60s teen idol Bobby Vee, who replaced Buddy Holly and Richie Valens at Moorhead, ND date after fatal Iowa plane crash, now diagnosed with Alzheimer's

Though his voice shows his age, the music Vee now makes in his Tuscon garage is more interesting than the (delightfully) cheesy, irresistable pop confections he made as a teen idol.

Below, at 2:05 Vee talks about his career-making date on February 2, 1959, when he played the Moorhead Armory engagement in Moorhead, MN, substituting for Richie Valens, the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly who died in a 12-year-old Beach Bonanza which crashed in a cornfield less than four minutes after takeoff from Madison City, Iowa. The event was enshrined as "the day the music died" in Don McClean's 70s smash "American Pie."



Vee's wife, Karen, to whom he has been married 48 years, has her own health challenges, as she on a lung transplant wait list.

Then...
 

and now...