Bobby Darin

Jun 7, 2021 | Back Beat

A look back at the life of dazzling Bobby Darin…

Darin was an American singer, a songwriter, and instrumentalist with vocals — guitar – piano – drums – harmonica, and xylophone – and he performed jazz, traditional pop, rock and roll, folk, swing, country, big band, and blues, and was, in addition, an actor. By the time he became a teenager, he could already play many instruments.

Bobby Darin

He was born Walden Robert Cassotto on May 14, 1936, in East Harlem and died at the very early age of just 37 on December 20, 1973, in Los Angeles. His active years in show business were from 1956 until 1973. Eventually, his labels would become Decca – Atco – London – Capitol – Brunswick – Atlantic – Motown. His early years were complicated by his belief that his mother was instead his elder sister and his grandmother who raised him from birth was his mother. The two women had devised an illicit scheme; then, at the age of 32 in 1968, his birth mother told him the difficult truth and also refused to name his biological father until her death in 1983. He had also become politically active on Robert F Kennedy’s presidential campaign and was present on the night of June 4/5, 1968, in Los Angeles at the time of the Kennedy assassination.

These matters – discovering his real parentage and the assassination – deeply affected Bobby, sending him into long seclusion during the next year, including life in a trailer. However, in the early 1970s, he made a successful comeback on television but as he expected, his health was failing after periods of childhood rheumatic fever. Consequently, he had a compulsion to utilise his musical talents while time was on his side. He had moved to a summer home in the Bronx in early life and enrolled in the drama department of a College dropping out to pursue acting. His name was changed to Bobby Darin due to three missing letters M A and N on the sign ‘MANDARIN’, leaving only DARIN. Bobby’s music career started in 1955 when he wrote songs with Don Kirshner, and a year later, he signed with Decca Records having almost no success. A member of the Brill Building songwriters, he was introduced to Connie Francis, helping her to write a number of songs and with whom he found romance, although her father did not approve, and they separated. Bobby was keen to elope and Connie said that not marrying Bobby was the biggest mistake of her life.

He left Decca and signed with Atco, an Atlantic Records offshoot where he arranged and recorded, but they were not his style of music. However, his Atlantic career was successful when he recorded ‘Splish Splash’, encouraged by a mother, and his first venture into rock and roll sold one million plus copies. A 1958 Brunswick recording re-released by Atco records ‘ Early in the Morning’ charted and reached No.24 in the US. His own ballad ‘Dream Lover’ in 1959 was a multi-million success, No. 1 in UK and No.2 in US: but what came next was incredible. His single ‘Mack the Knife’, Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera standard given a jazz-pop arrangement, reached No.1 on the charts on the US, UK, and Cashbox for nine weeks – sold two million copies – won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year 1960 – since awarded Grammy Hall of Fame Award. In the late 1960s, ‘Beyond the Sea’, an English arrangement of ‘La Mer’, a French success by Charles Trenet, produced by Atlantic and No. 6 and No.8 in US and UK, with Bobby setting attendance records at the Copacabana night club and at the major casinos. With numerous recordings in the 1960s and then on into 1962, Bobby started to sing country music, with three hit songs and his final UK hit single. In 1962 ‘Things’ – UK No.2 and US No.3 was followed by ‘You’re the Reason I’m Living’, US No.3 and ’18 Yellow Roses’, US No.10. The last two were recorded by Capitol which he joined in 1962 then left in 1964. In 1966 came his final UK hit single ‘If I Were A Carpenter’, reaching No.9 UK and Np.8 US, also becoming ‘folksy’ with this musical output in the world of Tim Hardin the folksinger.

Bobby’s acting career had commenced in 1959, being signed to five film studios in Hollywood and writing music for his films. In 1962, he won a Golden Globe for his first major film Come September with Rock Hudson and featuring his first wife, the 18-year-old Sandra Dee. After meeting in the film, they married and produced a son on December 16, 1961, then divorced in 1967. From 1961 until 1964, Bobby appeared in several other films with both praise and Academy nominations. When he returned to Los Angeles in 1969, he founded Direction Records, his own label where he wrote ‘Simple Song of Freedom’ recorded by Tim Hardin and which became Hardin’s best seller. Bobby himself sang this popular song live on television shows and he said that the purpose of Direction was ‘to seek out statement makers’ and to reflect his outlook on modem society. He signed with Motown. In July, 1972, he sang in his television show on NBC for seven episodes and in 1973 he starred in ‘The Bobby Darin Show’ for 13 episodes, later making television guest appearances and remaining a top attraction.

Health problems

In the same year, his health problems worsened. Poor health had followed him throughout his entire life as a frail infant, then rheumatic fever, and heart surgery, taking a year to recover. On stage, he was often given oxygen during performances. In December 1973, he suffered open heart surgery when the surgical team worked until the early hours of December 20, 1973, but Bobby died at the age of 37 and his body was donated to medical research. In the 1990s, Bobby was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In May 2007, he was awarded a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars, and he also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On December 13, 2009, the Recording Academy awarded Bobby a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award. He had always been aware of his failing health and it is impossible to assess what he could have achieved without that problem, although he had a compulsion to use his many talents with time on his side, mainly singing the wonderful songs of his career popular to this day. Given longer life, he could have achieved so much more for us all.

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