When someone loves his or her job, I know it. And it brings something out in me, gives me that little bit extra that lightens my step for a while and makes everything seem a little more doable.
That’s what Bobby Darin was about. I saw it all through the twenty performances on the DVD. While he was up there on stage, in front of a group of people, I really feel that he was more alive than at any other time.
The sound on the DVD is really good, but it’s not Dolby Digital 5.1. Still, Darin croons through the sets and the music is pure. The older, black-and-white sequences are little more rough, but it’s Darin that really captures the attention, not the sound.
His life was a mixture of tragedy and luck. Born Walden Robert Cassotto in The Bronx, New York, to a young mother out of wedlock, Darin never knew his father. His early years were made difficult by poverty. When he was eight years old, he contracted rheumatic fever that eventually left him with the heart disease that finally stole his life in 1973. He had an artificial heart valve. While he was still a boy, he heard a doctor tell his mother that he would be lucky to live to be 16.
Even under a death sentence, maybe more driven because he knew his life was going to be a short one, Darin pushed himself all the harder to do what he wanted to do. He’d been graced with a love and talent for music, and a genius-level IQ. He started college, working as a busboy in some of the nightclubs in the area, but the stage called to him. He put a band together and started playing, keeping both jobs.
He got his first record contract at age 20, in 1956, continued his music career at another company two years later, while also arranging music, and wrote “Splish, Splash” as a lark and because he was challenged by DJ Murray the K (Murray Kaufman), a pioneer in the music industry. In 1959, he released “Dream Lover” (also included on the DVD) and sold millions of records, which gave him the financial security that allowed him to pursue other interests in the music business.
He became a nightclub sensation, and as I saw from the performances in the DVD, it wasn’t just the songs or the singing ability, it was about Darin’s skill at entertaining an audience. He could walk into a room of people and own them. I felt the same way as I watched the DVD. He played the harmonica and the xylophone, sang, danced, and cracked wise with a disarming ease. Everything thing that Darin did on stage that I saw on the DVD came off as fluid and relaxed
Article comments
1 - Douglas A. Waltz
I don't know that I would have used the guy from Poison as a comparison to the intensity that Bobby Darin brought to the stage. Other than that, great article. I'm a big Darin fan as well.
2 - Lil Doozcoop
So glad that like those of us newer fans you've opened your ears, eyes and mind to Darin's magnetic allure. But you really need to see "Mack is Back", the DVD of Darin's final NBC unedited performance which he did nightclub style for his last show. This shows off Darin's command of folk and country as well as swing and blues. It also allows all the linking patter and comedy routines to come through so we appreciate the wit and charm of the man.
And you really need to hear his 2 Directions albums to appreciate what a fine songwriter and committed political activist he was.
Only then can you appreciate the true genius of this Rennaissance Man.
3 - carmen greene
I agree with everything what have been said about Bobby Darin. He is the greatest Legend that ever lived. There wad nobody like him, is or will be.
He induces every feeling that exist in the human heart and soul with such passion and truth, it is incredible. Thank you Bobby for the many joyful hours you provide for my life every single day.
A real GENIUS, much more then Sinatra and many others.
Carmen Greene
4 - sr
Thank you Mel. RIP Bobby. You were beyound greatest.
5 - Michael
Thank you for pointing out in your review what I think is one of the most important reasons Bobby Darin is so brilliant: He loved his work. And his love for performing is infectious. Watch him do his thing, and you feel like you're part of it. He truly is one of the greats, and should be mentioned right alongside Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Buddy Holly, and so many others, as an original and a legend.