Bobby Vee, the Sixties pop idol who had more than 100 Hot hits with "Take Good Care of My Baby," "Run to Him" and "Rubber Ball," died Monday ensuing a five-year bout with Alzheimer's illness at 73.
Vee's son Jeff Velline affirmed the singer's end to The Associated Press, adding up his father achieved "the end of a long hard road" and died serenely enveloped by family at a hospice facility in Rogers, Minnesota.
Born Robert Velline in Fargo, North Dakota, Vee's career went the day after "the Day the Music Died": Following the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper - who were on their way to a concert in Moorhead, Minnesota on February 3rd, 1959 - the 15-year-old Vee and his band the Shadows were among the local acts drafted to replace the rock legends on the bill.
Despite the sad situation, the Shadows' gig was pondered a success, with Vee calling the Moorhead show "the start of a wonderful career."
Vee and the Shadows soon recorded a regional hit with "Suzie Baby," which followed in Vee signing a record contract with Liberty Records. Minnesota native Bob Dylan, who called Vee in 2013 "the most meaningful person I've ever been onstage with," would later cover "Suzie Baby" in concert.
The call came out for local acts to replace Holly at his scheduled show at the Moorhead National Guard Armory. Vee and his 2-week-old band offered, along with three or four other bands. The show's emcee, Charlie Boone, then a deejay at KFGO Radio, turned to Vee and asked him the name of his group. Vee looked at the shadows of his bandmates on the floor and replied: The Shadows.
"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."
The song on to record 38 Top 100 hits from 1959 to 1970, striking the top of the charts in 1961 with the Carole King-Gerry Goffin song "Take Care Good of My Baby," and reaching No. 2 with the sequel, "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."
Family members said Vee's memory wasn't pretentious so much by Alzheimer's as his oration. During the AP interview in 2013, he answered questions but would become dumb searching for the right word. Vee tried eccentric methods to soothe his Alzheimer's signs, from chiropractor to acupuncture, and renewed his passion for painting.
And while he occasionally wished he could do the things that whence it came, Vee said he was "not going to cry about it."
"God brought me home," he said. "And that's the deal."
