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" in 1960. Other hits include "Sealed with a Kiss" 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." He studied guitar and clarinet as a child, and sang in his church choir. 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.
thumb|left|[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard advertisement, June 20, 1960]]
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" and "I'll Never Stop Wanting You".
His other major hit during this period was 1962's "Sealed with a Kiss", which reached No. 3 in 1962 on both the American and UK Singles Chart. 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), "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" and "Sealed with a Kiss", were also awarded gold discs.
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 Hyland was the wife of Larry Fine of The Three Stooges.
!Record Label
|-
|rowspan="1"| 1960
|align=left| The Bashful Blond
| —
|rowspan="1"| Kapp
|-
|rowspan="1"| 1961
|align=left| Let Me Belong to You
| —
|rowspan="3"| ABC-Paramount
|-
|rowspan="1"| 1962
|align=left| Sealed with a Kiss
| —
|-
|rowspan="2"| 1964
|align=left| Country Meets Folk
| —
|-
|align=left| Here's to Our Love
| —
|rowspan="3"| Philips
|-
|rowspan="1"| 1965
|align=left| Rockin' Folk
| —
|-
|rowspan="1"| 1966
|align=left| The Joker Went Wild Run Run Look and See
| —
|-
|rowspan="2"| 1969
|align=left| Stay and Love Me All Summer
| —
|rowspan="2"| Dot
|-
|align=left| Tragedy - A Million To One
| 160
|-
|rowspan="1"| 1970
|align=left| Brian Hyland
| 171
|rowspan="1"| Uni
|-
|rowspan="1"| 1977
|align=left| In a State of Bayou
| —
|rowspan="1"| Private Stock
|-
| colspan="6" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart.
|}
Singles
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Year
! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Title<br/><small>(Songwriters)</small>
! scope="col" colspan="4"| Peak chart positions
|-
! style="width:45px;"| <small>US</small><br>
! style="width:45px;"| <small>AUS</small><br>
! style="width:45px;"| <small>NED</small><br>
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1960
| "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini"<br/><small>(Lee Pockriss/Paul Vance)</small>
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| "Four Little Heels (The Clickety Clack Song)"<br/><small>(Lee Pockriss/Paul Vance)</small>
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| "That's How Much"<br/><small>(Jack Keller/Artie Kaplan/Brooks Arthur)</small>
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| "Lop-Sided, Over-Loaded (And It Wiggled When We Rode It)"<br/><small>(Larry Kusik/E.J. Anton)</small>
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| rowspan="4"| 1961
| "I Gotta Go ('Cause I Love You)"<br/><small>(John D. Loudermilk)</small>
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| "Let Me Belong to You"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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| "I'll Never Stop Wanting You"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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| "She's My All American Girl"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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|-
| rowspan="3"| 1962
| "Ginny Come Lately"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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|-
| "Sealed with a Kiss"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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|-
| "Warmed Over Kisses (Left Over Love)"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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|-
| rowspan="4"| 1963
| "I May Not Live to See Tomorrow"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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|-
| "If Mary's There"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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|-
| "I'm Afraid to Go Home" b/w "Save Your Heart for Me"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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| "Let Us Make Our Own Mistakes"<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
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|-
| 1964
| "Here's to Our Love"<br/><small>(Peter Udell)</small>
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| rowspan="3"| 1966
| "3000 Miles"<br/><small>(Artie Wayne)</small>
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| "The Joker Went Wild"<br/><small>(Bobby Russell)</small>
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|-
| "Run, Run, Look and See"<br/><small>(M.H. Cooper/Ray Whitley)</small>
|
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|-
| rowspan="3"| 1967
| "Hung Up in Your Eyes"<br/><small>(Sonny Curtis/Glen D. Hardin)</small>
|
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|-
| "Holiday for Clowns"<br/><small>(Sonny Curtis/Glen D. Hardin)</small>
|
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| "Get the Message"<br/><small>(Michael Z. Gordon/J. A. Griffin)</small>
|
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|-
| rowspan="3"| 1969
| "Tragedy"<br/><small>(Gerald H. Nelson/Fred B. Burch)</small>
|
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|-
| "A Million to One"<br/><small>(Phil Medley)</small>
|
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|-
| "Stay and Love Me All Summer"<br/><small>(Joel Hirschhorn/Al Kasha)</small>
|
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|-
| rowspan="2"| 1970
| "Dreamy Eyes"<br/><small>(Johnny Tillotson)</small>
|
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|-
| "Gypsy Woman"<br/><small>(Curtis Mayfield)</small>
|
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|-
| rowspan="2"| 1971
| "Lonely Teardrops"<br/><small>(Tyran Carlo/Gwen Fuqua/Berry Gordy Jr.)</small>
|
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| "So Long, Marianne"<br/><small>(Leonard Cohen)</small>
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|-
| rowspan="2"| 1972
| "I Love Every Little Thing About You"<br/><small>(Stevie Wonder)</small>
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| "Only Wanna Make You Happy"<br/><small>(Bobby Hart/Wes Farrell)</small>
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| 1975
| "Sealed with a Kiss" (re-issue)<br/><small>(Gary Geld/Peter Udell)</small>
|
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| 1988
| "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" (with Albert West)<br/><small>(Lee Pockriss/Paul Vance)</small>
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|
|-
| colspan="6" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.
|}
See also
- List of artists who reached number one in the United States
- List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart
- List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand
References
External links
- Official website
- Last.fm
- Official YouTube channel
- Brian Hyland on Yahoo Music
- Biography from Universal Music