"A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)" was a 1957 rock and roll song with words and music both written by Marty Robbins. It was recorded January 25, 1957 on the Columbia label & released on March 4, 1957. The arranger & recording session conductor was Ray Conniff, an in-house conductor/arranger at Columbia. Robbins had demanded to have Conniff in charge of the song after his earlier hit, 'Singing the Blues', had been quickly eclipsed by the Guy Mitchell version scored & conducted by Conniff in October, 1956.

Robbins is said to have had the inspiration for the song while driving from a motel to a venue in Ohio where he was due to perform that evening. During the course of the journey, he passed a high school, where the students were dressed ready for their prom.

The song reached number one on the U.S. country chart becoming Marty Robbins' third number one, the song reached number two on the Billboard pop chart in the U.S. and #1 in the Australian music charts in 1957. A version by Johnny Desmond got some play also, peaking at #62 on the US pop charts.

"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is the debut song by the British band Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967. The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June 1967, and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it reached #5 on the US charts, as well. It is one of the fewer than 30 all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

With its haunting Bach-flavoured instrumental melody, soulful vocals, and unusual lyrics—by the song's co-authors Gary Brooker, Keith Reid, and Matthew Fisher-- "A Whiter Shade of Pale" reached #1 in several countries when released in 1967. In the years since, it has become an enduring classic. It was the most played song in the last 75 years in public places in the UK (as of 2009), and the United Kingdom performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited in 2004 recognised it as the most-played record by British broadcasting of the past 70 years. Also in 2004, Rolling Stone placed "A Whiter Shade of Pale" #57 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

A sportcoat, sports coat or sports jacket, is a tailored jacket for men. Though it is of a similar cut and length to a suit jacket there are many differences. First, it is less formal. Also it is designed to be worn on its own and does not come as part of a suit. Styles, fabrics, colours and patterns are also more varied; sturdier and thicker fabrics are most often used, such as tweed, and in particular Harris Tweed from the north-west of Scotland.

Originally, sports coats were worn as casual attire for hunting and other outdoor sports (hence the name). With time, they have come to be seen as more formal, sometimes being used in school uniforms as at Summer Fields School in England.

A shooting jacket is a type of sports coat worn, as the name suggests, originally in the sports of shooting or hunting. It usually comes with a leather patch on the front shoulder to prevent wear from the butt of a shotgun or rifle, frequently with matching leather patches on the elbow.

A hacking jacket is a wool sports coat for casual horseback riding, often of tweed and traditionally with a single vent.

Martin David Robinson (September 26, 1925 – December 8, 1982), known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. One of the most popular and successful country and Western singers of his era, for most of his nearly four-decade career, Robbins was rarely far from the country music charts, and several of his songs also became pop hits.

Robbins was born in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona. He was reared in a difficult family situation. His father took odd jobs to support the family of ten children. His father's drinking led to divorce in 1937. Among his warmer memories of his childhood, Robbins recalled having listened to stories of the American West told by his maternal grandfather, Texas Bob Heckle. Robbins left the troubled home at the age of 17 to serve in the United States Navy as an LCT coxswain during World War II. He was stationed in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. To pass the time during the war, he learned to play the guitar, started writing songs, and came to love Hawaiian music.

Johnny Desmond (November 14, 1919–September 6, 1985), born Giovanni Alfredo De Simone, was a popular American singer.

He was born in Detroit, Michigan; and as a boy, sang on a local radio station, but at age 15 he quit to work at his father's grocery. He still retained a love of music, however, and briefly attended the Detroit Conservatory of Music before heading to the nightclub circuit, playing piano and singing.

In 1939 he formed his own singing group. The group was first called the Downbeats, but after being hired to work with Bob Crosby's big band in 1940, it was renamed the Bob-O-Links. The group appeared on 15 commercial recordings by the Crosby orchestra, including two charted hits, "You Forgot About Me" (which reached No. 15), and "Do You Care?" (No. 18).

In the middle of 1941 Desmond decided to leave the Bob-O-Links to go solo. He became the featured vocalist for Gene Krupa's band, replacing Howard Dulaney, in September, recording over a dozen songs, the last of which was "All Those Wonderful Years", a song from the movie Keep 'em Flying, which reached No. 21 on the US charts.