Bobby Vinton - Early Life

Early Life

Vinton is the only child of a locally popular bandleader, Stan Vinton and Dorothy Studzinski Vinton. The family surname was originally Vintula, and was changed by the senior Vinton. Vinton's parents encouraged their son's interest in music by giving him his daily 25 cent allowance after he had practiced the clarinet. At 16, Vinton formed his first band, which played clubs around the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. With the money he earned, he helped finance his college education at Duquesne University, where he studied music and graduated with a degree in musical composition. While at Duquesne, he became proficient on all of the instruments in the band: piano, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, drums and oboe. When Vinton became an active musician, it was common for people to become confused with the bands of father and son, as both were named Stanley. Vinton's father suggested his son use his middle name of Robert professionally to clear up the confusion.

Vinton's birthplace of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania is also the birthplace of Perry Como. His hometown named two streets, Bobby Vinton Boulevard and the shorter adjoining Bobby Vinton Drive, in his honor. These streets were built in the late 1970s; prior attempts to name a residential street after him failed. The residents did not care for the singer always using Pittsburgh as his home town on TV interviews. Como always claimed Canonsburg as his home town and thus hundreds of people changed their address when the town renamed a street in the east end after Perry Como. Canonsburg town fathers had plans to erect a statue in Vinton's honor, but Vinton himself vetoed the idea noting that the $100,000 planned cost could go to far more important town needs.