Lyricist Tim Rice recalls longtime admiration for Bobby Vee, whose funeral is today

Crowds are gathering today for the funeral of 1960s rock and roll teen idol Bobby Vee in Collegeville, Minn.

Vee, the North Dakota-born rocker with Minnesota ties, whose hits included the chart-topping "Take Good Care of My Baby" and who helped a young Bob Dylan get his start, died in October of advanced Alzheimer's disease. Vee was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2011, and performed his last show that year.

One of the people mourning Vee's passing is Sir Tim Rice, the lyricist behind such musicals as "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita" and "The Lion King."

A longtime fan of Bobby Vee, he befriended the rocker later in life. Rice traveled from London to St. Paul last week to see "Teen Idol: The Bobby Vee Story," the History Theater musical about Vee's life.

He told stories about his admiration of Vee, starting with a time when he was in high school in the early 1960s, and a friend returned home to England from a vacation to Canada.

The friend brought back a single of "Take Good Care of My Baby," long before it was released in England. Click on the audio player above to hear Rice tell the story.

Born Robert Velline in Fargo, N.D., Vee was only 15 when he took the stage in Moorhead, Minn., after the Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash in Iowa that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson on their way to the concert.

The call went out for local acts to replace Holly at his scheduled show at the Moorhead National Guard Armory. Vee and his 2-week-old band volunteered, along with three or four other bands.

Vee called his debut a milestone in his life, and "the start of a wonderful career."

He went on to record 38 Top 100 hits from 1959 to 1970, hitting the top of the charts in 1961 with the Carole King-Gerry Goffin song "Take Care Good of My Baby," and reaching No. 2 with the follow-up, "Run to Him."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.