Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Bobby Vee, a 1960s singer...

...known for such hits as “Take Good Care of My Baby” and “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes,” died at age 73.

Mr. Vee wasn't necessarily one of my favorites, but his obit in the Times was mildly interesting (my emphasis).

A few months after their Moorhead performance, [Mr. Vee's] band recruited a fledgling pianist who went by the name Elston Gunn (sometimes spelled with three n’s). It was his first gig with a professional group that had actually released a record. While their collaboration was short-lived — cramped by a decrepit piano, he left to enroll at the University of Minnesota, moved to New York and changed his name (again; he had been born Robert Zimmerman) to Bob Dylan — it was transformative.

Mr. Vee abbreviated his surname at the suggestion of Mr. Dylan, who was taken by Mr. Vee’s graciousness and later described him as “the most beautiful person I’ve ever been on the stage with.”

“I’d always thought of him as a brother,” Mr. Dylan was quoted as saying. Mr. Vee’s voice, he said, was “as musical as a silver bell.”

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