999,896: Bobby Vinton - My Melody of Love

Being a music nerd means knowing the answers to questions that will never enter anyone’s minds. Such as, “What is the only American Top Ten single to feature lyrics in Polish?” I’m so glad you asked, Me. It’s Bobby Vinton’s “My Melody of Love,” a mid-‘70s pop confection that reinvented the onetime teen idol into a Vegas superstar for the middle-aged set. Vinton was born of Polish extraction and, having just recently lost his record deal, wrote the song at his mother’s suggestion to court that audience. The song topped the adult contemporary chart in 1974, and suddenly Vinton was America’s “Polish Prince,” hosting a polka-heavy variety show that was (according to what I read on Wikipedia) not as creepy as Lawrence Welk’s.

“My Melody of Love” is so squarely middle-of-the-road that there are cars on both sides of it, honking to indicate that it should get off the center line and pick a lane already. It’s also ear candy of the highest order. The unexpected chord shifts that occur as the verses build up to the chorus make you wonder why Vinton didn’t compose his own material more often. The gently trippy post-psychedelic effects under the second verse illustrate just how far into the mainstream the musical aftereffects of ‘60s drug culture had penetrated. The lyrics are superficially about heartbreak and pining for a lost love, but once the bright, bouncy, major-key chorus kicks in – at a tempo that’s not too fast for the old folks to dance to – it’s clear what we’re really here for. Namely, a song tailor-made for every Polish wedding in America, and especially in Pennsylvania polka country. You can’t get too depressing when your song is going on right next to “The Beer Barrel Polka” (which, not coincidentally, was Vinton’s follow-up single). The chorus helpfully translates the Polish lyrics, and the English ones are fairly simple; the whole thing is designed for people who only speak one of these languages well, and underlines the point by just finishing up with a chorus of “la la la la la”s.

One audience Vinton likely did not anticipate gaining was hopelessly nerdy five-year-old kids who felt like they were learning something from the song, and whose mothers really, really liked soft MOR pop. So Mr. Vinton, for providing the inescapable soundtrack of my early childhood (along with the Lettermen and the King of the Key Change, Barry Manilow), I salute you.