Lew Baxter Talks To The Man Who Found Stardom In The Wake Of Buddy Holly'S Tragic Death And Competed With The Beatles For Chart Success, Daily Post
HE REPUTEDLY sacked Bob Dylan, shared the charts for almost a year with the fledgling Beatles and yet in Britain Bobby Vee is probably best known for the catchy if rather twee Rubber Ball, the song that bounced into the charts in the early 60s.
In truth his credentials do stretch a mite further, even to that legendary dismissal of Bob Dylan from an early band called the Shadows that Vee had formed with his brother Billy.
With a laugh he rubbishes that page of showbiz folklore but does confirm that Dylan did once play with the Shadows under the bizarre name of Elston Gunnn. This was a year or so before Robert Zimmerman changed his name to the one that would become a living legend, Bob Dylan.
"It's been easy to chuckle and to minimize the story in view of Elston's amazing later success," says Vee, who reveals that Dylan had been taken on to play piano.
"But he wasn't fired. The truth is simple - it just didn't work out. What I remember most is his energy and spirit. He was confident, direct and playful. A rock 'n' roll contender even then."
Indeed Bobby Vee's own career literally had lift-off after the disastrous air crash in February 1959 that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper on their way to a show in Iowa.
The promoters, aware that the show was a sell out, asked for local talent to help fill in that sad night. As the curtain came up that evening, a new voice was introduced to the world. It was the 15-year-old Bobby Vee, chosen simply because he knew the words to all the songs.
Vee was born Robert Thomas Velline in Fargo, North Dakota on April 30, 1943 into a musical family. In the 35 years following that fateful plane crash Bobby would go on to place 38 songs in the Billboard top 100 charts, six gold singles, 14 top 40 hits and two gold albums.
In the UK he'd chalked up seven top 10 hits by 1963 as well as the album Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets, Buddy Holly's old outfit. In that year he also shared the charts for 40 weeks along-side the Beatles. It is a testimony to Bobby's ongoing popularity that he was voted Best American Act in 1991 by the readers of The Beat Goes On magazine. In 1994 he ran a close second to Paul McCartney in the category of Most Accomplished Performer.
