Interesting… yesterday, I read that a man named Paul Vance, who wrote the obnoxious 1960 novelty tune “Itsy-Bitsy Teenie-Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini,” had died. Today, however, I see that the report wasn’t true:

…the music industry’s real Paul Vance, a 76-year-old man from Coral Springs, Fla., is alive and well, and says the other Paul Vance appears to have made the whole thing up.

 

The Paul Vance who wrote the songs — and provided proof with royalty payments he is still receiving for the hit — said he has been inundated with calls from people who think he died. An owner of racehorses, Vance said two of his horses were scratched from races Wednesday because people thought he had died.

Although the real Vance has been understandably distressed to read his own obituaries, I personally feel sorry for the other guy’s wife, who always believed her husband’s claims that he sold the rights to the song when he was young and foolish. How would it be to find out after years, decades, really, that your spouse has been lying about something like that? Even more curious, however, is the question of why, if you were going to claim to have written a famous song, would you want to take credit for this song? The silly thing always makes my arm twitch and flail about in a reflexive search for the tuner knob…