RIP, Bobby Vee

2016 claims another one. Bobby Vee got his break in rock and roll because of the Day the Music Died, February 3, 1959. He was 15 when the call went out for Fargo-area acts to fill in for Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (the Big Bopper) when their small plane crashed on the way to a show in nearby Moorhead, Minnesota. His band called into a local radio station and got the gig. By 1961 Bobby started having numerous hits, until the British Invasion sidetracked his career. He briefly employed a piano player who called himself Elston Gunnn (with three n's), who later changed his stage name to Bob Dylan. Alzheimer's - it's so insidious - took Bobby Vee. Here's one of his major hits, "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes." RIP, dude.