#4: Petticoat White (Summer Sky Blue) ~ Bobby Vinton

City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: September 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #81
YouTube: “Petticoat White (Summer Sky Blue)”
Lyrics: “Petticoat White (Summer Sky Blue)”

Stanley Robert Vinton was born in 1935 in Canonsberg, Pennsylvania. His father was a bandleader, and the Polish surname was originally Vintula, and anglicized to Vinton. He was given a weekly 25-cent allowance as an incentive to learn the clarinet (about $4.25 in 2024 dollars). By the age of sixteen, Bobby Vinton had his own band in Pittsburgh. He got a degree in university in music composition, and learned to also play saxophone, piano, drums, trumpet and oboe. In the fall of 1959, Bobby Vinton wrote a song titled “First Impression” which became a Top 40 hit in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Syracuse (NY) and Flint (MI). In early 1960, Vinton had a Top 20 hit in Syracuse (NY) with “A Freshman And A Sophomore”. He served in the United States Army for two years and got a record deal late in 1960 on the Epic label.

Vinton closed the year with the release of his first studio album, a jazz-pop-big band set of tracks titled Dancing At The Hop. He released a half dozen singles between 1958 and 1961. But his big breakout record was “Roses Are Red (My Love)”, which spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July-August 1962. The record topped the pop charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and also South Africa. It was an international Top Ten hit in over fifteen nations.

Bobby Vinton released several more singles in 1962, including the Top 20 hit “Rain, Rain, Go Away” and Top 40 tune “Let’s Kiss And Make Up”. In 1963, Bobby Vinton continued to chart with a cover of the 1957 R&B hit by Johnnie and Joe “Over The Mountain (Across The Sea)”, the Burt Bacharach-Hal David tune “Blue On Blue”, and a cover of the 1951 Top 20 hit by Tony Bennett titled “Blue Velvet” (which Vinton took to number-one in September ’63).

In 1964, his cover of Vaughan Monroe’s number-one hit in 1945, “There I’ve Said It Again”, which also topped the charts for Vinton in January 1964. He remained in the Top Ten in 1964 with “My Heart Belongs To Only You”.

Vinton’s next release was “Mr. Lonely”, which topped the pop charts in Canada and the USA, #2 in New Zealand, #3 in South Africa, and #8 in Australia and Belgium.

In 1964, Bobby Vinton appeared in the teen flick Surf Party, along with Jackie DeShannon and the Routers.

In 1965, Bobby Vinton made a guest appearance on The Patty Duke Show. In 1966 Bobby Vinton released “Coming Home Soldier” (1966), and “Petticoat White (Summer Sky Blue)”.

“Petticoat White (Summer Sky Blue)” was co-written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. Jerome Solon Felder was born in Brooklyn in 1925. He contracted polio and walked with crutches in his youth. He eventually spent much of his adult life in a wheelchair. Felder wanted to become a blues singer and billed himself as Doc Pomus because he liked it better than Jerome Felder. He wrote magazine articles for R&B recording stars. He began songwriting and wrote “Lonely Avenue” for Ray Charles in 1956. Pomus had a big break when he co-wrote “Young Blood” for the Coasters, together with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The single climbed to #8 on the Billboard pop chart in 1957. In addition to the songs mentioned above that Doc Pomus co-wrote with Mort Shuman, he also wrote “She’s Not You” for Elvis Presley and “Don’t Try To Change Me” for the Crickets.

With lag irons and a wheelchair, Doc Pomus gained a lot of weight. But he was the life of the party. He spent a quarter of a million dollars in earnings by 1963 and his wife left him for a career on the stage. In a review of Alex Halberstadt’s Lonely Avenue: the Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus, Christopher Hawtree writes that after his wife left, “Another young woman, Shirlee, came along, stayed – and shied as much from a gun-waving Phil Spector (who gave the grateful Pomus a blank cheque) as she did from the homespun gamblers with whom Pomus augmented funds. Such sessions ended when the Mob moved in, one participant ending up in the East River. Another friend’s death inspired Looking for Mr Goodbar.” Doc Pomus died of lung cancer at the age of 65 in 1991.

Mortimer Shuman was born in Brooklyn in 1938. Teaming up with Doc Pomus in 1957, they cowrote “Turn Me Loose” for Fabian; “A Teenager In Love” for Dion and the Belmonts, “Hushabye” for the Mystics, “Go, Jimmy, Go” for Jimmy Clanton; “This Magic Moment”, “Sweets For My Sweet” and Save The Last Dance For Me” for the Drifters; “Surrender”, “Little Sister”, “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame”, and “Suspicion” for Elvis Presley; and “Can’t Get Used To Losing You” for Andy Williams. In the mid-60s Shuman wrote “She La La La Lee” for the Small Faces. He died of cancer in 1991 at the age of 52.

“Petticoat White..” is a song about impressions from early dating in a relationship that leads to marriage. The boyfriend recalls his date’s appearance in “petticoat white and summer sky blue.” A petticoat is a girl’s or woman’s undergarment, worn under a dress or skirt, that is often full and trimmed with ruffles or lace. Despite the innocence of the song, the guy has focused his attention on the girl’s undergarment. This has plausibly led to a making out, as the “first kiss” made a big impression. In any event, the song ends with a happy ending as she walks down the aisle in petticoat white and summer sky blue.

“Petticoat White (Summer Sky Blue)” peaked at #3 in St. John’s (NL), 12 in Boise (ID), and #17 in Kalamazoo (MI). The song stalled at #81 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1967, Vinton had a hit with his cover of Tommy Edward’s 1958 tune “Please Love Me Forever”. And in 1968, Vinton  covered the Paris Sisters’ 1961 hit “I Love How You Love Me”. In 1972, Bobby Vinton successfully covered the 1962 hit by Brian Hyland, “Sealed With A Kiss”. It peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on CHUM in Toronto.

His last notable hit was in 1975 with the English-Polish recording of “My Melody Of Love”. As a result of that song, he was nicknamed “the Polish Prince”. The song became his theme-song on The Bobby Vinton Show on CTV in Canada from 1975 to 1978.  In 1978, Bobby Vinton published his autobiography titled The Polish Prince.

In film, Bobby Vinton appeared alongside John Wayne in Big Jake (1971) and The Train Robbers (1973). In the late 1970s, Canonsburg built and named two streets after Bobby Vinton: Bobby Vinton Boulevard and the shorter adjoining Bobby Vinton Drive, in his honor. He was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1990, Bobby Vinton’s 1963 recording of “Blue Velvet” became a #2 hit on the UK Pop Singles chart. Between 1961 and 1998, Bobby Vinton released nearly forty studio albums.

Between 1960 and 2014, Bobby Vinton made 30 appearances in concert in Canada. Most of these were in Windsor (ON), Toronto and Montreal. Vinton also performed in Saskatoon (1963), Ottawa (1971), and St Catharines (ON) and Orillia (ON), both in 2014. In 2015, at the age of 80, Bobby Vinton retired from performing.

May 1, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Vinton enjoys career as multi-talented performer,” Portsmouth Daily Times, Portsmouth (NH), August 5, 1990.
“Bobby Vinton – concert dates – Canada,” setlist.fm.
Trailer, “Surf Party,” Twentieth Century-Fox, 1964.
“Patty and the Newspaper Game,” The Patty Duke Show, February 3, 1965. (Guest star: Bobby Vinton)
“Doc Pomus Biography,” Felder Pomus.com.
“Mort Shuman Dies 52; Devotee of Jacques Brel,” New York Times, November 4, 1991.
Christopher Hawtree, “The Last Dance of Doc Pomus,” Telegraph, UK, August 16, 2007.

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