Britain is a country with old men who said "Happy Birthday and Good Luck" to an old American called Bobby Vee who sang of love when they were very young men

Bobby, who was 69 years old on monday and announced on his website that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Things you possibly didn't know about Bobby, that he :

* was born in Fargo, North Dakota, the son of a Finnish mother and American father, Sydney Velline.

* met in his early music career, a musician named 'Elston Gunn', aka Robert Allen Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan and later said : "He played pretty good in the key of C. The gig was in a church basement. When he wasn't playing, he would come up behind me and do handclaps. He was a nice guy, and wiry, with a lot of energy and no money, just like us."

http://entertainment.ca.msn.com/music/photos/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=22093115&page=12

* saw his rise as a singer begin when, after the 1959 plane crash which killed music greats Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP 'Big Bopper' Richardson, en route to Moorhead for a concert and he was picked to fill in.

* released 'Take Good Care of my Baby' when I was 14 and probably in love with 'Christine' in my class at school in the summer of 1961, when it reached Number 3 in the charts :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awNqLO6auQA&feature=related

and made this version in 1989 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6depwnmDyOg&feature=related

* released 'The Night has a Thousand Eyes' when I was 16 in 1963 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD7MHgskNwg

* released 'Run to Him' in 1965 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpA6mE6J2eM

So "Thanks" Bobby for your music which brightened those early teenage years.

P.S.
My post on my school in 1965 :

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Britain in 1965 - a London School called 'Eltham Green Comprehensive' and the confidence of youth
http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/britain-in-1965-place-where-schools-had.html