"Someday baby, you'll be blue ...."

      

Bobby Vee and Dion DiMucci and Eddie Cochran were among the early stars of rock 'n' roll ....

  

The early rockin' years

Where were you on February 3, 1959?

Cannot remember?

Were not born yet?

Never mind. I am not telling, either. I simply always have wanted to start a post like that and figured this is a good opportunity.

According to rock 'n' roll mythology, that is "the day the music died." It was the day Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley) and Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela) and The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry "J.P." Richardson Jr.), were killed in an airplane crash after performing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, the evening before.

The musicians were in the midst of their "Winter Dance Party Tour," which included stops in places like Mankato and Duluth and Montevideo and Saint Paul, all in Minnesota, as well as a number of other Midwestern "ballrooms." Ordinarily in those days tour transportation was by bus, but for various reasons that night, Holly and the others were en route by flying for the next concert stop in Moorhead, Minnesota.

They never made it. They died in an Iowa cornfield.

Lesser known about that tale is the fact that another musician's success story began with the death of Holly and the others.

Robert Thomas Velline, a 15-year-old high school student from Fargo, North Dakota, who became professionally known as Bobby Vee, was one of the musicians who filled in for the missing performers at the Moorhead concert. Vee and a band composed of Fargo schoolboys calling themselves the Shadows answered a request for musicians to play in place of those killed in the Iowa crash. The group filled in for Holly and his band. Their performance was a success and started Vee's career as a popular singer/song writer.

Some of Vee's notable songs are "Suzie Baby" / "Devil or Angel" / "Rubber Ball"  / "Take Good Care of My Baby" /  "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" ....

Another significant name in the world of rock was on the tour. Singer/song writer Dion Francis DiMucci had chosen not to travel on the plane which crashed, and did perform. Dion still makes music, and my assumption is most "elders" of the rock community have heard any number of his songs and probably danced to "Runaround Sue."

All this stuff evolved from having stumbled onto Bobby Dylan singing "Suzie Baby," one of Vee's most popular songs, on a video from a concert in Saint Paul a couple of years ago. Vee was among those in the audience. In 1959, while Dylan still was Robert Zimmerman, he performed twice with Vee as the piano man using the name Elston Gunnn. Incidentally, my opinion is that Dylan's rendition of "Suzie" is the worst cover I ever/ever/ever have heard. Simply pathetic ....

The question popped into my mind: Is Bobby Vee still alive? The answer is no, he is not.

Vee continued performing live until 2011 when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. His final recordings were released in 2014. He underwent treatment for Alzheimer's in a long-term care facility in Rogers, Minnesota, near Minneapolis. He died from complications of the disease at age 73 on October 24, 2016.

So, just for fun and a feel for some "old time rock 'n' roll," here is Bobby Vee singing his song, "Suzie Baby," and a taste of New Yorker Dion with "Runaround Sue." Another rock star born and raised in this neck of the woods was Ray Edward "Eddie" Cochran, originally from Albert Lea, Minnesota. Present, too, is Cochran singing, "Long Tall Sally." Cochran was killed at age 21 on April 17, 1960, in a single-vehicle accident in England just as his career was beginning to blossom.

By the way, Suzie baby .... where are you?