Bobby Vinton: "Mr. Lonely"

December 14, 1964 (1 week)

This blog recently published its eighteenth review of one of Elvis Presley's number one hits in Canada. (Luckily, there aren't too many more left to cover) I hope I didn't repeat myself too often though the fact that I'm reluctant to go back to re-read all of them suggests that I'd rather not find out. Yet, I've expressed some views and notions that may or may not be of interest to people out there which is more than can be said for what I have to say about Bobby bloody Vinton.

I mean, what more is there to say about the Polish Prince? Well, I suppose I could say that his songs all sound the same but is that even the case? "Blue Velvet" has a dark heart to it which was probably why it found its way into a David Lynch film back in the eighties but "Mr. Lonely" has no such hidden depths. It's just a twenty-nine year old man boy pining for someone to reach out to him so he will not be so lonely.

They aren't quite the same but there's no indication that Vinton was trying to push on through creatively the way many of those who had wreaked havoc on the music scene in 1964 were doing. We may now adjudicate future singles and/or albums as the "turning point" for The Beatles ("Yesterday", Rubber Soul, Revolver, "Strawberry Fields Forever") The Beach Boys ("California Girls", Pet Sounds, "Good Vibrations"), Bob Dylan ("Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Like a Rolling Stone", Highway 61 Revisited) and so forth but their activities throughout a year in which they were all still finding their way indicate that they were never content to stand still. Not so with Vinton: he managed to have yet another number one smash without even bothering to record anything.

"Mr. Lonely" had been written back in the fifties and was cut just as he was set to achieve stardom with breakthrough hit "Roses Are Red (My Love)", a single I blogged about less than four months ago but which I cannot recall except that I'm quite sure it sounds like a Bobby Vinton song. He pushed for its release but his record company vetoed it, though it was included on his debut solo album Roses Are Red. Struggling to fill out a largely unnecessary greatest hits album, the singer pressed for "Mr. Lonely" which proved to be so popular that it returned him to the top of the Hot 100.

The results can be best described as "a song". Not revolting by any stretch of the imagination but just another Vinton turn about heartbreak and feeling sorry for himself. There are certainly worse things in the world — some of which happened to also go to number one in Canada — but the idea of listening to something like this for pleasure just doesn't compute. And not just for pleasure but for pop music therapy: Vinton wallows in misery but offers little by way of guiding young fans along in order to find hope or a way out. It's musical junk food masquerading as protein-rich chana masala.

Oh, and what do you know, another Bobby Vinton song is on the horizon in 1965. Whatever am I going to find to say about it that I haven't already written? But, hey, if the Polish Prince was content to repeat himself then why should I be any different?

Score: 4

~~~~~

Can Con

He did one of the all-time great celebrity guest spots on Imperial period Simpsons ("You're manager says for you to shut up!" is a line that lives rent free in my head) and that alone should justify Robert Goulet's lengthy career in music — and it certainly does far more for his legacy than "My Love, Forgive Me (Amore, Scusami)", a modest number twenty-two hit. I'm indifferent towards "Mr. Lonely" but the same cannot be said for this turgid crap. Honestly, Goulet is probably the best thing about it seeing as how the composition is littered with cliches and the arrangement is a tasteless mess. His voice is a little too perfect but at least he doesn't make me want to throw up my nachos and beer. He did far better with the classic "Jingle Bells, Batman smells...".