Last Updated on April 15, 2025
It was 1960. Brian Hyland was just sixteen years old. One day he was a freshman in high school, and the next, he was an international teen idol, all because of a bathing suit?
Hyland was an office boy at Kapp Records. He’d never sung with a band before, but they let him record some demos. In an instant, Hyland had a hit with “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.”
“Up until that point in my neighborhood, I was invisible, with all the girls and all of that,” Hyland told Growing Bolder. “I was just another kid in the neighborhood. And then when I got on television, with the hit record, that all changed. I was invisible up to that point, and then all of a sudden, everybody’s lining up on my stoop for my autograph.”
“Itsy Bitsy” did big things for Hyland. It became a million seller in just eight weeks! Everything changed, except for him.
“I was just focused on getting another song, and just getting better,” Hyland recalled.
And the hits kept coming, charting again two years later at the age of 18 with “Sealed with a Kiss.” From office boy to teen idol, Hyland became part of music history, a position he had never dreamed. And now, over 60 years after, Hyland is back in the studio, continuing to release music and follow his dreams.
He’s a newlywed, updating his classic hits, recording new ones, and now is in his 80s. Not bad for a guy who’s only really wanted one thing in life.
“I just want to get up every morning and be able to play music, and however that turns out, that’s okay with me.”
