1960s pop singer Vee dies aged 73

Pete Burns dead

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct 25, (Agencies): Pop idol Bobby Vee, the boyish, grinning 1960s singer whose career was born when he took a Midwestern stage as a teenager to fill in after the 1959 plane crash that killed rock ‘n’ roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, has died. He was 73.

Vee, whose hits included the chart-topping “Take Good Care of My Baby” and who helped a young Bob Dylan get his start, died Monday of advanced Alzheimer’s disease, said his son, Jeff Velline. Vee was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011, and performed his last show that year.

Vee had been in memory care at The Wellstead of Rogers & Diamondcrest in Rogers, about 25 miles northwest of Minneapolis, for the past 13 months and in hospice care in recent weeks, his son said.

Vee died peacefully surrounded by family, Velline said, calling it “the end of a long hard road.”

He said his father was “a person who brought joy all over the world. That was his job.”

Born Robert Velline in Fargo, North Dakota, Vee was only 15 when he took the stage in Moorhead, Minnesota, after the Feb 3, 1959, plane crash in Iowa that killed Holly, Valens and Richardson on their way to the concert. That dark day in rock history was commemorated by singer-songwriter Don McLean in his 1972 pop song “American Pie” as “The Day The Music Died.”

The call went out for local acts to replace Holly at his scheduled show at the Moorhead National Guard Armory. Vee and his 2-week-old band volunteered, along with three or four other bands. The show’s emcee, Charlie Boone, then a disc jockey at KFGO Radio, turned to Vee and asked him the name of his band. Vee looked at the shadows of his bandmates on the floor and answered: The Shadows.

Vee

Recalled

“I didn’t have any fear right then,” Vee recalled in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. “The fear didn’t hit me until the spotlight came on, and then I was just shattered by it. I didn’t think that I’d be able to sing. If I opened my mouth, I wasn’t sure anything would come out.”

Vee called his debut a milestone in his life, and “the start of a wonderful career.”

Within months the young singer and The Shadows, which included his older brother Bill on lead guitar, recorded Vee’s “Suzie Baby” for Soma Records in Minneapolis. It was a regional hit, and Vee soon signed with Liberty Records.

He went on to record 38 Top 100 hits from 1959 to 1970, hitting the top of the charts in 1961 with the Carole King-Gerry Goffin song “Take Good Care of My Baby,” and reaching No. 2 with the follow-up, “Run to Him.” Other Vee hits include “Rubber Ball,” “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes,” “Devil or Angel,” “Come Back When You Grow Up,” “Please Don’t Ask About Barbara” and “Punish Her.”

Besides his clear, ringing voice, Vee also was a skilled rhythm guitarist and occasional songwriter. He racked up six gold singles, but saw his hits diminish with the British Invasion of The Beatles and other English groups in the mid-1960s.

Vee kept recording into the 2000s, and maintained a steady touring schedule. But he began having trouble remembering lyrics during performances, and he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011. He performed his last show that year, billed only as his retirement, during an annual community fundraiser that his family holds near their home in St. Joseph, Minnesota, about 65 miles northwest of Minneapolis. But he didn’t announce his diagnosis until a year later on his website.

In a 2013 interview with The Associated Press, Vee said he knew his abilities were diminishing and he didn’t want to put his family through a public decline.

“It’s not getting any better, I can tell you that,” Vee said. “But I’m doing the best I can.”

Recorded

Vee still released a new album, “The Adobe Sessions,” a loose jam session recorded with family members in Vee’s adobe garage north of Tucson, Arizona. The 2014 album featured some of Vee’s favorite songs from Townes Van Zandt, Gordon Lightfoot and Ricky Nelson. It was released on the 55th anniversary of the Holly plane crash.

The album also included Vee’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me,” a nod to the folk-rock legend who got his start in Vee’s band in Fargo.

Dead Or Alive singer Pete Burns has died aged 57, his management announced on Monday.

“It is with the greatest sadness that we have to break the tragic news that our beloved Pete Burns of (Dead Or Alive), died suddenly yesterday of a massive cardiac arrest,” his management said in a statement.

“All of his family and friends are devastated by the loss of our special star.

“He was a true visionary, a beautiful talented soul, and he will be missed by all who loved and appreciated everything he was and all of the wonderful memories the has left us with,” the note added.

Fellow musician Boy George led the tributes on social media, writing on Twitter: “Tearful about the passing of @PeteBurnsICON he was one of our great true eccentrics and such a big part of my life! Wow. Hard to believe!”

Dead Or Alive’s greatest success came in the 1980s with their hit “You Spin Me Round”, which spent two weeks at the top of the UK charts.

The floor-filler reappeared in 2006, reaching the number five spot in the charts after Burns appeared on Celebrity Big Brother.

Michael Gleason, who co-created “Remington Steele,” the series that shot Pierce Brosnan into the spotlight, died last Friday. He was 78.

The news was announced on Gleason’s Facebook page over the weekend. A source also confirmed the news to Variety.

Gleason is best known for his work on NBC’s “Remington Steele,” which he co-created with Robert Butler and ran from 1982 to 1987. Gleason also served as a producer and writer on the show. The series followed a detective, played by Stephanie Zimbalist, who ends up partnering with a former thief, Remington Steele (Brosnan). After the show, Brosnan’s career took off, as he became the fifth actor to play James Bond in 1994.