Bobby Vee - The Very Best Of Bobby Vee

The hits and lesser-known delights give us the Vee sign

Four Buddy Holly covers could have been overkill, but throughout his career Bobby Vee has recorded Holly’s songs and often worked with The Crickets. The covers add some distinctiveness to a package which might otherwise be a re-run through the hits. Bobby Vee had the cream of the Brill Building composers writing for him. Take Good Care Of My Baby, Run To Him, The Night Has A Thousand Eyes and even Please Don’t Ask About Barbara are superlative songs, imaginatively scored and produced by Snuff Garrett.

Diehard rock’n’rollers dismiss Vee, claiming he lacks authenticity. Part of the problem is that his songs just aren’t macho: you could never imagine Little Richard, Chuck Berry or even Elvis Presley as chivalrous losers, allowing their girls to go off with other guys while they wait by. There’s also a very definite “Hello, campers!” strain in Vee’s performances, best illustrated by the way he bounces beach balls into the audience during Rubber Ball. We could also do without the end-of-the-pier joviality of Baby Face: a pity, as otherwise the CD is a coherent whole.

Among the lesser-known delights are a medley of the Temptations’ My Girl with Freddie Scott’s Hey Girl, a cover of Little Anthony & The Imperials’ Tears On My Pillow and an excellent It Might As Well Rain Until September, originally written for Vee before Carole King kept it for herself.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

EMI | tbc

Reviewed by Spencer Leigh
<< Back to Issue 352

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