Bobby Vee: "Take Good Care of My Baby"

September 18, 1961 (3 weeks)

It's amazing to think that Bobby Vee's career in pop music began because of the tragic deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper but that's exactly what happened. The plane crash that would eventually became known as The Day the Music Died threatened to cancel the show the rock 'n' roll stars were supposed to play the next night in Moorhead, Minnesota until a group of youngsters stepped in to fill the void. (In this day and age, such a tragic occurrence would have resulted in the concert being called off out of respect for the deceased but people back in the fifties were built from sturdier stuff and weren't such sensitive snowflakes) Fifteen-year-old Bobby Vee filled the void and this managed to kick start his life in showbiz. Opportunity sometimes presents itself in some unlikely places.

Speaking of unlikely, the man born Robert Thomas Velline later befriended another young performer who had the same Christian name as him and who came from the state right next door to his native North Dakota. Robert Zimmerman was a young singer-songwriter from Hibbing, Minnesota who took on the name Elston Gunnn (no, those three n's are not a misprint) as a member of Vee's touring group. Later, as Bob Dylan, he would be reverently of the singer, claiming that sharing a stage with him meant more to him than the many, many subsequent stars he would go on to perform with.

Bobby Vee's story really ought to be the subject of a bestselling book. (Either that or it already has been and I'm just not aware of it) For that matter, why hasn't it been made into a Hollywood biopic? (Again, perhaps it already has been and I'm just woefully uninformed) Such a fascinating life story deserves such treatments. Too bad his music is so pleasant but ordinary.

Tom Breihan is as underwhelmed by "Take Good Care of My Baby" as I am but he maintains that it's still a "good song". I'm not so sure of that. I'm as indifferent to the composition as I am to Vee's recording. Breihan's main beef is with the vocal not being regretful and pained enough. Maybe but having a lighter, more optimistic take on it has merit too. Vee comes across as the bigger man by imparting some advice on his ex's new beau. It sounds like he's trying his best to move on even if he clearly hasn't. In any case, Vee gives a perfectly adequate performance of a very average song.

It really isn't one of the stronger efforts from the renowned spousal songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carol King. Not as hook-filled, not as immediate, not as memorable, not as, not as, not as. Funnily enough, while I can still barely recall the bulk of it — despite having been listening to it steadily over the past week — I keep being reminded of "Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)", a similarly titled song from 1963 by The Cookies which was written by...(checks notes)...Goffin/King! It's like they got better at their craft or something!

All that said, "Take Good Care of My Baby" is just fine if very unremarkable. The only real blunder is the double-tracking on the chorus. At least John Lennon had the decency to have his voice thickened throughout entire songs he was singing but the use of a single Vee on the verses with another one joining him on the chorus is way too distracting. Couldn't they have had someone step in on backing vocals instead? If there's one other problem it's that this passable hit doesn't come close to measuring up to the kind of life Bobby Vee lived. Get on that book and/or movie pronto — unless, of course, they already exist in which case what the hell am I waiting for?

Score: 5