Bobby Vee: Legendary Master of '60s Pop

Maybe it was an acquired taste. Back in 1962 when I was nine, an older brother had a couple of Bobby Vee mono LPs he played on the living room stereo (you know, one of those little Muntz maple-veneer consoles with speakers so close together that, in retrospect, the term stereo seems laughable?). Very impressionable, I got indoctrinated with a daily dose of captivating King/Goffin numbers like "Take Good Care of My Baby," Run to Him, Sharing You, and In My Baby's Eyes. Really catchy material, with all the right hooks. Along with Rick Nelson, Neil Sedaka, Del Shannon, and Jan & Dean, Bobby Vee remained one of my (guilty) pleasures throughout subsequent years of British invasion, psychedelia, metal, glam-rock, and whatever. In fact, though nowadays I only intermittently reprise my Beatles, Bubblepuppy, Black Sabbath, Bowie, or Blondie, my fondness for the early BV tunes only mellows with age.

I know, I know. Some won't think it cool to like Bobby Vee songs as much as I do. But I'll take his best melodies any day over the quickly forgettable glop of the '80s and '90s.

In fact, by early 1991 I'd collected the entire thirty or so BV LPs then issued, not to mention various rarities on film and tape. In late 1992 I finally got to see Bobby live at Topeka, Kansas (of all places). Age hasn't diminished his performance. Not long before that concert, I'd written him expressing my appreciation of his music over the years; rather than firing back a form letter, he wrote a personal response addressing some of the points I'd raised. Based on this and occasional TV, radio, and print interviews I've caught over the decades, he seems one of the true class acts in pop history--very unpretentious and natural. Must be his midwestern roots: he hails from Fargo, ND, and, last I heard, continues to make that part of the country home base.