BOBBY VEE, 1943-2016

Bobby Vee, a teen idol of the 1960s who became Liberty Records’ biggest star and gave Bob Dylan his first professional music job, died Monday in Rogers, Minn., five years after being diagnosed Alzheimer's disease. He was 73.

Signed to Liberty Records in 1959, Vee had 38 singles that charted, with "Take Good Care of My Baby," “Devil or Angel,” "Run to Him," “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” and “Come Back When You Grow Up” reaching the Top 5. His 1961 record, “Rubber Ball,” hit #1 in Australia—#6 in the U.S.—which gave him an international audience.

Liberty, largely a film music label until entering the rock & roll arena with Eddie Cochran in 1957 and novelty music a year later with David Seville’s “Witch Doctor,” signed Vee after he had a regional hit on Soma, “Suzie Baby.”

Tapped to compete with the likes of Ricky Nelson and Frankie Avalon, Vee churned out records and appeared in a string of teen-targeted films, among them Swingin’ Along, Play It Cool and Just For Fun as well as multiple TV shows. He recorded nearly 30 albums for Liberty and UA between 1960 and 1975 and continued to record and tour into his 60s.

A native of Fargo, N.D., who had long lived in Minnesota, he had a most-dramatic entry into show business: Vee and his band were hired to play the show in Moorhead, Minn., that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were en route to when their plane crashed and all were killed. Vee was 15 at the time.

Four months after that February 1959 show, Vee recorded “Suzie Baby,” which led to the Liberty contract. He had his first national hit with “Devil or Angel” in 1960 when he was 17.

Between the Moorhead performance and the Liberty deal, Vee employed Dylan, who at the time was calling himself Elston Gunn. It was Dylan, legally Zimmerman at the time, who encouraged Vee to shorten his surname of Velline.

At a St. Paul, Minn., concert in 2013 that Vee attended, Dylan said before performing “Suzie Baby,” "I lived here awhile back, and since that time I've played all over the world, with all kinds of people. Everybody from Mick Jagger to Madonna and everybody in between. But the most meaningful person I've ever been on the stage with was a man who's here tonight, who used to sing a song called 'Suzie Baby.' "