Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor of film and television. He performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk, 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 for his first film Come September, co-starring his first wife, Sandra Dee (m. 1960–1967).

Throughout the 1960s, he became more politically active and worked on Robert Kennedy's Democratic presidential campaign. He was present on the evening/morning of June 4-5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Kennedy's assassination. The same year, he discovered that he had been brought up by his grandparents, not his parents, and that the girl he thought was 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 television comeback, his health was beginning to fail, as he had always expected, following bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood. This knowledge of his vulnerability had always spurred him on to exploit his musical talent while still young. He died at 37, following a heart operation in Los Angeles.

Early years
Darin was born in the Bronx borough of New York City. He was reared by his grandparents, whom he thought were his parents. Darin’s mother became pregnant at age 16 and presumably due to the scandalous nature of such in that era the family hatched a plan to pass the baby off as his maternal grandparents’ child. Darin’s mother never revealed who the father of her child was, not even to Darin who was reportedly devastated at learning the true circumstances of his birth. His maternal grandfather, Saverio Antonio Cassotto, was of Italian descent. His maternal grandmother, Vivian Fern (Walden), was of English ("Old Yankee") and Danish ancestry  and a vaudeville singer. His mother, Giovannina Cassotto, was presented as his elder sister. He only learned of their actual relationship in 1968, when he was 32.

By the time he was a teenager he could play several instruments, including piano, drums, and guitar. He later added harmonica and xylophone.

Darin graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. He matriculated at Hunter College, but soon dropped out in order to play nightclubs around the city with a musical combo.

Music career
Darin's career took off with a songwriting partnership, formed in 1955 with fellow Bronx High School of Science student, Don Kirshner, and in 1956 his agent negotiated a contract with Decca Records. The songs recorded at Decca had very little success.

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 did not approve, and the couple soon split up. Francis has said that not marrying Darin was the biggest mistake of her life.

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.

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 bet that he could not write a song that started out with the words, "Splish Splash, I was takin' a bath". The single sold more than a million copies.

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. His next single, "Mack the Knife", the standard from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, was given a vamping jazz-pop interpretation. Although Darin initially was opposed to releasing it as a single, 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.

In the 1960s, Darin owned and operated a music publishing and production company (TM Music/Trio). He signed Wayne Newton and gave him the song "Danke Schoen" that became Newton's breakout hit. 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.

In 1962, Darin began to write and sing country music, with hit songs including "Things" (US #3/UK #2) (1962), "You're the Reason I'm Living" (US #3), and "18 Yellow Roses" (US #10). The latter two were recorded by Capitol Records, which he joined in 1962, before returning to Atlantic four years later. In 1966, he had his final UK hit single, with a version of Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter", which peaked at # 9. 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.

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, Bobby was the love interest: he married Sandra Dee.

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 (1960), was a teenager-oriented romantic comedy with 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) the following year, 1961, but the couple divorced in 1967. Dee and Darin made a few films together with moderate success.

In 1962, Darin won the Golden Globe Award for "New Star Of The Year - Actor" for his role in Come September. 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.

Later years
Darin's musical output became more "folksy" as the 1960s progressed, and he became more politically active. In 1966, he had a hit with folksinger Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter," securing a return to the Top 10 after a two-year absence.

Darin traveled with Robert 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 that, "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."

In 1972, he starred in his own television variety show on NBC, The Bobby Darin Amusement Company, which ran until his death in 1973. Darin married Andrea Yeager (secretary)" in June 1973, made television guest appearances, and remained a top draw in Las Vegas.

Other interests
Darin was an enthusiastic chess player. His television show included an occasional segment in which he would explain a chess move. He arranged with the United States Chess Federation to sponsor a grandmaster tournament, with the largest prize fund in history, but the event was canceled after his death.

Health
Darin 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. In January 1971, he underwent his first heart surgery in an attempt to correct some of the heart damage he had lived with since childhood. He spent most of that year recovering from the surgery.

At the end of his career, he often was administered oxygen after his performances.

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 entered Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for surgery to repair two artificial heart valves he had received in January 1971. On the evening of December 19, a surgical team worked for over six hours to repair his damaged heart. Darin died in the recovery room on December 20, 1973, at the age of 37, without regaining consciousness.

There were no funeral arrangements; Darin's last wish in his will was that his body be donated to science for medical research. His remains were transferred to UCLA Medical Center shortly after his death.

Legacy
In 1990, singer Paul Anka made the speech inducting Darin into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Righteous Brothers refer to Darin in their song "Rock and Roll Heaven", a tribute to dead musicians released months after Darin's death.

In 1998, PBS aired the documentary, Bobby Darin: Beyond the Song, produced by Henry Astor and Jason Cilo.

In 1999, he was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In a 2003 episode of the NBC television series, American Dreams, Duncan Sheik portrays Darin and performs "Beyond the Sea" on American Bandstand. Brittany Snow's character, Meg Pryor, is assigned as Darin's liaison during the show.

On Monday, 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 to acknowledge his reputation as one of the greatest entertainers of the twentieth century. The sponsorship fee for his star was raised entirely by fan donations. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Darin had a custom car built called the "Dream Car", designed by Andy DiDia, which is on display at the St. Louis Museum of Transportation.

On December 13, 2009, the Recording Academy announced that Darin would receive a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Grammy Awards ceremony.

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, and archivist, Jimmy Scalia, 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 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.

Singles

 * "18 Yellow Roses"
 * In an interview with People Magazine, Bobby Darin's ex-wife, Sandra Dee, confided: "Before we were married, Bobby sent me 18 yellow roses every day. He even wrote a song called 18 Yellow Roses. As soon as we were married, the roses stopped. There was no lover anymore, just a husband. We honeymooned in Palm Springs in a home Bobby bought so he could be near his buddy Jackie Cooper. After three days I had to go to work. I'd fly back on weekends, wanting to see my husband, and he'd be playing poker with the guys. The third time that happened, I threw my ring at him. Then he begged forgiveness, and all was fine until the next time."

Albums
Note: There were separate Cashbox charts for mono and stereo albums until 1965

Filmography

 * Shadows (1959)
 * Pepe (1960)
 * Come September (1961)
 * Too Late Blues (1962)
 * 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)

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

Watch

 * "Beyond the Sea" (2004) Hollywood movie on the life of Bobby Darin

Listen

 * Bobby Darin interview recorded 11.5.1967 on the Pop Chronicles