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.