Bobby Vee Meets the Ventures is a 1963 cross-over rock and roll album that brings Bobby Vee, a singer, together with the Ventures, an instrumental quartet.[4] Two tracks are instrumentals performed by the Ventures alone.[5]Bobby Vee Meets the Ventures was promoted by touring along with the 1962 album Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets.[6]
The album made its first appearance on Billboard Top LPs chart on June 1, 1963, and remained on the album chart for eight weeks, peaking at number 91.[7] No. 37 on the Cashbox albums chart.[8]
The album was released on compact disc for the first time by Beat Goes On on September 16, 1998, as tracks 13 through 24 on a pairing of two albums on one CD with tracks 1 through 12 consisting of Vee's 9th studio album from February 1963, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes.[9] It was also released as one of two albums on one CD by Collectables Records on October 17, 2000, paired with Vee's 1967 album Come Back When You Grow Up.[10]
Bruce Eder of AllMusic called it Bobby Vee's "hardest-rocking album ever", and stated that the album is "one great showcase for Vee's vocalizing and the playing of Nokie Edwards et al".[11]Billboard called it "one of the hottest in the teen album dance field".[12] The album was referred to as a "Rocking Cha Cha Beat" by Disc,[13] and Cashbox said "the distinctive vocal delivery blends smoothly with the instrumental stylings of the Ventures".[14]
The Liverpool Echo wrote that "[Vee] seems to have lost a little of his early vocal potency and the Ventures tend to bang and bash too heavily for comfort".[15]
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