Bobby Vee

Short Biography

Contrary to popular belief, Bobby Vee was not one of the flood of Italian-American rockers to come out of the New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia area in the `50s and `60s. He was born Robert Velline in Fargo, ND, and although he started playing music when he was just a young teenager, it was country music, not rock. However, he, his brother and some friends eventually formed a rock band, "The Shadows", and began to attract some attention in the Fargo area. His big "break" came when rock legends Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1959 en route to a concert in Minnesota. The concert`s promoters decided to put on the show anyway, and asked for help from local talent. Bobby, who knew the words to all of the songs that were to be played, found himself on stage, and at 15 years old began his career as a rock star. He and his group had a local hit with "Susie Baby", which came to the attention of executives at Liberty Records in Hollywood, and he and The Shadows were signed to the label. The next few records they cut went basically nowhere, however, and Liberty was all set to cancel their contract when a DJ in Pittsburgh played the "B" side to one of their records, a remake of an old ballad by The Clovers called "Devil or Angel". It became a hit in Pittsburgh and then spread throughout the Northeast, eventually hitting #6 on the national pop charts. Liberty then signed Vee to a five-year contract. He had a string of hits for the label, such as "Take Good Care of My Baby", "Rubber Ball", "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" and "Come Back When You Grow Up, Girl".On April 29, 2012, Vee announced on his website that a year prior he had been diagnosed with an early stage of Alzheimer's disease and consequently would withdraw from the music business. For the year prior to his death, Vee received hospice care in a long-term facility in Rogers, Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis. On October 24, 2016, Vee died from complications of early onset Alzheimer's disease