Brian Hyland’s “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” tops the Billboard Hot 100 - August 8th, 1960

On this day in 1960, the novelty song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” hit No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio
Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that reveals a little bit more about history every day.
I'm Gabe Luesier, and today we're looking at the surprising,
true story and disturbing implications of one of the silliest

(00:23):
odes to swimwear ever written. The day was August eighth,
nineteen sixty. The novelty song Itsy Bitsy teeny Weeny yellow
Poka Dot Bikini hit number one on the US Singles Chart.

(00:44):
Performed by teenage heart throb Brian Hyland, the song was
one of the two summer anthems of nineteen sixty, alongside
Chubby Checkers The Twist. It sold more than a million
copies and spent fifteen weeks on the Billboard Hot one
Hunty chart, including one week in the top spot. The
song also reached number one in France and Germany, and

(01:07):
has since been covered by a wide range of artists,
including Connie Francis, Devo and Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
And while I'm tempted to play a clip from the
Muppet version, of course, for the sake of fidelity, here's
Brian Hyland's original she was besides she could be she

(01:29):
was afraid to come out. She was afraid. That's a
two three four. Tell the people what she wore. It
was Yllo that she wore. As you probably noticed, the

(01:50):
song has a rich, complex layered plot, so let me
break it down for you. A shy young woman takes
a trip to the beach, but after changing into her
stylish new swimsuit, she has second thoughts about wearing something
so revealing in public. At first, she's too embarrassed to
leave the locker room. Then she musters the courage to
go sit on the beach, but only while wrapped up

(02:11):
in a blanket. She finally takes off the blanket and
ventures into the water. Then she gets self conscious again
and decides to stay in the water until everyone else leaves.
She stays so long, in fact, that, as the song
puts it, quote, the poor little Girl's turning blue. That unresolved.
Note the suggestion of hypothermia or drowning is where the

(02:35):
song's story ends. Does the girl overcome her shyness and
make it back to shore or does she die rather
than appear immodest. Brian Hyland doesn't say directly but listen
to how the song ends. Shot, Yes, there isn't anymore.

(03:05):
If you think I'm reading too much into this, well
maybe you're right. The song's story is hardly meant to
be the focus. After all, the catchy chorus is the
real star. It sits somewhere between a nursery rhyme, a
cat call, and a playground chant ploying and obnoxious, but
silly enough to make you laugh and rhythmic enough to

(03:25):
be fun to sing. Still, the story is there, and
whether intentional or not, it does end with some unanswered
questions when taken at face value. But don't take my
word for it. I'm hardly the first person to notice.
In fact, less than a month after the song hit
number one, a singer named jerry Lynn Fraser was so

(03:47):
bothered by the ambiguity that she wrote a sequel song
to fill in some of the blanks. Take a listen
two four six eight tell us please don't make us
waityada just because she mess it for godbegoniacaust story and

(04:12):
so cute. The cute ending she references is that Bogonia
is rescued by a lifeguard and winds up getting engaged
to him, apparently she had no reason to be modest.
After all. At the end of the day, there may
not be a deeper meaning to itsy bitsy teeny weeny
yellow Pocada bikini, but the song does say something about

(04:35):
the sexual mores of mid century America. The revealing two
piece bathing suit known as the bikini was introduced in
Paris in nineteen forty six and quickly became a common
sight on beaches all over post war Europe. In the US, however,
the bikini didn't catch on for almost two decades. Initially

(04:56):
dismissed as a risque trend, the bikini was gradually embraced
throughout the nineteen sixties as the sexual Revolution took hold
and fashion trends became a bit less prudish. That said,
American culture wasn't quite there yet in nineteen sixty, which
is why Brian Hyland's song has such a scandalized view

(05:17):
of wearing a bikini. When viewed in that light, the
song almost seems like a cautionary tale, one that warns
women not to wear bikinis lest they get self conscious
and have a bad day at the beach. Once again,
though I could be reading too much into things. According
to the songwriter, the song has a much simpler and

(05:37):
more innocent origin. Although it was Brian Hyland who performed
the song, the lyrics and music were actually the work
of Paul Vance and Lee Pocras, the same songwriting duo
behind Perry Como's signature hit Catch a Falling Star. The
idea for the bikini song was born of a real
life incident involving none other than Vance's two year old dog, Paula.

(06:02):
While on a family trip to the beach in nineteen
fifty nine. Little Paula had been reluctant to wear her
new two piece bathing suit because her two male cousins
had started teasing her from there. The day unfolded exactly
as in the song, with the girl first hiding in
the locker room, then bundling up in a blanket, and
ultimately wading into the water. Thankfully, Paula didn't turn blue

(06:24):
that day, though her bikini did come off and float away,
offering another lighter interpretation of the song's final verse. The
song's famous hook came to Vance on the drive home
from the beach and was based directly on what his
daughter had been wearing that day. She wore a yellow
PoCA dot bikini, and the reason it was itsy bitsy

(06:45):
teeny weenie is because she was a toddler. When Vance
got home, he called his partner to share his new song.
I sang the lyric on the phone, he later recounted,
and by the time Pocerus got to my office a
couple of hours later, he hadn't ninety percent of the
tune written. Paul Vance thought the song should be sung
by a female vocalist, so he hired a session singer

(07:07):
and two backup singers to record a demo version. Once
it was done, he took the track to CAP Records,
but producer David Capp thought it was too raunchy to
be a hit single. In what must have been an
awkward conversation, Vance explained the true story behind the song
and how it was really about shyness, not sexuality. Cap

(07:28):
eventually came around and agreed to release the song, but
he insisted they re record it with a male singer.
The job ultimately went to Brian Hyland, a sixteen year
old high school sophomore and former choir boy from Queen's
who had recently signed the label. Female vocalist Trudy Packer
would provide the spoken voice part of the song. As

(07:50):
Hyland later recounted in an interview with Bruce Nash, quote,
Paul Vance and Lee Pocras had shown itsy bitsy teeny
weeny yellow Pokadapakini to a lot of singers, but no
one wanted to do it. Then Cap thought it was
right for me and got really excited about it. They
gave me the demo on a Friday, and I had
to learn it over the weekend. We cut it on Monday,

(08:13):
and when we recorded it there seemed to be a
real buzz in the air about the song. Then it
became a number one hit in America, which meant that
I could stop riding the subway and buy some Martin guitars.
Bikini turned out to be Hyland's only number one song,
but he did score several other hits in the nineteen
sixties and seventies with more serious tunes like Ginny Come

(08:36):
Lately and Sealed with a Kiss. He also recorded a
sound alike follow up to his biggest hit called Lopsided Overloaded,
But the less said about that one, the better. I'm gay,
blues gay, and hopefully you now know a little more

(08:57):
about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like
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if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to
send them my way by writing to This Day at
iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Casby Bias for producing the show,

(09:18):
and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back
here again tomorrow for another day in History class.