Update | Bobby Vee, clean-cut pop star from 1960s, dies at 73

Bobby Vee, a clean-cut idol from the early days of rock ‘n’ roll who gave a break to a young Bob Dylan, died on Monday, his son said. He was 73.

Vee, whose real name was Robert Velline, died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease in a care facility in Minnesota, the state where he spent most of his life, his son Jeff Velline said.

Possessing the self-effacing humility of the Upper Midwest, Vee bought his first guitar with money from delivering newspapers and started recording with his band the Shadows as a teenager.

Adopting the innocent themes and sound of early rock an roll, Vee became a sensation with teenagers in the early 1960s with a string of hits, most notably “Take Good Care of My Baby” and “Suzie Baby.”

“It was a young business and a young world and I never really thought too much about any of that. It was flat exciting and we were all over the place,” he said in a 1999 interview.

Touring Minnesota in the band’s early days, Vee needed a pianist and offered a spot to another local teenager, Bobby Zimmerman, even though he could then barely play the instrument.