Bobby Vee(1943-2016)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Contrary to popular belief, Bobby Vee was not one of the flood of
Italian-American rockers to come out of the New York-New
Jersey-Philadelphia area in the '50s and '60s. He was born Robert
Velline in Fargo, ND, and, although he started playing music when he
was just a young teenager, it was country music, not rock. However, he,
his brother and some friends eventually formed a rock band, "The
Shadows", and began to attract some attention in the Fargo area. His
big "break" came when rock legends
Ritchie Valens,
The Big Bopper and
Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1959 en
route to a concert in Minnesota. The concert's promoters decided to put
on the show anyway, and asked for help from local talent. Bobby, who
knew the words to all of the songs that were to be played, found
himself on stage and, at 15 years old, began his career as a rock star.
He and his group had a local hit with "Susie Baby", which came to the
attention of executives at Liberty Records in Hollywood, and he and The
Shadows were signed to the label. The next few records they cut went
basically nowhere, however, and Liberty was all set to cancel their
contract when a DJ in Pittsburgh played the "B" side to one of their
records, a remake of an old ballad by
The Clovers called "Devil or Angel". It
became a hit in Pittsburgh and then spread throughout the Northeast,
eventually hitting #6 on the national pop charts. Liberty then signed
Vee to a five-year contract. He had a string of hits for the label,
such as "Take Good Care of My Baby", "Rubber Ball", "The Night Has a
Thousand Eyes" and "Come Back When You Grow Up, Girl".
