Bobby Darin

On its surface, Bobby Darin's is one of the strangest, saddest stories in popular music. Restless and driven, the man born Walden Robert Cassotto in the Bronx hit the upper reaches of the pop charts in 1958 with the novelty ditty "Splish Splash" and stayed on the charts steadily through 1967. His only #1 came in 1959, and stayed at the top for nine weeks straight, with a swinging interpretation of Brecht-Weill's "Mack the Knife" that exuded Rat Pack ring-a-ding-ding brio. That hit provided his entree into adult pop and the Vegas cir-cuit, where he became one of the town's most popular draws through the remainder of the ensuing decade. When Ray Charles fused country and R&B on his 1963 LP, Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, Darin followed suit with a #3 single in the same vein, "You're the Reason I'm Living," and his own experiment with various fusions involving country music. But that same year, he positioned himself in the vanguard of the folk-rock movement, assembling a band that included future Byrds founder Roger McGuinn on guitar.

Given the temper of the times -- with the civil rights movement hitting its apex, a growing awareness among the general public of a debacle brewing in Southeast Asia, and more musical artists dissenting in song -- Darin, who was seen in some critical quarters as an opportunist with regard to his stylistic flip-flopping, was genuinely moved by the day's rampant suffering, intolerance, and violence (an early supporter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he participated in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, AL; and he stood a seven-hour vigil at the grave of the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy). In response, he turned inward musically, his repertoire blossoming with spirituals, protest songs, and literate, sensitive songs about love and relationships. Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" were in the mix, as well as Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Work Song," several stirring Tim Hardin songs (one of which, 1966's "If I Were a Carpenter," was Darin's last Top 10 hit), John Sebastian's "Lovin' You" and "Darling Be Home Soon," and not least of all, a clutch of his own well-crafted folk-pop originals, including, in 1969, one of the most effective and subtle topical songs of the era, "Simple Song of Freedom."

On record, Darin was tremendously effective, no matter what style he was into at the time. But in public, his frequent image changes made him seem not so much authentic as desperate for attention. As the protest movement heated up in the '60s, he ditched his suits, ties, and clean-cut mien for long hair, facial hair, blue jeans, paisley shirts, and beads. He wasn't old -- he was only 30 in 1966 -- but in his new guise, he gave off the desperate air of an aging hipster willing to endure any humiliation for one more crack at the charts. Eventually he returned to his original incarnation as a classic pop singer, donned the stylish suits once more, signed with Motown, and in 1973, landed his own short-lived TV variety series. Afflicted with a rheumatic heart since childhood, Darin died in 1973, during open-heart surgery. Posthumously, friends have said that if Darin's career drive sometimes veered into desperation, then it was because his heart condition had made him more aware of his own mortality and the need to make the most of what he was sure would be a short life. Indeed, Bobby Darin was only 37 years old at the time of his passing.

A Musical Anthology, the companion disc to the A&E network's biography of Darin, features a good sampling of the artist in his many guises, the highlights being live versions of "18 Yellow Roses" and "If I Were a Carpenter," a bit of soul strutting in "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," and some classic pop forays into "The Good Life" and "Call Me Irresponsible." Swingin' the Standards announces its content and approach in its title, but the actual songs are something else again: a stunning reading of the Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt evergreen from the off-Broadway play The Fantasticks, "Try to Remember"; Leslie Bricusse's "Talk to the Animals"; Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen's "Everybody Has the Right to Be Wrong," and others of this caliber. The material is from the Atlantic years.
As Long as I'm Singing: The Bobby Darin Collection, which is divided into one disc from "The Rock & Roll Years," two volumes of "The Pop Years," and a fourth focused on "The Folk & Country Years." It's an exhilarating look at the entirety of Darin's career, with all his label associations (save Motown) represented, demo and live versions of "Simple Song of Freedom," and a live version of Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," along with the usual impeccable and thorough annotation common to Rhino boxes. Seven years after the box set's release, Rhino issued the 20-track Hit Singles Collection, which, along with Warner Bros.' The Ultimate Bobby Darin, comprises two concise overviews of Darin's hit recordings for Atlantic. In the end, it says a lot about Darin's artistry to observe that a listener could cherry-pick from his current discography and not find a mediocre album. Darin always brimmed with confidence, but if he were still with us, even he might be surprised at how good he was through all those years and styles. (DAVID MCGEE)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide