Brian Hyland

Biography

Brian Hyland (born November 12, 1943) is an American pop singer and instrumentalist who was particularly successful during the early 1960s. He had a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini×Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot BikiniJune 1960 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAItsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot BikiniBDon't Dilly Dally, Sally" in 1960. Other hits include "Sealed with a Kiss×Sealed With a Kiss1962 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Bye Bye Love2:37A2Let Me Belong to You3:04A3The Night I Cried2:46A4Are You Lonesome Tonight2:41A5I Should Be Gettin’ Better2:27A6Ginny Come Lately2:44B1Love Me Tender2:56B2Sealed With a Kiss2:37B3It Ain’t That Way at All2:19B4Summer Job1:48B5I’ll Never Stop Wanting You2:32B6Walk a Lonely Mile2:28" and "Gypsy Woman", which both reached No. 3. Hyland continued recording into the 1970s. AllMusic journalist Jason Ankeny said: "Hyland's puppy-love pop virtually defined the sound and sensibility of bubblegum during the pre-Beatles era." Although his status as a teen idol faded, he went on to release several country-influenced albums and had additional chart hits later in his career.

Biography

Hyland was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York City. He studied guitar and clarinet as a child and sang in his church choir. At 14, he co-founded the harmony group the Del-Fi's, which recorded a demo but failed to secure a recording contract. Hyland was eventually signed by Kapp Records as a solo artist and released his debut single, "Rosemary", in late 1959. The label employed the Brill Building songwriting duo of Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance to work with Hyland on the follow-up, "Four Little Heels (The Clickety Clack Song)", which was a minor hit, and the songwriting duo continued to work with Hyland.
In August 1960, at the age of 16, Hyland scored his first and biggest hit single, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini", written by Vance and Pockriss. It was a novelty song that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (No. 8 in the UK) and sold almost a million copies in the first two months of its release and over two million copies in total.

Hyland moved on to ABC-Paramount Records, where he began working with the songwriting and production team of Gary Geld and Peter Udell, and further hits followed with "Let Me Belong to You×Let Me Belong to You1961 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Are You Lonesome Tonight2:492I’m Sorry2:343Night I Cried2:474Bye Bye Love2:405Ain’t That Way at All2:216Let Me Belong to You3:067I’ll Never Stop Wanting You2:388Lonely Weekends2:059All Shook Up2:0610Love Me Tender2:5811Walk a Lonely Mile2:32" and "I'll Never Stop Wanting You". In 1961, aged 17, he appeared as himself on the March 6 episode of the game show To Tell the Truth. He received three votes.
His other major hit during this period was 1962's "Sealed with a Kiss×Sealed With a Kiss1962 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Bye Bye Love2:37A2Let Me Belong to You3:04A3The Night I Cried2:46A4Are You Lonesome Tonight2:41A5I Should Be Gettin’ Better2:27A6Ginny Come Lately2:44B1Love Me Tender2:56B2Sealed With a Kiss2:37B3It Ain’t That Way at All2:19B4Summer Job1:48B5I’ll Never Stop Wanting You2:32B6Walk a Lonely Mile2:28", which reached No. 3 in 1962 on both the American and UK Singles Chart. Another 1962 hit was "Ginny Come Lately", which reached No. 21 on the U.S. chart and No. 5 in the UK. Hyland's 1962 Top 30 hit "Warmed-Over Kisses (Leftover Love)" incorporated elements of country music; he continued in that crossover vein with singles including "I May Not Live to See Tomorrow" and "I'm Afraid to Go Home×I'm Afraid To Go Home30 June 1963 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1I'm Afraid To Go Home2:382Save Your Heart For Me2:05" and on the 1964 album Country Meets Folk×Country Meets Folk1964 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Act Naturally2:42A2Don't Think Twice, It's All Right2:35A3Folsom Prison2:53A4The Blizzard4:03A5If I Had a Hammer2:02A6Jamaica Farewell2:47B1Candy Man2:10B2Baby, What You Want Me to Do2:58B3Give My Love to Rose3:20B4Green Green2:40B5Open Pit Mine3:18B6Greenback Dollar2:59. This approach was out of step with the changes in the pop music market brought about by British Invasion bands. Hyland's commercial success declined, but he had further hits with "The Joker Went Wild" and "Run, Run, Look and See", working with producer Snuff Garrett and session musicians including J. J. Cale and Leon Russell.
Hyland appeared on national television programs such as American Bandstand and The Jackie Gleason Show and toured both internationally and around America with Dick Clark in the Caravan of Stars. The caravan was in Dallas, Texas, on the day of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. In response to the event, Hyland wrote the song "Mail Order Gun", which he recorded and eventually released on his 1970 eponymous album.
From 1963 through 1969, Hyland scored several minor hits, but none reached higher on the U.S. pop chart than No. 20 ("The Joker Went Wild"). An album released in 1964 featured numbers that hearkened back to the 1950s, including such hits as "Pledging My Love" and "Moments to Remember"—at a time when The Beatles and other British Invasion acts were drowning out American artists. Hyland afterward shifted into a phase of recording country and folk rock styles. Songs such as "I'm Afraid to Go Home" and "Two Brothers" had an American Civil War theme. Hyland played the harmonica on a few numbers.
Hyland attempted several departures from the norm, including the psychedelic single "Get the Message" (No. 91 on the U.S. pop chart) and "Holiday for Clowns" (No. 94), but despite their more contemporary arrangements, they failed to receive much airplay. He went on to chart just two more top 40 hits, both cover versions: "Gypsy Woman", a 1961 hit for the Impressions written by Curtis Mayfield, and "Lonely Teardrops", a 1959 hit for Jackie Wilson. Hyland recorded both in 1970, and Del Shannon produced the tracks. "Gypsy Woman" reached No. 3 on the 1970 U.S. pop chart, making it the second-biggest hit of his career, selling over one million copies and being certified gold by the RIAA in January 1971. Two of his previous hits, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini×Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot BikiniJune 1960 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAItsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot BikiniBDon't Dilly Dally, Sally" and "Sealed with a Kiss", were also awarded gold discs.
In 1975, "Sealed With A Kiss" became a hit again in the UK (No. 7) and Hyland performed the song on Top of the Pops on July 31 of the same year. By 1977, he and his family had settled in New Orleans, and in 1979 the In a State of Bayou album, on which he had worked with Allen Toussaint, was issued by the Private Stock label.
In June 1988, Dutch singer Albert West asked Hyland to record with him some duets of Hyland's hits: "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini", "Sealed With A Kiss", and "Ginny Come Lately". West had covered the last of these in 1973, scoring a huge European hit, his biggest. Their duet of "Itsy Bitsy ..." was released as a single and reached No. 43 on the Dutch singles chart. Hyland and West performed on TV shows in Germany and Belgium and a Dutch TV special in Aruba.
Sixty years after the release of "Sealed with a Kiss", Hyland reunited with Peter Udell, who invited him to record "A Little Bit of Christmas Time". It was released on Solar Music in late 2023.

Personal life

In 2021 Hyland married Kathalynn Turner Davis, an actress, writer, and psychotherapist. In a 2025 Goldmine interview, Hyland clarified that previous reports claiming his former wife had co-written music with him were inaccurate and stated that he was the sole writer of the songs attributed to him. He noted that she occasionally appeared onstage playing tambourine, but was not a songwriter; their son, Bodi, was their drummer.
Hyland's cousin Mabel Haney was the wife of Larry Fine of The Three Stooges.

Catalog consolidation

From 1960 to 1977, Hyland recorded a total of eleven albums for several different record companies. A twelfth album, Young Years, was a reissue. They included Leader Records, ABC-Paramount Records, Philips Records, Dot Records and Uni Records. Over the years, these record labels were consolidated and the recordings are now controlled by Universal Music. Universal has yet to release a CD compilation that includes all of Hyland's charted singles, invariably omitting a handful of minor singles that made the Billboard Top 100 (or the Bubbling Under chart).

1967 – Leader Records ("Itsy Bitsy ...") owner Kapp Records sold to MCA, Inc. and becomes co-owned with Uni Records ("Gypsy Woman").
1974 – Dot Records ("Tragedy") sold to ABC Records ("Sealed with a Kiss×Sealed With a Kiss1962 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Bye Bye Love2:37A2Let Me Belong to You3:04A3The Night I Cried2:46A4Are You Lonesome Tonight2:41A5I Should Be Gettin’ Better2:27A6Ginny Come Lately2:44B1Love Me Tender2:56B2Sealed With a Kiss2:37B3It Ain’t That Way at All2:19B4Summer Job1:48B5I’ll Never Stop Wanting You2:32B6Walk a Lonely Mile2:28")
1979 – MCA Records buys ABC Records
1998 – MCA parent Universal Music buys Philips Records ("The Joker Went Wild") owner PolyGram completing the catalog consolidation