Paul Vance

Joseph Paul Florio (November 4, 1929 – May 30, 2022), known professionally as Paul Vance, was an American songwriter and record producer, primarily from the 1950s until the 1970s.

His most successful song compositions, all written with Lee Pockriss, included "Catch a Falling Star", "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini", and "Tracy".

Career He was born Joseph Paul Florio in Brooklyn, New York, United States on November 4, 1929. He started writing song lyrics in his early teens, before serving with the U.S. Army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The following year, Vance had a minor hit as a singer when his recording of "Dommage, Dommage (Too Bad, Too Bad)", intended as a demo, was released by Scepter Records. It reached #97 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #107 on the Record World Singles Coming Up charts. Competing versions were released by Steve Rossi, whose version did not chart, and Jerry Vale, whose Columbia release peaked at #93 on the Hot 100 and at #5 on the Billboard Easy Listening charts.

Vance teamed up with Dante again in 1969 after the latter agreed to record a demo of the new Vance/Pockriss composition, "Tracy." Dante provided all the voices on the recording, both leads and backgrounds, and the single was released under the name The Cuff Links. Its success prompted Vance to bring Dante back into the recording studio to record an entire album's worth of songs, and the resultant LP, also titled Tracy, was rush-released to capitalize on the popularity of the single. As with The Detergents' album, Vance produced the recording sessions and co-wrote all of the songs with Pockriss.

Vance and Pockriss penned "Playground in My Mind," in 1972, which was recorded by Clint Holmes, and became a 1973 #2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it remained for twenty-three weeks. The single was awarded gold record status on July 3, 1973. Vance's son, Philip, sang on the refrain on the recording along with Holmes. Vance co-wrote and produced the song "Run Joey Run" for David Geddes in 1975; the song reached the top 5 on the Billboard charts that year. The female vocals on the song were provided by Vance's daughter Paula, who had earlier inspired "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini."

Vance was also a successful owner of harness racing horses. According to the United States Trotting Association he owned or leased 167 horses during his career, including record winner Secret Service, trained by his son Joseph Vance. Vance also told the Times that he was considering legal action, since licensees outside the United States might be confused by the false report of his death and discontinue making royalty payments. He was quoted as saying, "Believe me, if they think you’re dead, they ain’t going to send the money."

Memoir In September 2014, after eight years in the making, Vance published his memoir, titled Catch a Falling Star.

Personal life and death Vance resided in Boca Raton, Florida. His son, Philip, who sang the chorus of "Playground in my Mind" with Clint Holmes, died on December 11, 2009, at age 44.

Vance died in West Palm Beach, Florida on May 30, 2022, at the age of 92.