"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" is a novelty song telling the story of a shy girl wearing a revealing polka dot bikini bathing suit at the beach, who in the first verse is too afraid to leave the locker where she has changed into the aforementioned swimwear; in the second, she has made it to the beach but sits on the sand wrapped in a blanket; and in the closing verse, she has finally gone into the ocean, but is too afraid to come out, and stays immersed in the water – despite the fact that she's "turning blue", to quote the song's lyrics – to hide herself from view. It was written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss and first released in June 1960 by Brian Hyland with orchestra conducted by John Dixon as "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini." Hyland's version hit number one on the Hot 100 on August 8, 1960 and also made the top 10 in other countries, including #8 on the UK Singles Chart. Trudy Packer recited the phrases beginning with "One, two, three, four" – i.e. "Tell the people what she wore", heard at the end of each verse before the chorus; and "Stick around, we'll tell you more", heard after the first chorus and before the start of the second verse.

In September 2006, the song's co-writer Paul Vance read his own mistaken obituary. Paul Van Valkenburgh, who had long claimed to have written the song, died and the false information was included in the newspaper. The impostor had explained his lack of royalty payments for the song by further claiming that he'd sold the rights to his alleged composition as a teenager. Vance, the song's true co-author, has earned several million dollars from the song since 1960, describing it as "a money machine."

The song was featured in the 1961 Billy Wilder film comedy One, Two, Three — in a key scene, the character Otto(Horst Buchholz), suspected of being a spy, is being tortured by East German police playing the song to him repetitively, eventually with the record off-center to create a weird howling variation of pitch. The actual recording was re-released in 1962 to capitalize on the film's success, but it did not rechart.

A faster version of the song appears on North American commercials for Yoplait Light yogurt. The song is also used in a television commercial for the YWCA, and in films such as Sister Act 2and Revenge of the Nerds II.

At the beginning of 2006 this song was also used in an advert for TV Easy magazine.

At a time when bikini bathing suits were still seen as too risque to be mainstream, the song prompted a sudden takeoff in bikinis sales and is credited as being one of the earliest contributors to the acceptance of the suit in society. The early 60s saw a slew of surf movies and other film and television productions that rapidly built on the song's momentum.

There have been cover versions in many languages, for example, a French and Italian version by Dalida in 1960. It has also been sung in German with Club Honolulu (Caterina Valente & her brother Silvio Francesco) the same year. It was also remade in 1990 by Bombalurina which featured Timmy Mallett, star of then-popular United Kingdom children's television show, Wacaday. The song reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart on August 19, 1990, and stayed at the position for three weeks. The song was released around the world and topped the charts in over a dozen countries, selling more than a million copies. Another version was made by Devo on the CD Pioneers Who Got Scalped. The video featured Timmy Mallett along with two dancers, Dawn and Annie. Dawn later went onto marry Gary Barlow of Take That fame.

A Spanish version, titled "Bikini Amarillo," very faithful to the original, was an enormous hit for Mexican singer Manolo Muñoz in the 1960s.

Another interesting cover version is El Cohete Americano, a Cuban propaganda song sung by Las D'Aidain Album de la Revolucion Cubana (2000).

In Serbian, it was sung by Ljiljana Petrovic. In Croatian, there is cover by trio Tividi.

A Brazilian version, a little faithful to the original, titled "Biquíni de Bolinha Amarelinha Tão Pequenininho," was a hit in 1965 when it was sung by Ronnie Cord , and had some re-recordings, as Blitz's 1983 version .

A parody of the song was used for a TV Easy magazine advert entitled 'I need an Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie TV Easy Magaziney'.

German punk band Die Toten Hosen covered the Club Honolulu version (in German) on their 1987 cover album Never Mind the Hosen, Here's Die Roten Rosen. It was released as a promo single under the alias Die Roten Rosen. Also, on the 2007 re-release the English version was added as a bonus track.