When I heard the news the morning of Oct. 24 that Bobby Vee had died, it’s as if I’d had the wind knocked out of me, as if he had been a favorite relative.
I think a lot of local people feel that way because Vee was as down-home, kind, generous, approachable and likable as the best of next-door neighbors. He was very much at home in Central Minnesota, a place he blessed again and again with a long series of benefit concerts for Cathedral High School and later as the headliner for the incredible annual Fourth of July Joetown Rocks concerts in St. Joseph.
When I was a 15-year-old south-St. Cloud kid, if someone would have told me I’d meet Bobby Vee some day, I’d have burst out laughing.
At that time, pre-Beatles, my brothers and I had a lot of Bobby Vee records we’d spin incessantly on our cheesy monaural Decca record player, along with hits by Elvis Presley, Del Shannon, Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney, Ray Charles, the Shirelles, the Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee, Johnny Tillotson, Brian Hyland and so many other early greats.
I remember as if yesterday playing Del Shannon’s “Runaway” until the 45-rpm disc was nothing but a series of hisses and scratches. Same with my two favorite Bobby Vee hits of that time – “Devil or Angel” and “Take Good Care of My Baby.” I first heard all those hits on KDWB- Channel 63 radio out of Minneapolis. We kids lived our lives with our transistor radios practically glued to our ears.
When the Beatles, the Stones and Bob Dylan burst upon the scene, we, kids, in our late teens by then, pretty much – unfairly – put aside those earlier hits we’d loved so much – the teen-angst tunes, many with bubble-gum flavors.
Flash forward to 1980. While living and studying in London, I’d pop into pubs for a beer or two and was surprised to find so many Bobby Vee songs on the jukeboxes – more Vee tunes than Beatles. In talking with Londoners, I discovered Vee was still a huge favorite and that he still occasionally toured Britain to sell-out crowds.
Two years later, in 1982, I began work as a reporter. I was as thrilled as a teeny-bopper one day when my editor assigned me to cover a concert at the Holiday Inn in Alexandria – a Bobby Vee-Del Shannon show. Before the performance, I found myself sitting across from two of the musical heroes of my teen years – Vee and Shannon. It was overwhelming to think I’d actually met them. Of course, I had to tell them all about my brothers and me playing their records on our cruddy record player. They both grinned with amusement and pleasure, even though they must have heard compliments like that thousands of times.
I asked Vee if it’s true that Bob Dylan, before he was even known, had once played with Vee’s band circa 1960. Vee laughed and said, “How in the heck did you know that?” I told him I’d read about it in Rolling Stone. And, sure enough, Vee and band members had met this scrawny kid in a record shop in the Fargo-Moorhead area. They mentioned they were in need of a piano player. The guy said he plays piano and his name is Elston Gunnn (three n’s, go figure). They hired him. He played just a few gigs in the Dakotas’ area and then one night he just vanished.
“That kid could really rock out in the key of C,” Vee told me.
A few years later, Vee and his band were in New York City. While looking in a window of a record shop, they saw an album on display.
“Hey, isn’t that the kid that played piano for us a few times?” one of them asked.
They were all flabbergasted. Sure enough, the debut album was called simply Bob Dylan, the new name for Elston Gunnn. Love that story.
A year or two later after that rockin’ Vee-Shannon concert, again I had the pleasure of seeing-hearing the two of them perform yet another joint concert. Still later, I was pleased yet again to be able to interview Vee and tour his downtown St. Joseph music studio with his sons.
In all the years since the summer of ’61, that day I first heard “Take Good Care of My Baby” on KDWB, it’s been one of my favorite songs. When by chance it’s on my car radio, I turn it up full blast. I sing along, filled with instant exhilaration.
As I write this, I’m listening to Vee’s oldies-but-goodies. Thank you, Bobby Vee, for all those magical musical moments you gave us through so many decades.
