic original by Charlie Rich starts as:
Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world?
And if you did, was she crying, crying?
The real Bobby Vinton remake is in a “polka” rhythm and starts:
Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world?
And if you did, was she Polish, Polish?
Check your version!