Obsessive adoration, maybe, but Vinton wouldn’t have it any other way

Bobby Vinton swiveled his 72-year-old hips with gusto, crooning one memorable hit after another. Unlike a few musical icons whose voices don’t hold up in their later years, and you leave the show wishing you’d bought a CD instead, Vinton’s voice holds strong and true.

“People used to make love to my music,” he told fans who nearly filled the Tropicana showroom Saturday. They hardly needed reminding as they sang along to the songs they loved 30 and 40 years ago, and still love.

I’m sitting with Shirley Locklin, who joked she is addicted to Bobby Vinton. “I’d be better off being an alcoholic. Then I could get help.”

Shirley has lost count of the number of times she’s seen him. Her best estimate is between 300 and 400. One year, she saw him 57 times. Obviously, she is no ordinary fan.

Shirley is wearing a blue sweater. She likes to wear blue in honor of his 1963 hit “Blue Velvet.” She’s proudly displaying a rhinestone pin declaring “POLISH PRINCE” in letters an inch high. It’s a treasured gift from Vinton’s wife, Dolly.

The drive between Shirley’s home in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Branson, Mo., where he formerly owned the Bobby Vinton Blue Velvet Theatre, is 741 miles. She covers it in about 14 hours. If she’s alone, she listens to Vinton’s songs the entire 14 hours. If someone is with her, to be more sociable, she cuts back to a mere six hours.

Shirley declines to say her age but admitted she’s a peer of Vinton’s. She looooooooves Bobby Vinton and travels all over the United States to see him perform, buying tickets as soon as they go on sale so she can be down in the front. Shirley is one of the women who — 15 minutes into his show when he sings his first hit from 1962, “Roses Are Red” — presents him with a rose and is rewarded with a sweaty hug.

Shirley can’t remember exactly when her addiction began, but it was probably 1995 or 1996, sometime after her husband, Boyd, passed away. It began innocuously enough. She signed up to go on a bus tour to Branson and saw Vinton for the first time. She likes his voice, his humor, and seeing his show “is better than taking a whole bottle of vitamins.”

And in some ways, he reminds her of her husband.

When he spends more than one night in a town, she sees every show. When he does several shows a day, she buys tickets for each one. Yes, she’s seen three Bobby Vinton shows in one day.

For some, it would be akin to waterboarding. For Shirley, it’s pure ecstasy.

She doesn’t tally the cost of travel and tickets, but it doesn’t sound like an exaggeration when she said: “If I had to sell my house just to go see him, I would.” Naturally, that home is swimming in Vinton memorabilia.

“There’s not a day goes by I don’t listen to his music.” Her favorites are everybody’s favorites, “Roses Are Red,” “My Melody of Love” and “There! I’ve Said It Again.”

Throughout the show, Shirley was blatantly joyful. Often the first to applaud, she jumped to her feet, inspiring others to do the same.

Afterward, in a quick post-show interview arranged by Shirley, Vinton said Shirley enhances his performance. “I’m very fortunate having her as someone who thinks I’m special. She gets the audience going, and her energy inspires others. It makes the show easier for me. It’s like you have a rooting section before you go on.”

You may think she’s nuts. Seeing Vinton’s show more than 300 times might make you nuts.

But one thing she said made her devotion to Vinton easier to understand. “Since my husband has been gone, he’s made my life fun.”

Vinton made a similar comment. “I appreciate Shirley. I appreciate life. Like I was telling you, all my friends are gone. Elvis, Bobby Darin, they are dead. I’m still here. How can I not enjoy life and what I have?”

Suddenly I understand why Shirley Locklin and Bobby Vinton have this symbiotic relationship. It’s not just the music. The widow and the singer love life.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.