It worked sufficiently well for the group to self-finance and cut four songs for the local Soma label as a result, 1 July 1959. Bright-eyed baby-faced Bobby took vocals only because he knew the lyrics to their limited six-song set. Born Robert Thomas Velline in Fargo, North Dakota, on 30 April 1943, his entry into fame came when he and elder brother Bill formed a group called the Shadows who, wearing matching sweaters, deputised for Buddy Holly at ‘The Armory’, Moorhead, Minnesota on 3 February 1959 immediately following that fatal plane-crash en route to the ‘Winter Dance Party’ show there. I came away with a grudging respect.Īccording to Phil Hardy and Dave Laing’s ‘The Encyclopedia Of Rock’ (Panther, 1976), Bobby Vee was both the ‘luckiest and prettiest of a generation of American ‘college boy’ soloists’ who occupied the upper reaches of early-sixties chartdom. Bobby himself was self-effacing and humorously not-too serious about his own back-catalogue. He did the obligatory medley of his own hits, but the evening was very much a tribute to Buddy. When I saw Bobby Vee at the Wakefield ‘Rooftop Gardens’, in 1989, he was fronting the Crickets. A connection he followed through his career. Yet it was Buddy Holly’s death that kick-started Bobby Vee. Jerry Lee himself was under a virtual media ban following revelations about his bigamous marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin.
Chuck Berry was in jail for trafficking underage girls across State lines. Little Richard had thrown his bling off Sydney bridge and found god. Elvis was off answering his country’s call, doing G.I. Payola was one, which destroyed the career of Rock’s greatest propagandist, Alan Freed. The decline of that first insurrectionary roar of Rock ‘n’ Roll was due to a number of factors. But as with every generalisation, there’s space for mitigating circumstances. And yes, you don’t argue with the ‘Killer’. All sweetly romantic soft-Pop singers with the kind of photogenic looks that gifted them fan-mag celebrity without really trying.
That is – Bobby Vinton, Bobby Rydell… and Bobby Vee. Jerry Lee Lewis knew who was responsible for the bland wave of pretty-boys taking over the late-1950’s music scene in the wake of the demise of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
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