Bobby Vinton

Stanley Robert Vinton was already having an enormous 1963 — “Blue on Blue” had gone to No. 3 — when the album built around it needed another ‘blue’ title. He cut “Blue Velvet” in two takes in Nashville, expected little of it, and rated his remake of “Am I Blue?” the better bet. It became the record of his life: three weeks at No. 1, No. 5 on the year’s Billboard tally, and a second life at No. 2 in Britain in 1990. The performance is entirely his; only the chronology gets misremembered.