Rubber Ball

 ( 1961 Songs ) 

" Rubber Ball" was an early 1961 hit for Bobby Vee on Liberty Records. It was the record which made Vee an international star. The song was recorded on August 12, 1960, in a four-song, three-hour session at United in Hollywood. It was produced by Snuff Garrett, arranged by Ernie Freeman, and was co-written at the Brill Building in New York by Gene Pitney, using his mother's maiden name (Orlowski), and by Aaron Schroeder. Veteran session drummer Earl Palmer played drums at the session.Scherman, Tony, Backbeat: The Earl Palmer Story, foreword by Wynton Marsalis, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 1999 p. 175, . The record marked Vee's first use of overdubbing his second vocal.

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Chart performance The song was Vee's fifth US single release making #6 on the Billboard charts. Outside the US, "Rubber Ball" was a breakthrough hit for him in the UK, where it reached #4.

David Roberts (2025). 9781904994107, Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 9781904994107

It also reached #4 in CHUM Chart. In Australia, it was Vee's only #1 record; it stayed at the top for three weeks in early 1961.

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Cover versions

• A version by British singer Marty Wilde reached #9 the charts in 1961.
  David Roberts (2025). 9781904994107, Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 9781904994107

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