Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini is a pop song by Paul Vance (lyrics) and Lee Pockriss (music), made famous in 1960 by Brian Hyland . The million seller became an evergreen .
History of origin
Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss had been working as a professional team of authors with 349 and 517 titles respectively registered with ASCAP since 1957 . The background of the song is a true story. Copywriter Paul Vance had a two year old daughter who was playing on the beach in her yellow polka dot bikini for children . She inspired her father to hook the song on. Vance involved his authoring partner Lee Pockriss for the purpose of completion, had a demo recording made and offered the song to the music publisher George Pincus. The unusual title caught the attention of Dave Kapp, the record boss of the independent label Kapp Records . He had just signed 16-year-old high school student Brian Hyland for the Leader label .
Vance was skeptical about the performance of the proposed music producer Richard Wolfe and therefore took part with publisher Pincus in the recording session on June 6, 1960 with the John Dixon Orchestra. Vance criticized the production because, in his opinion, it was not oriented close enough to the demo recording, which producer Wolfe rejected. However, since there was still half an hour of recording time, Vance was able to prevail with a second take . Label boss Kapp initially thought the text was daring, but Vance was able to convince Kapp that a humorous text could not be risky.
text
The linguistic construction of the music track “Itsy Bitsy” is one of the slang reduplication rhymes and means “tiny, tiny”, derived from bit (“little”). “Teeny-weeny” also means “very small”, derived from weeny (“tiny”). " Polka dot " means "spotted" and has been in American usage since 1857. The polka dot pattern became fashionable in the US in 1926 when Miss America won in a polka dot swimsuit. On November 18, 1928, Walt Disney's cartoon character Minnie Mouse wore a polka dot dress in the short film Steamboat Willie , and it has been her trademark ever since.
The text tells the story of a girl who does not want to leave the changing room because then she would show her skimpy, yellow dotted bikini for the first time. After she found her way into the water anyway, she lacks the courage to get out of the water and even risks blue lips. Unusually at the end of the verse during an instrumental break the line spoken by Trudy Packer "(one), two, three, four, tell the people what she wore" (one, two, three, four, tell the people what she was wearing ). With this transition she prepares the listener for the next verse.
Publication and Success
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini / Don't Dilly Dally, Sally was first released as a single on the Kapp sub-label Leader (L # 805). In order to boost sales, it was distributed by the better-known parent label Kapp Records (# 342) from May 1960. On both labels was orthographically wrong shape "Polkadot" (dot pattern) selected. In the print media, however, the correct spelling “Polka Dot” soon caught on. After entering the US pop hit parade in July 1960, the Novelty Song reached number one for a week on August 8, 1960 and number 8 in Great Britain. It sold one million within two months, a total of over two million times and developed for the summer hit of 1960. The song triggered a sales boom for bikinis in the USA. In the film One, Two, Three by Billy Wilder , who in Germany had 1961 premiere on December 18, is used the song to one of Horst Buchholz played to torture alleged US spy by constantly auditioning the song by sleep deprivation and so to force a confession.
Cover versions
The song has been translated into 14 languages. Among the at least 86 cover versions are Paul Rich (July 1960) and Ronnie Cord, who released a Portuguese version under the title Biquíni de Bolinha Amarelinha Tão Pequenininho (LP Ronnie Cord , Copacabana CLP 11.164; October 1960).
In July 1960 Club Honolulu ( Caterina Valente and her brother Silvio Francesco ) recorded a version with a German text by Günter Loose under the title Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Honolulu-Strand-Bikini ; it sold over 250,000 times and also reached first place in the German charts. Jan & Kjeld also used this text in December 1960. The Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Honolulu beach bikini inspired the band Die Toten Hosen in 1987 to create a punk version on their album Never Mind The Hosen - Here's Die Roten Rosen .
Dalida was with the French version Itsi bitsi, petit bikini from December 12, 1960 for four weeks at number one in the French hit parade, published at the same time as Johnny Hallyday's cover (September 1960). The hit on Stars on 45 from May 1981 occurs within a medley . Bombalurina brought their version to first place in the British charts for three weeks (August 1990) and made him a million seller again.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Fred Bronson, The Billboard Book of Number One Hits , 1985, p. 72
- ↑ Life magazine of August 22, 1960, Nothing Itsy Bitsy About a Hit , p. 40
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 143
- ↑ Peter E. Berry, ... And The Hits Just Keep on Coming , 1977, p. 49
- ↑ Bikinis Exposed: Happy 60th Anniversary! Retrieved March 20, 2013 .
- ↑ Valerie Steele, The Berg Companion to Fashion , 2010, p. 78
- ↑ Der Musikmarkt, 30 Years of Singles Hit Parade , 1989, p. 11
- ↑ Club Honolulu - Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Honolulu Beach Bikini. Retrieved March 18, 2013 .