By Ashley Sanders

The News staff writer

Bobby Vee remembers the night music died.

He lost his musical icon, but garnered a new career path.

“In 1959 Buddy Holly was touring the country with Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. He was in the middle of the tour and had just finished a show at the Surf Ballroom in Clearlake, IA when he chartered a plane to Moorhead, Minn.,” Vee recounted solemnly.

“The plane crashed shortly after take off, killing Holly, Valens, The Big Bopper and the young pilot Roger Peterson.”

The local radio station met with the remaining performers in Fargo, N.D. and the group decided the show would go on despite the deaths of the headliners, Vee said.

“They really should have canceled the show,” he recalled.

But in hindsight, it was very fortunate for Vee that show producers decided to keep the rock n’ roll show on schedule.

“I was a sophomore in high school at the time. And I remember that day producers got on the radio and asked local bands to fill in and perform at the concert.”

Vee, who had tickets for the concert, said he ran home after school and got his garage band together — the young rock n’ roll band was about to make their big debut.

“When my brother and I ended up on stage and the show’s announcer Charlie Boone asked how to introduce us, we realized we didn’t even have a name,” he said. “We all kind of looked down at the floor and then I said ‘The Shadows.’ And that was it. We were off to the races.”

Vee said the rock n’ roll genre was very new in 1959 and for the 15-year-old singer his first performance was bitter sweet.

“It was an amazing loss in my life,” Vee said of Holly’s death. “He was my Elvis.”

Despite his obvious sadness, Vee’s performance that February night garnered a lot of attention from some big music executives.

“I guess we did a good job because a local promoter was in the audience and asked if we were looking for work. People started booking us for events and by June 1959 we had a record out.”

Vee’s song “Susie Baby” soon went to No. 1 on the record charts and five months later he was signed with Liberty Records.

“Snuffy Garrett, a former disk jockey from Lubbock, heard my record and said I reminded him a lot of his friend Buddy Holly. When he asked me to sign with Liberty, we didn’t even talk about money. I signed right then.”

Vee said Liberty was a great label for him and he stayed with the record company for more than 18 years.

In the following thirty plus years since that first performance filling in for Holly, Vee would go on to have thirty-eight songs in the Billboard top 100 charts, six gold singles, fourteen top forty hits and two gold albums.

And now Vee will share his immense talent with Port Arthur. Along with Chris Montez and Johnny Preston, Vee will headline the Solid Gold Rock ‘N’ Roll Show IV at Lamar State College-Port Arthur this Saturday.

The trio will pay tribute to Holly, Valens and The Big Bopper.

Tickets are $20 advance and $22 at the door. The show will get started at 8 p.m. in the Carl Parker Center, 1800 Lakeshore Drive.

Proceeds from the show will benefit the Museum of the Gulf Coast — home of Big Bopper and Janis Joplin memorabilia.

“Johnny, Chris and I are all good friends,” Vee said. “Last November we started this tour in England and it was well received.”

Vee said each performer pays tribute to their music protégé’ — his being Holly, Montez honoring Valens and Preston paying homage to the Bopper.

“It is a very interactive tribute. Everybody kind of does their own show within the framework of the concert,” Vee said. “And the cool thing is we have all been friends for more than 45 years. To come together like this is exciting.”

The Big Bopper will be honored on Friday, Sept. 22, when the Port Arthur Historical Society installs a Texas Historical Commission marker near his grave in Beaumont. The ceremony is set for 5 p.m. in Forest Lawn Cemetery, 4955 Pine St.

Richardson was a Beaumont radio disc jockey and recording artist who had the No. 1 record “Chantilly Lace.”

The historical plaque was sponsored by Johnny Preston Courville, Marjorie A. Hall, W. Sam Monroe,  Roy D. Shotts and the historical society.

For more information and photos of Vee, visit www.bobbyvee.net.