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TOMMY DEE
“THREE STARS”
(TOMMY DEE)
Crest 1057
No. 11 May 4, 1959
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The music died, we’ve been told, at 1:50 A.M. on February 2, 1959. The small airplane carrying Buddy
Holly, the Big llopper, and Ritchie Valens crashed that morn. Numerous records were rush-released to
commemorate rock ‘n’roll’s loss; Tommy Dee’s spoken-word tribute touched the heart.
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Tommy (b. Thomas Donaldson, July 7, 1937, Vicker, VA) was a record-rider at KPXM in San Bernardino
that fateful day. Raised in Boston, he had worked his virgin flight over the airwaves at KCLS in
Flagstaff, Arizona. A short stint at KOFA in Yuma followed. It was during Tommy’s first week on the
Bernardino airwaves that Ritchle, Buddy, and the Bopper passed on to rock ‘n’ roll heaven.
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“I was on the air, when it happened,” said Dee to writer Albert Leichter. “The bells went crazy on the
teletype. ‘What’s this!’ I started reading it…. I wrote the song, right on the spot: poured my heart out.
‘No, it can’t be true… My friend, next door, had a little Webco [tape recorder]. I just put it down as I
wrote it, just a strum of the guitar. He told me I should make a record on it. I told him all I meant for it
to be was a tribute to play on my show.”
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The next day, with a change of mind, Dee went to American Music and Crest Records owner Sylvester
Cross. As Dee recalls, “Cross said, ‘Do you mind if Eddie Cochran records this song?’ I said, “No.”
Within minutes Eddie and his manager Jerry Capehart were present. They listened to it. Eddie, in
tears, said, ‘Let’s cut it right now.'” Cochran spent several hours in the studio, but as Dee put it, “It
just didn’t come off.”
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Paul Anka, George Hamilton IV, and Johnny Nash–temporary trio that had been succeuful months
earlier with “The Teen Commandments”–could not be gathered in time to record. At 9 P.M. six days
after the erash, Dee was ushered into the Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. “They wanted a female
voice on the record,” said Dee. “Carole Kay–an act that American Music was working with—-was
chosen. I never met her again. She got paid $50 for her part. She was a very important part of that
record. Without her there wouldn’t have been a record.”
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Dee, Kay and her vocal group, the Teen-Aires (a.k.a. Teen Tones) only got to practice the song one
time before tapes rolled; that’s ONE time. There was no time to put together a flipside; an old demo
by Kay and the group was put into service. “I took an acetate back to the radio station,” said Dee. “I
gave it to the all-night man. ‘Here’s my new record,’ I told him. ‘Give It a play, if you get a chance.’
I didn’t have a radio in my car, I had a ’47 Mercury; the radio was out. I couldn’t even listen to it.”
The next morn when Dee returned to the station, orders for thousands of disks were waiting. Within
a week, “Three Stars” was in the store; only to leave moments later by way of sale.
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Although Tommy Dee never considered himself a singer, he appeared on Dick Clark’s “American
Bandstand” three times and toured with Cochran and Con·way ‘Twitty; accompaniment was often
provided by Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps and sometimes by (mysterious Columbia Recording
artists) the Big Beats. Said Dee, “My record was in the true sense of the word, a novelty record. I was
in the right place at,the right time. Everything fell in place.
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