Bobby Vee, boyish pop pin-up of the Sixties, dies at 73
SIXTIES pop star Bobby Vee, whose hits included Take Good Care of My Baby and Rubber Ball, died yesterday at the age of 73.
The singer, who also had a big hit with The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, had battled Alzheimer’s for five years.
His son, Jeff Velline, said last night it was ‘the end of a long hard road’ and described his father as a ‘man who brought joy all over the world. That was his job.’
Vee had been in a care home for the past year and in hospice care in recent weeks, his son said.
The singer got his break in 1959 at the age of just 15 when he filled in following the tragic death of Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash that also claimed the lives of Ritchie Valens and Jiles P ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson.
After responding to a call for local acts to replace Holly at the scheduled show, Vee and his band played to a packed Minnesota crowd. They were hired because they knew Holly’s tunes.
Although Vee admitted on the 50th anniversary of Holly’s death that the show ‘was like a wake’ he said it was also ‘the start of a wonderful career’. He added: ‘The fear didn’t hit me until the spotlight came on. I didn’t think that I’d be able to sing. If I opened my mouth, I wasn’t sure anything would come out.’
They went on to receive a standing ovation and Vee, who was born Robert Velline, signed a record deal with his group the Shadows, which included his older brother Bill on lead guitar. He soon had his first hit in the US Billboard charts with Devil or Angel.
During the early stages of his career he crossed paths with Bob Dylan, who he hired briefly as a backing pianist under the name Elston Gunnn (three n’s), and the pair remained friends. Dylan was said to have suggested that Velline change his name to Vee.
It was the release of Rubber
‘Wonderful career’
Ball early in 1961 that catapulted Vee to international stardom and it was his breakthrough hit in the UK, where it reached No4.
Take Good Care of My Baby – his only US No1 – followed later that year and the hits continued during a 52-year career, including Run to Him, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes and Come Back When You Grow Up.
As well as his clear singing voice, Vee was a talented rhythm guitar player and an occasional songwriter. He had six singles that achieved gold status, but his career was overshadowed by the arrival of the Beatles and other British acts in the mid-1960s.
Vee kept recording into the 2000s and continued to tour but he began having trouble remembering lyrics during performances and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011. He performed his last show that year.
Although his health was in decline, Vee still recorded an album in 2014 titled The Adobe Sessions, which was created as a jam session with family members in his garage near Tucson, Arizona.
Vee met his wife Karen Bergen at the start of his career and the couple had four children during their 50-year marriage. She died last year.
Songwriter Sir Tim Rice paid tribute last night, describing Vee as a ‘truly lovely man’.