A couple of what were then “oldies” snuck into the mixtape I made in 1972. Remember, the tape was made by taping KHJ Radio and then splicing and clipping to save the songs I liked onto one reel and KHJ sometimes played older hits. This one is “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” recorded by Bobby Vee in 1962. Bobby Vee had an awful lot of hits but I don’t remember him being on TV as much as a lot of performers who had but one or two.
The rise of The Beatles explains a little of why a guy like Bobby Vee suddenly wasn’t as “hot” an act as he might have been in the sixties. Then again, there were plenty of his kind of singer who were more visible. Anyway, even though it was a bit of an anachronism, I liked this song so I put it on my tape.
In 1978, I signed on to be Head Writer on a special/pilot for Sid and Marty Krofft that was to be called [Someone’s] Rock ‘n’ Rollers. The premise was to do a variety show that would try to capture some of the energy and heat of the movie, Grease and the “Rock ‘n’ Rollers” part was decided before we knew who the Someone would be. CBS wanted a star who’d had a fair amount of hit records in or around the era that Grease celebrated. For a brief time, we thought it might be Frankie Avalon’s Rock ‘n’ Rollers and for a time, it looked like it might be Bobby Rydell’s Rock ‘n’ Rollers. At some point, I suggested we look into Bobby Vee and his name went on a list of singers to be discussed.
I also suggested Alvin and the Chipmunks’ Rock ‘n’ Rollers but no one took the suggestion seriously. I still think that would have been a good idea.
I was not involved with the final decision which was made when some of the Krofft execs met with The Network and it wound up being Bobby Vinton’s Rock ‘n’ Rollers. Here’s a promo for the finished show which did remarkably well in the ratings and which almost became a weekly series. The announcer, who was also the announcer on our show, was the great Dick Tufeld. His voice was all over TV for many years, including coming out of the robot on Lost in Space.
It was some time after the show aired that I found out that Bobby Vee hadn’t even been considered. This was apparently because when I suggested him, the person at the Krofft office making up the list wrote down “Bobby V.” and later when Bobby Vinton’s name went on the list, someone thought “Bobby V.” was a duplication and crossed him off. So he was never discussed.
I don’t know if it would have been a better show with Mr. Vee but I thought that was a funny reason for him not being considered. I’ll bet that wasn’t the only time someone got them confused.
Anyway, I went looking on YouTube for a video of Bobby Vee singing “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” to post here and I found this. I’m not sure what it was made for…some TV show or something. They didn’t make music videos as we know them back then. Nothing about the song suggests good-looking young people on a beach in swimwear but I guess that didn’t bother whoever decided to have them in this…
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