Bobby Vee

A smooth crooning, early 1960s pop star who moulded himself in the image of one of his heroes Buddy Holly, Bobby Vee was the personification of wholesome doo-wop innocence and an antidote to the incendiary excitement that Elvis Presley and early rock'n'roll was starting to cause. A clean-cut, bubblegum, teen idol, he got his break as a 15-year-old when his band The Shadows were asked to fill in for Buddy Holly on the night after he, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper had died in a plane crash. Propelled by songs written at New York's legendary Brill Building publishing house, Vee scored his first major hit with the US Number 6 Devil Or Angel in 1960 and followed it with the Gene Pitney-penned UK Number 4 Rubber Ball. Take Good Care Of My Baby, written by Carole King, gave him is first US Number 1 and the hits kept coming with Run To Him, Sharing You, More Than I Can Say and The Night Has A Thousand Eyes. Vee's last major success came in 1967 with Come Back When You Grow Up, but he continues to tour and has been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.