Bobby Darin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bobby Darin |
Darin in 1959
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Walden Robert Cassotto |
| Born |
May 14, 1936
East Harlem, New York City
New York, U.S. |
| Died |
December 20, 1973 (aged 37)
Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres |
Jazz, blues, rock 'n' roll, pop, swing, folk, country |
| Occupation(s) |
Musician, singer-songwriter, actor |
| Instruments |
Vocals, guitar, piano, drums, harmonica, xylophone |
| Years active |
1956–1973 |
| Labels |
Decca, Atco, London, Capitol, Brunswick, Atlantic, Motown |
Bobby Darin (born
Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14,
1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter,
multi-instrumentalist, and actor of film and television. He performed in
a range of musical genres, including jazz, pop, rock 'n' roll, folk,
swing, and country.
He started as a songwriter for
Connie Francis, and recorded his own first million-seller "
Splish Splash" in 1958. This was followed by "
Dream Lover", "
Mack the Knife", and "
Beyond the Sea", which brought him world fame. In 1962 he won a
Golden Globe Award for his first film
Come September, co-starring his first wife,
Sandra Dee.
During the 1960s he became more politically active and worked on
Robert F. Kennedy's
Democratic presidential campaign. He was present on the night of June 4/5, 1968, at the
Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Kennedy's
assassination.
That same year he discovered that he had been brought up by his
grandmother, not his mother, and that the girl he had thought to be his
sister was actually his mother. These events deeply affected Darin and
sent him into a long period of seclusion.
Although he made a successful comeback - in television - his health
was beginning to fail, as he had always expected, following bouts of
rheumatic fever in childhood.
[2]
This knowledge of his vulnerability had always spurred him on to
exploit his musical talent while still young. He died at age 37,
following a heart operation in Los Angeles.
Early years
Born Walden Robert Cassotto in the
East Harlem neighborhood of New York City,
[3]
Bobby Darin was reared by his maternal grandmother, who he thought was
his mother. Darin's birth mother, Vanina Juliette "Nina" Cassotto (born
November 30, 1917-1983), became pregnant with him in the summer of 1935
when she was 17. Presumably because of the scandalous nature of
out-of-wedlock pregnancies in that era, Nina and her mother hatched a
plan to pass her baby off as Nina's younger brother. Years later, when
Nina finally told Darin the truth about his upbringing, she refused to
reveal the identity of his biological father, and she continued to keep
that secret even up until her own death in 1981. Darin's maternal
grandfather, Saverio Antonio "Big Sam Curly" Cassotto (born January 26,
1882), was of Italian descent and a would-be mobster who died in prison
from pneumonia a year before Darin's birth. His maternal grandmother,
Vivian Fern Walden (also born in 1882), who called herself Polly, was of
English ancestry
[4][5][6] and a
vaudeville singer.
[7]
From his birth, Darin always believed Nina to be his older sister and
Polly his mother. But in 1968, when he was 32, Nina told Darin the
truth, reportedly devastating him.
[8]
By the time he was a teenager, Darin could play several instruments,
including piano, drums, and guitar. He later added harmonica and
xylophone.
[9]
Darin moved to the
Bronx early in his life (with a rented summer home in
Staten Island)
[10] and graduated from the prestigious
Bronx High School of Science.
In later years he attributed his arrogance to his experiences at the
high school, where he was surrounded by brighter students who would
tease him.
[11] He then enrolled at
Hunter College and soon gravitated to the drama department. After only two semesters, he dropped out to pursue an acting career.
[12]
Music career
Darin's career took off with a songwriting partnership, formed in 1955 with
Don Kirshner, whom he met at a candy store in
Washington Heights. They wrote jingles and songs, beginning with "Bubblegum Pop".
[13] In 1956 his agent negotiated a contract with
Decca Records. The songs recorded at Decca had very little success.
[clarification needed]
A member of the
Brill Building gang of struggling songwriters, Darin was introduced to singer
Connie Francis,
for whom he helped write several songs. They developed a romantic
interest of which her father, who was not fond of Darin, did not
approve, and the couple split up. At one point, Darin wanted to elope
immediately; Francis has said that not marrying Darin was the biggest
mistake of her life.
[14]
Darin left Decca to sign with
Atlantic Records'
Atco subsidiary, where he wrote and arranged music for himself and others. Songs he recorded, such as
Harry Warren's "I Found a Million Dollar Baby", were sung in an
Elvis style, which did not suit his personality.
[citation needed]
Guided by Atlantic's star-maker
Ahmet Ertegun, Darin's career finally took off in 1958 when he recorded "
Splish Splash". He co-wrote the song with radio D.J.
Murray Kaufman
after a phone call from Kaufman's mother, Jean, a frustrated
songwriter. Her latest song idea was: "Splish, Splash, Take a Bath".
Both Kaufman and Darin felt the title was lackluster, but Darin, with
few options, said "I could write a song with that title." Within one
hour, Darin had written "Splish Splash".
[15] The single sold more than a million copies.
[16][17] His partnership with Kirshner, who was not involved in the writing of that song, ended at that time.
[13] He made another recording in 1958 for
Brunswick Records with a band called "The Ding Dongs". With the success of "Splish Splash" the single was re-released by
Atco Records as "
Early in the Morning" with the band renamed as "The Rinky Dinks". It charted, and made it to number 24 in the United States.
[18][19]
In 1959, Darin recorded the self-penned "
Dream Lover", a ballad that became a multi-million seller. With it came financial success and the ability to demand more
creative control of his career. So he meant for his
That's All album to show that he could sing more than rock and roll.
[20] His next single, "
Mack the Knife", the standard from
Kurt Weill's
Threepenny Opera, was given a vamping jazz-pop interpretation. Although Darin was initially opposed to releasing it as a single,
[20] the song went to No. 1 on the charts for nine weeks, sold two million copies, and won the
Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1960. Darin was also voted the
Grammy Award for Best New Artist that year, and "Mack The Knife" has since been honored with a
Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
Darin followed "Mack" with "
Beyond the Sea", a jazzy English-language version of
Charles Trenet's
French hit song "
La Mer". Both tracks were produced by Atlantic founders Ahmet and
Nesuhi Ertegün with staff producer
Jerry Wexler and they featured arrangements by Richard Wess.
This late-1950s success included Darin setting the all-time attendance record at the
Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan and headlining at the major
casinos in
Las Vegas.
Darin's 1960 recording of "Artificial Flowers" – a song by
Sheldon Harnick and
Jerry Bock from the Broadway musical
Tenderloin, about the death of a child laborer – featured a jazzy,
Big Band arrangement (by Richard Behrke), that was in sharp contrast to its tragic lyrics.
[21]
In the 1960s, Darin owned and operated—with
Terry Melcher,
Doris Day's son—a music publishing and production company (TM Music/Trio). He signed
Wayne Newton and gave him the song "
Danke Schoen", which became Newton's breakout hit.
[citation needed] Darin also was a
mentor to
Roger McGuinn, who worked for him at TM Music and played the 12-string guitar in Darin's nightclub band before forming
the Byrds. Additionally, Darin produced
Rosey Grier's 1964
LP Soul City, and
Made in the Shade for
Jimmy Boyd.
[citation needed]
In 1962, Darin began to write and sing
country music, with hit songs including
"Things" (US No. 3/UK #2) (1962), "
You're the Reason I'm Living" (US No. 3), and "18 Yellow Roses" (US No. 10). The latter two were recorded by
Capitol Records, which he joined in 1962, before returning to Atlantic four years later. Darin left Capitol in 1964.
[22] In 1966, he had his final UK hit single, with a version of
Tim Hardin's "
If I Were A Carpenter", which peaked at No. 9 (No. 8 in the US). He performed the opening and closing songs on the soundtrack of the 1965
Walt Disney film
That Darn Cat!. "Things" was sung by
Dean Martin in the 1967 TV special
Movin' With Nancy, starring
Nancy Sinatra.
[23]
Bobby Darin is not related to
James Darren.
This confusion sometimes arises because their names are pronounced
similarly, they are the same age, they both started their careers as
teen idols with similarly styled songs, both later sang some of the same
standard pop-jazz ballads, and they are both associated with
Gidget. James Darren starred in
"Gidget" films as Gidget's (
Sandra Dee) love interest. In real life, Darin was the love interest: he married Sandra Dee.
[24]
Acting career
In the fall of 1959, Darin played "Honeyboy Jones" in an early episode of
Jackie Cooper's
CBS military sitcom/drama,
Hennesey set in
San Diego, California. In 1960, he appeared twice as himself in
NBC's short-lived
crime drama Dan Raven, starring
Skip Homeier and set on the
Sunset Strip of
West Hollywood. In the same year, he was the only actor ever to have been signed to five major Hollywood
film studios. He wrote music for several films in which he appeared.
His first major film,
Come September (1961), was a teenager-oriented romantic comedy with
Rock Hudson and
Gina Lollobrigida and featuring 18-year-old actress
Sandra Dee.
They first met during the production of the film, fell in love, and got
married soon afterwards. Dee gave birth to a son, Dodd Mitchell Darin
(also known as Morgan Mitchell) on December 16, 1961.
[25] Dee and Darin made a few films together with moderate success. They divorced in 1967.
In 1961 he starred in
Too Late Blues,
John Cassavetes' first film for a major Hollywood studio, as a struggling jazz musician.
[26] Writing in 2012,
Los Angeles Times critic Dennis Lim observed that Darin was "a surprise in his first nonsinging role, willing to appear both arrogant and weak."
[27] In 1962, Darin won the
Golden Globe Award for "New Star of the Year – Actor" for his role in
Come September.
[28]
The following year he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for
"Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama" (Best actor)
in
Pressure Point.
In 1963, he 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 he won the French Film Critics Award for best actor.
In October 1964, he appeared as a wounded ex-convict who is befriended by an orphan girl in "The John Gillman Story" episode of
NBC's
Wagon Train western television series.
[29]
Later years
"Now my attitude is very simple: I must do what artistically pleases me."
Bobby Darin, 1967 Pop Chronicles interview[20]
Darin became more politically active as the 1960s progressed, and his musical output became more "
folksy." In 1966, he had a hit with folksinger
Tim Hardin's "
If I Were a Carpenter,"
[20] securing a return to the
Top 10 after a two-year absence.
Darin traveled with Robert F. Kennedy and worked on the politician's
1968 presidential campaign. He was with Kennedy the day he traveled to
Los Angeles on June 4, 1968, for the California primary, and was at the
Ambassador Hotel
later that night when Kennedy was assassinated. This event, combined
with learning about his true parentage, had a deep effect on Darin, who
spent most of the next year living in seclusion in a trailer near
Big Sur.
Returning to Los Angeles in 1969, Darin started Direction Records,
putting out folk and protest music. He wrote "Simple Song of Freedom" in
1969, which was recorded by Tim Hardin, who sang only three of the
song's four verses.
Of his first Direction album, Darin said, "The purpose of Direction
Records is to seek out statement-makers. The album is solely [composed]
of compositions designed to reflect my thoughts on the turbulent aspects
of modern society."
[30] He later signed with
Motown.
Beginning on July 27, 1972, he starred in his own television variety show on NBC,
Dean Martin Presents: The Bobby Darin Amusement Company,
which ran for seven episodes ending on September 7, 1972. Beginning on
January 19, 1973, he starred in a similar show on NBC called
The Bobby Darin Show.
This show ran for 13 episodes ending on April 27, 1973. Darin
subsequently made television guest appearances and remained a top draw.
[31]
Other interests
Darin was an enthusiastic
chess player.
[32] His television show included an occasional segment in which he would explain a chess move.
[33] He arranged with the
United States Chess Federation to sponsor a
grandmaster tournament, with the largest prize fund in history,
[34] but the event was canceled after his death.
[2]
Personal life
Darin married actress
Sandra Dee on December 1, 1960.
[35] They met while filming
Come September (which was released in 1961).
[36] On December 16, 1961, they had a son, Dodd Mitchell Darin
[37] (also known as Morgan Mitchell Darin). Dee and Darin officially divorced on March 7, 1967.
[38]
Darin's second wife was Andrea Yeager, a legal secretary whom he met in 1970
[39] and married on June 25, 1973 after the couple had lived together for three years.
[40][41] Four months later, in October 1973, the couple divorced
[40] amid strain caused by Darin's worsening health problems.
[42][43]
In 2009, adult adoptee Sam Tallerico utilized legal proper channels
in order to learn the identities of his birth parents. Documents in the
official State of Michigan adoption records revealed that Sam's
biological father was listed as "Bobby Darin." Further research all but
confirmed that the "Bobby Darin" listed in the file was indeed the
well-known singer/actor.
[44]
Health
Darin
suffered from poor health his entire life. He was frail as an infant
and, beginning at age eight, was stricken with recurring bouts of
rheumatic fever that left him with a seriously weakened heart.
[2] During his first
heart surgery, in January 1971, he had two
artificial valves implanted in his heart. He spent most of that year recovering from the surgery.
During the last few years of his life, he was often administered oxygen during and after his performances on stage and screen.
Death
In 1973,
after failing to take antibiotics to protect his heart before a dental
visit, Darin developed an overwhelming systemic infection (
sepsis). This further weakened his body and affected one of his heart valves. On December 11, he checked himself into
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
in Los Angeles for another round of open-heart surgery to repair the
two artificial heart valves he had received in January 1971. On the
evening of December 19, a five-man surgical team worked for over six
hours to repair his damaged heart. Shortly after the surgery ended in
the early morning hours of December 20, 1973, Darin died in the recovery
room without regaining consciousness. He was 37 years old.
Darin's last wish in his will was that his body be donated to science for medical research. His remains were transferred to the
Ronald Reagan Medical Center shortly after his death.
Legacy
In 1990, Darin was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with singer and close friend
Paul Anka announcing the honor.
[45] In 1999, Darin was also voted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Songwriter
Alan O'Day alludes to Darin and his recording of "Mack the Knife" in the song, "Rock and Roll Heaven" (made a hit by
the Righteous Brothers), a tribute to dead musicians, which O'Day wrote shortly after Darin's death.
In 1998, PBS aired a documentary,
Bobby Darin: Beyond the Song, produced by Henry Astor and Jason Cilo.
In a 2003 episode of the NBC television series
American Dreams,
Duncan Sheik portrayed Darin and performed "Beyond the Sea" on a fictitious
American Bandstand.
On May 14, 2007, Darin was awarded a star on the
Las Vegas Walk of Stars
to honor his contribution to making Las Vegas the "Entertainment
Capital of the World" and name him one of the twentieth century's
greatest entertainers. Fans paid for the star. Darin also has a star on
the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Darin drove a custom-made "
Dream Car" designed by
Andrew Di Dia,
[46] that is on display at the
St. Louis Museum of Transportation.
[47]
On December 13, 2009, at its 2010
Grammy Awards ceremony, the Recording Academy awarded Darin a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award.
Biopic
In 1986, director
Barry Levinson intended to direct a film based on Darin's life, and had begun
preproduction on the project by early 1997. He abandoned the project, the rights to which were subsequently bought by actor
Kevin Spacey, along with Darin's son, Dodd. The resultant biopic,
Beyond the Sea,
starred Spacey as Darin, with the actor using his own singing voice for
the musical numbers. The film covers much of Darin's life and career,
including his marriage to
Sandra Dee, portrayed by
Kate Bosworth.
With the consent of the Darin estate, former Darin manager Steve Blauner,
Beyond the Sea
opened at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. Although Dodd
Darin, Sandra Dee, and Blauner responded enthusiastically to Spacey's
work and the film was strongly promoted by the studio,
Beyond the Sea received mixed-to-poor reviews upon wide release, and box office results were disappointing. Some critics
[who?] praised Spacey's performance, largely owing to his decision to use his own singing voice. Spacey was nominated for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor—Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, but the award that year went to
Jamie Foxx for his portrayal of Darin's musical contemporary
Ray Charles.
[48]
Musical
In September 2016, 'Dream Lover, The Bobby Darin Musical' had its world premiere at
Sydney Lyric
Theater, Australia. This production featured the story of legendary
singer, songwriter and actor Bobby Darin with an 18-piece big band.
Darin was played by
David Campbell[49]
Discography
Filmography
Books
- Dodd Darin and Maxine Paetro: Dream Lovers: the Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee. New York: Warner Books 1994. ISBN 0-446-51768-2
- David Evanier: Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4384-3458-2
References
In the fall of 1959, Darin played "Honeyboy Jones" in an early episode of Jackie Cooper's CBS military sitcom/drama, Hennesey set in San Diego, California. In 1960, he appeared twice as himself in NBC's short-lived crime drama Dan Raven, starring Skip Homeier and set on the Sunset Strip of West Hollywood. In the same year, he was the only actor ever to have been signed to five major Hollywood film studios. He wrote music for several films in which he appeared."Deadeye" and Darin in a 1965 Red Skelton Show skit
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