Brian Hyland: "Sealed with a Kiss"

July 16, 1962 (1 week)

One of my main tools for running this blog is the invaluable CHUM Tribute Site. Run by enthusiast Doug Thompson, it includes photos, memorabilia and, most relevant to this endeavour, scans of CHUM charts from the fifties all the way through to the eighties. I can't do without it and I plan to continue using this resource even after the Toronto-area radio station stopped being Canada's national chart.

That said, there are errors. I'm not judging, especially since I am well aware that I've committed my share of mistakes in my writing. One such howler is listing Bobby Vinton as the credited artist on "Sealed with a Kiss" on their list of number ones from 1962. I initially chalked this up to the Polish Prince having had the previous chart topper with "Roses Are Red (My Love)" until I remembered that he would go on to have a hit of his own with it a decade or so later. (There is also an error just below it, which credits Ernie Mareska (sic.) as the artist behind "(Girls Girls Girls) Made to Love" which was in fact recorded by Eddie Hodges)

Vinton's version of "Sealed with a Kiss" is one of three that are worth discussing. The others are by Brian Hyland, who actually topped the CHUM charts with it in the summer of '62, and Australian actor/pop star Jason Donovan, who managed to have his third UK number one on the bounce with it. Vinton's is probably the best-produced and most professional of them and he was (and, indeed, probably still is) at least a hundred times the singer as either of them but it is also by far the worst. 

Tom Ewing considers Vinton's version to be "insincere" which I can see. In fact, I hope that's what it is. Otherwise there's something creepy about a guy in his late thirties singing about teen romance and longing for the girl he won't be seeing until September. Definite creepy-gym-teacher-who's-been-sleeping-with-students-on-the-down-low vibes here. Hyland was nineteen when his recording of "Sealed with a Kiss" made the charts; Donovan was a year older. The two could've at least still passed for high school students.

As for Hyland, this is a marked improvement on the lousy "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini", a single that I generously gave a 3 for some reason. Having previously celebrated the joys of summer in such crass fashion, it's rather nice to hear him expunge on how July and August can be such a drag. (One of my many pop obsessions is with songs about how the summer can be a giant load of suck; I don't know if I'd put "Sealed with a Kiss" quite as high as Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" and Belle & Sebastian's "Summer Wasting" but it might not be too far off)

Though not a technically proficient singer, Hyland does a good job pleading with his best girl that they'll be right back to where they left off once the summer holidays are done with. While not quite pathetic, he manages to sound desperate enough and is more than convincing. (By contrast, Jason Donovan's take is darker, as though something ominous is about to befall the couple in question during their separation)

Another point that Ewing makes in his review of Donovan's cover is that no one has ever "quite nailed a definite take on it". Again, I'm inclined to agree. One comment accompanying his review states that George Michael would've done wonders with it. True but I can't imagine the late Wham! superstar having any use for it either. The big problem with "Sealed with a Kiss" is that individuals who either can't sing all that well or are stuck in a perpetual state of youthfulness are the only ones who seem interested in recording it. A truly gifted artist like a George Michael or a Smokey Robinson or a Rufus Wainwright, on the other hand, would have far better things to do than lay down a session for a nice piece of juvenalia such as this

Score: 6