Many of the “forgotten” artists I’ve featured over the past three weeks have been teen idols. I suppose that speaks to the fleeting nature of that sort of fame. And while the teens who idolized these young men probably remember them into their old age, the broader culture does not.

Does that spell doom for the boy bands of the 90s? Will The Backstreet Boys be a faded footnote to music fans in the 2050s?

Bobby Vee is one of the most interesting artists I’ve learned about during these posts, not for his music but for his proximity to historic events and people.

He got his start at age 15 when his hastily-assembled band played a show in Moorhead, Minnesota, that would have been the next stop for Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens had their plane not crashed. He was planning to attend the concert, but ended up performing in it when a local radio station called for replacement acts following the tragedy.

Four years later, following a string of five Top 10 hits, he was slated to headline Dick Clark’s national Caravan of Stars tour. His planned performance on the night of November 22, 1963, was cancelled when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated that afternoon.

On a lighter note, Vee’s early band included a pianist named Elston Gunnn, who was none other than a young Robert Zimmerman trying on a different pseudonym before landing on Bob Dylan. Dylan later praised Vee in his autobiographical book Chronicles: Volume One and onstage.

As for Vee’s music, it was largely pop and rock songs cooked up in the Brill Building. His sole #1 hit, ‘Take Good Care of My Baby,’ was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

Vee was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2011 and died five years later at 73.