Bobby Darin!
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Bobby Darin Early years
Darin was born to a poor working-class family in The Bronx, New York. Bobby Darin's Italian American father disappeared a few months before Bobby Darin was born at the height of the Great Depression. Bobby Darin once remarked that "my crib was a cardboard box, later a dresser drawer". As a result, his mother, a Mayflower descendant, had to accept social assistance to take care of her infant son. It was not until Bobby Darin was an adult that Bobby Darin learned that the woman Bobby Darin thought to be his sister Nina, 19 years his senior, was in fact his mother. The identity of his true father was never publicly or privately disclosed. Bobby Darin's mother refused to reveal that information even to him. Bobby Darin went to his death without knowing the identity of his birth father.Frail as an infant, perhaps from the poverty that resulted in a lack of proper and medical attention, at the age of 8 Bobby Darin was stricken with multiple bouts of rheumatic fever. The illness left Bobby Darin with a seriously diseased heart, and Bobby Darin would live with the constant knowledge that his life might be a short one. As a child Bobby Darin overheard a doctor tell his mother Bobby Darin would be lucky to reach the age of 16. Driven by his poverty and illness, and with an innate talent for music, by the time Bobby Darin was a teenager Bobby Darin could play several musical instruments, including piano, drums and guitar. Bobby Darin later added harmonica and xylophone.
An outstanding student, Darin graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, and then attended Hunter College on a scholarship. Wanting a career in the New York theater, Bobby Darin left college to play small nightclubs around the city with a musical combo. In the resort area of the Cats kill Mountains, Bobby Darin was both a bus boy and entertainer.
He chose the name "Bobby Darin" because Bobby Darin had generally been called Bobby as a child (some called Bobby Darin "Waldo", a version of his first name) and because Bobby Darin had seen a malfunctioning sign at a Chinese restaurant reading "DARIN DUCK" rather than the intended "MANDARIN DUCK" and thought the "darin" looked good. Later this story was modified, as Bobby Darin said on one occasion that the name was randomly picked out of the telephone book. Neither story has ever been verified.
Bobby Darin Musical Career
Bobby Darin "Mack the Knife" 45 Sleeve.As was common with ethnic minorities at the time, Bobby Darin changed his Italian name and, in 1956, his agent negotiated a contract for Bobby Darin with Decca Records where Bill Haley & his Comets had risen to fame. However, this was a time when rock and roll was still in its infancy and the number of capable record producers and arrangers in the field was extremely limited. Like other performers, Darin was at first pigeon-holed, recording the banal songs popular with record executives at the time. Bobby Darin also had a genius.He left Decca to sign with Atlantic Records, where Bobby Darin wrote and arranged music for himself and others. There, after three mediocre recordings, his career took off in 1958 when Bobby Darin released his unique rock song "Splish Splash" (which was written on a bet that Bobby Darin couldn't write a song that started out with the words, "Splish Splash") that became an instant hit, selling more than a million copies. This was followed by more hits recorded in the same successful style.
In 1959, Bobby Darin recorded "Dream Lover", a ballad that would become a multi-million seller. With financial success came the ability to demand more creative control, despite the objections of many people around him. Bobby Darin's next record, "Mack the Knife", was the classic standard from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. Darin gave the tune a vamping jazz-pop interpretation. The song went to No. 1 on the charts, sold several million copies, and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1960. For his innovation, Darin was voted the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. "Mack The Knife" has since been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
In addition to music, Darin turned his attention to motion pictures. Bobby Darin would write music for several films and act in them as well. In his first major film Come September, a romantic comedy designed to capitalize on his popularity with the teenage and young-adult audience, Bobby Darin co-starred with 16-year-old actress Sandra Dee. They were later married in 1960 and had one son, Dodd Darin, in 1961.
Asking to be taken seriously, Bobby Darin took on more meaningful movie roles, and in 1962 Bobby Darin won the Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Male Newcomer", for his role in Pressure Point. In 1963 Bobby Darin was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a shell-shocked soldier in Captain Newman, M.D. At the Cannes Film Festival in France, where his records in particular his version of Charles Trenet's French hit song "La Mer" (in America in English: "Beyond the Sea") brought Bobby Darin a wide following, Bobby Darin won the French Film Critics Award for Best Actor. Perhaps the most major disappointment of his life came when Bobby Darin lost the lead role in West Side Story to Richard Beymer. Several leading Hollywood men like Anthony Perkins, Warren Beatty, and Elvis Presley were also major contenders for the role.
Bobby Darin Later years and death
In the mid-1960s, Darin headlined at the major casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bobby Darin was the youngest performer to headline in Las Vegas and Bobby Darin broke all attendance records at New York's famed Copacabana. Bobby Darin was instrumental in bringing up new talent Richard Pryor and Flip Wilson opened his night club performances when they were virtually unknown. At the Copacabana Bobby Darin insisted that a black comic (Nipsey Russell) be his opening act. This was a very hard sell in the era of NYC night club segregation. However considering Bobby Darin had set the attendance mark (eclipsing Frank Sinatra) his request was grudgingly granted, by Jules Podell, the Frank Costello (mob boss) manager of the Copa.His acting accomplishments include an Academy Award nomination for his outstanding performance in Captain Newman, M.D.. Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee were divorced in 1967, at which time they had one child, a son, Dodd Mitchell Darin.
Darin became politically active, working on the 1968 Presidential election campaign of Robert Kennedy. Profoundly affected by Kennedy's assassination, Bobby Darin made two protest albums of folk music.
His late folk/protest period, "Songs From Big Sur" album (compilation released in 2004).At the beginning of the 1970s Bobby Darin continued to act and to record, including at Motown Records. In January 1971, Bobby Darin underwent his first heart surgery in an attempt to correct some of the heart damage Bobby Darin had lived with since childhood. In 1972, Bobby Darin was well enough to star in his own television variety show, on NBC (The Bobby Darin Amusement Company) which ran for two years. Bobby Darin also remained a top draw at Las Vegas where Bobby Darin was administered oxygen after his performances. Darin also started Wayne Newton's career. Bobby Darin also owned and operated a highly successful music publishing company (TM Music) which was responsible for many hit records including "Under The Boardwalk" and "Good Lovin".
A goodwill Ambassador for the American Heart Association, on December 20, 1973, Darin died following surgery to repair a faulty heart valve. In accordance with his wishes, his body was donated to the UCLA Medical Center for research purposes.
In 1990, fellow 1950s rock and roll pioneer, Paul Anka, made the speech for Darin's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999 Bobby Darin was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1735 Vine Street.
In 2000, actor Kevin Spacey, a lifelong fan of Darin, acquired the film rights to his story. Spacey directed and produced the film, and played Bobby Darin as well as co-writing the script. The film is titled after one of Darin's top hits, Beyond The Sea, and was released at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. In spite of its high production values, strong studio promotion and critical acclaim, the movie's box office results were disappointing. However, the movie spurred a renewed interest in Darin which has resulted in the release of "never before heard, or seen" material. Bobby Darin's pianist, Roger Kellaway, has recorded two albums of Darin's music as well.
Bobby Darin Discography
Bobby Darin early
compilation album.Splish Splash (Bobby Darin, Murray Kaufman) Recorded in NYC, April 10 US#3 ; UK#18 1958Queen of the Hop (Woody Harris) Recorded in NYC, April 10 US#9 ; UK#24 1958
Plain Jane US#38 1959
Dream Lover US#2;UK#1 1959
Mack the Knife (Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Marc Blitzstein) Recorded at Fulton on West 40th Street, NYC, December 19 US#1; UK#1 1958 Tom Dowd (eng)
Beyond The Sea (the French hit song La Mer) US#6;UK#8 1960
Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey? US#19;UK#34 1960
You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby US#5;UK#10 1961
What'd I Say? US#24 1962
Things US#3 UK#2 1962
You're the Reason I'm Living US#3 1963
18 Yellow Roses US#10 UK#37 1963
If I Were a Carpenter' US#8 UK#9 1966
Mame 1966
A Simple Song of Freedom 1967
Bobby Darin Sings Doctor Doolittle 1967
Bobby Darin Born Walden Robert Cassotto 1968
Commitment 1969
Bobby Darin Filmography
Heller in Pink Tights (1960)Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
Pepe (1960) (cameo)
Come September (1961)
Too Late Blues (1961)
State Fair (1962)
Hell Is for Heroes (1962)
If a Man Answers (1962)
Pressure Point (1962)
Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
That Funny Feeling (1965)
Gunfight in Abilene (1967)
Stranger in the House (1967)
The Happy Ending (1969)
Happy Mother's Day, Love George (1973)
