Here’s a fellow whose career got started in 1959. His name is Bobby Vee, and his first single sounds a lot like Buddy Holly. There’s a reason for that.
Robert Velline, born in 1943 in Fargo, North Dakota, had a band with his brother called The Shadows. When Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper were killed in an airplane crash during the winter Dance Party Tour on February 3, 1959, Bobby Vee filled in for Buddy Holly, whose next stop was to be Moorehead, Minnesota, not far from Fargo. Then Vee and his band (which briefly included a musician named Elston Gunn, otherwise known as Bob Zimmerman) hit the road. Vee was signed to Liberty Records in Los Angeles.
In 1960, quite a few teenage idols were on the American musical scene, including Bobby Darin, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian. Bobby Vee, however, was the one with drawing power. His first major hit was a remake of a Clovers’ doo-wop standard and it reached Number Six:
Anyone who was a songwriter in those days (and there were many—most in the Brill Building in New York City) wanted Vee to sing their song. We’re talking Neil Sedaka, Carole King, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Burt Bacharach, Barry Mann and Gene Pitney, who wrote He’s a Rebel for Phil Spector, Hello Mary Lou for Ricky Nelson, and this one for Bobby Vee:
Released at Christmastime in 1960, it also reached Number Six in the states and got to Number One in Australia. Vee was suddenly an international star. His producer was a good friend of Buddy Holly and a fellow Texan named Snuff Garret, who at the start selected and arranged tunes that Vee would record. One such record was a John Loudermilk composition:.
Vee would become great friends with The Crickets, Buddy Holly’s band, which broke up with Holly before his ill-fated tour of the Midwest. Crickets guitarist Sonny Curtis was, like Holly, a songwriter in his own right, and he offered Vee one of his tunes. It wouldn’t be the last Crickets recording that Vee produced. It was on the flip of Stayin’ In:
Just before summer 1961, Vee was introduced to Brill Building songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who could retire on their first hit alone (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow). While Goffin and King’s song for Vee only charted in the sixties, it set the stage for a very productive relationship and a ton of hit records.
The next time you’re listening to Carole King, find a song written by her called It Might As Well Rain Until September. It sounds a lot like Vee’s next hit. She offered both to Vee, but he chose this one. A wise pick, in hindsight, as it dominated the summer charts for three straight weeks. Carole King, not then known as a vocalist, still did well with September.
Do you know who backed most of Bobby Vee’s earliest hits? Little Richard’s band, primarily drummer Earl Palmer. Palmer and Vee, and I’m sure Snuff Garret as well, started experimenting in the studio using tom-tom drums for the backbeat, which was very unusual for the time. But it was also extremely effective. Carole King’s husband Gerry Goffin had a hand in Vee’s next hit, which scored at Number Two in November-December 1961.
Run to Him was a double-sided hit. Vee was no stranger to those—he had at least six. The B side was another Goffin-King concoction. Vee by this time had become a master of double-tracking his lead vocal, and this upbeat and very sprightly song always leaves you smiling. Listen to the percussion and the horns:
Vee’s best years were 1961 and 1962, starting out with another percussion-based ballad that featured Buddy Holly’s guitarist Tommy Alsup on lead. Alsup was on the Winter Dance Party Tour. At the time of this song’s release, Bandstand host Dick Clark was going through a divorce from his wife Barbara, so he never played it on the show, which might have hurt some sales, but Vee never minded what he called having a “fringe hit.”
Vee’s next song was again written by Goffin and King. In the same session, he also recorded It Might as Well Rain and Go Away Little Girl. Vee chose it as his next release. It did well, but not as well as Little Girl by Steve Lawrence or September by Carole King. Again, listen for the percussion:
I don’t know why so many Brill Building songwriters love pain (Please Hurt Me and He Hit Me It Felt Like a Kiss come to mind). But Vee recorded a song that has nothing to do with domestic violence despite its title: Go ahead and punish her…with kisses, hugs, and flowers.
One of his albums, Bobby Vee Meets The Crickets, sold fairly well and had some good rockers on it. One that was released on the B side of Punish Her bruised the Top 100 at Number 99. Still, it was a decent effort, and you can tell The Crickets and Vee paired well together (same with The Everlies):
As 1962 was nearing to a close, Vee would record one of his most popular hits. It was supported by the Wrecking Crew session masters and the Johnny Mann Singers, and reached as high as Number Three in early 1963, staying on the charts for 14 weeks:
It would be another three years before Vee had another Top Ten entry and it was the last big hit he had in 1963:
Later that year American Bandstand chose Vee to headline Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars national U.S. Tour, but the venue in Dallas cancelled due to President Kennedy’s assassination. Vee’s career suffered, like so many others, with the arrival of the Brits starting in 1964. Vee was surprised when he first heard Love Me Do by the Beatles. His reaction: another Buddy Holly and The Crickets. The invasion didn’t keep Vee from recording, however, and in the summer of 1966, Liberty released a different sounding Bobby Vee, more in tune with garage rock in the mid-to-later sixties. This song was not as polished, but the catchy riff got it to Number 52:
While his recordings of Look At Me Girl, Come Back When You Grow up, and Beautiful People were credited to Bobby Vee and The Strangers, the musicians who played on the records were session folks. Vee’s road band was labeled The Strangers. Vee was never a rocker of sorts. His later songs weren’t as lavish…more spartan and intimate.
Vee continued to be on the charts up to 1970. He continued performing until 2011, when he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. He recorded his final album Adobe Sessions in 2014, and he died at the age of 73 in 2016.