Hello everyone. This is a “public service announcement” to try to get the latest information I have about the delays in the USA out to as many fans who might have ordered The Ultimate Listener’s Guide as possible.
The book was intended to be published in hardback only. They are printed on demand – one copy at a time. In the UK and Europe, that has happened as it should, and there are no problems. In the USA, however, Amazon have an issue with their printer of hardbacks, and the delay I was told was 3-4 weeks delivery. That four weeks is now nearly up, and most people who ordered in the US have no book. I was told by a refreshingly candid assistant at the weekend that Amazon had “not been completely truthful” with the extent of the delays. This has caused a mess. Luckily, no-one pays for their items on Amazon until the book is dispatched, but that doesn’t help in getting the book, and I know these kinds of issues are frustrating.
So, I have taken the decision to release the book in paperback as well. I was hoping to get this published by Christmas Day, but I’ve been ill all week, and it will now be the very beginning of the new year. So, if you are in the USA and have ordered the new edition of the book, you have three choices open to you:
1.) Wait until Amazon finally get the hardback out to you.
2.) Hold on until the paperback is released, and, at that point, cancel your hardback order if it hasn’t been dispatched, and then buy (or not buy!) the paperback.
3.) Cancel your hardback now, and buy the paperback when it comes out.
There will be no delays in getting the paperback. They are unaffected by the current issues. Obviously, the paperback will be a bit cheaper for you, too, and it should be available in Australia. I could have coped with all of this better if the problem was caused by something I’d done, but it’s completely out of my hands. Even so, I am really sorry if you have been affected by the delays. There are no delays on Amazon in the UK and Europe with regards to the hardbacks – but shipping to the US obviously adds a not insignificant amount to the price for you.
I will make a further announcement about the “relaunch” in due course.
In a December 1961 interview with Hedda Hopper, Bobby Darin said that “I believe there’s a field for folk songs now and will do some of them.” During the same set of sessions that produced the Oh! Look at Me Now! album in 1962, Bobby was able to do just that. However, rather than simply mimicking the Peter, Paul and Mary sound that was popular at the time, he instead did something completely different, creating an album of folk songs (and songs in the folk style) ranging from prison songs to Latin American material, gospel songs, protest songs and even a song from Haiti. If Oh! Look at Me Now! was one of Darin’s less ambitious albums because of its more traditional repertoire, then Earthy!is at the other end of the spectrum completely.
The remark to Hedda Hopper was not the first time that Darin had referred to his admiration of folk songs. He had also done so just before singing I’m Just a Country Boy with Duane Eddy during the 1960 UK TV special. On record, he had also recorded the faux work song Timber at his very first recording session back in 1956, the slow calypso-like love song Lost Love a couple of years later and, more recently, Jailer Bring Me Water, a Darin song that imitated the folk and prison song genres. He had also added a folk section (including Cottonfieldsand Boil That Cabbage Down, neither of which were tackled in the studio) into his live act by the time that this LP was recorded.
Earthy! opens with two “prison songs,” the first of which is Long Time Man. Long Time Man may have writer’s credits given to Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker, but it is based on a traditional African-American prison song that went back decades. Tyson and Fricker were a Canadian folk duo who performed under the name of Ian & Sylvia, and one listen to their rendition of Long Time Man shows just how much Darin’s version owes to theirs, with the arrangement being virtually the same. With Earthy! often being regarded as one of Darin’s most original works, the similarities here come as quite a shock, and yet he still manages to bring things to the table that are wholly his. While Oh! Look at Me Now! smoothed out Bobby’s swinging style, and was devoid of yelps, eeks and groans, here he shrieks, whistles and shouts his way through the song, and also provides his own harmony vocals. It’s a striking opening to what is a contender for Bobby’s best album, and he returns to this raw sound and feel of Long Time Man elsewhere in the album, including on La Bamba and Guantanamera. Long TimeMan was added to Bobby’s live act in early 1963 with the twenty-year-old Jim (soon to be Roger) McGuinn featured on guitar.
Bobby Darin’s career was in a strange place in January 1964, when this song was recorded. Just after this session, Bobby got a release from his contract with Capitol Records, and started the search for a new label. Less than six months later, he re-signed with Capitol, only to seek a further release the following year. Despite recording some very fine music during this period (including the From Hello Dolly to Goodbye Charlie album), he seemed to be lost. At one moment saying he was returning full-time to big band/swing music only for him then to release a couple of singles that were very much in the style of the British Invasion. He had also said he wouldn’t make any more films with Sandra Dee – and then made That Funny Feeling with her. And he had just retired from live performances – a retirement that ended just over two years later.
Four songs were recorded on January 13th 1964, of which Wait By the Water is the best. The song was written by Darin, but is loosely based on a spiritual. This was a contemporary-sounding recording that, for some inexplicable reason, didn’t get much attention at the time. The song is also yet another recording in which Bobby approaches the subject of death, with the lyrics being considerably darker than the pop production might suggest. Bobby himself gives a fine, rocking, slightly bluesy performance, and the result was one of his best recordings for Capitol that was not in the swinging/big band mould. This should certainly have been included on the 4CD Rhino boxed set in 1995. An alternate take appeared on CD in the late 1980s on the Capitol Collectors Series album (it’s the alternate take linked to in this post).
Wait By the Water was originally issued as the B-side to the far less commercial The Things in This House, a parody of country music of the period. The single was released in August 1964, just after Bobby had re-signed with Capitol. Cash Box said that Wait by the Water “is a hard-driving, shufflin’, chorus-backed hope for romance with a fine gospel-style backing,” and that The Things in this House “is a twangy…country-styled affair.”
First in a series of short posts coming up over the next couple of weeks, highlighting some of the lesser-heard Bobby Darin “deep cuts” as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of his passing on December 20th. I don’t pretend that all of these songs are Bobby’s absolute best, but I think they are some of the most interesting.
Bobby Darin’s 1968 album Bobby Darin born Walden Robert Cassotto was an intensely personal project, and very few heard it at the time, but for anyone trying to understand the Bobby Darin story, this is essential listening.
In The Proper Gander, we have an allegorical tale about a group of mice encouraged by their leader to go to war to fight a Siamese Cat that doesn’t actually exist, with the leader being found out as the song comes to the end of its seven verses. Everything here is tied up in the lyrics. Out of each verse’s 28 bars, 22 of them are simply the chord of G.
The lyrics more than make up for the harmonic simplicity, however, with Darin writing them in such a way that they can not only relate to the Vietnam war but to any propaganda/spin produced by a government on any issue in order to win votes and confidence. In other words, he’s talking about “fake news” albeit fifty years before the term was first used, and from the opposite side of the political spectrum when compared to those we associate with the term today. Despite the musical simplicity, there is a remarkable confidence in the writing of the song, with Darin having complete trust in his work as a lyricist, and his use of wordplay is both intelligent and fun and shows a different side to his songwriting.
Today (November 25th, 2023) sees the publication of the The Ultimate Listener’s Guide to the career of Bobby Darin. I want to take this opportunity to tell you a little about the book, and how it came to be.
Those of you who bought the 2nd edition, published back in 2018, will probably remember that I said quite clearly in that book that there wouldn’t be a 3rd edition. However, some things happened that meant it was sensible to go back on that promise. The first of these was covid. I spent the first lockdown making a video essay/documentary about early film. In the second lockdown, I started work on a sessionography for Bobby Darin. For those of you that don’t know, a sessionography compiles information about each recording session: time, place, musicians, songs recorded, their composers, the number assigned to the recording by the record label, how and when it was first released, and (in my case) where alternate takes etc can be found.
Many great musicians already have very detailed sessionographies completed. For example, Elvis Presley has one in a book called A Life in Music by Ernst Jorgensen, and there is also an indispensable website by Keith Flynn, with everything listed that you could possibly imagine. We know everything about Elvis’s recordings that we could possibly wish to know. Alas, the same isn’t true for Bobby. The new official website doesn’t even have a complete list of his albums.
There were previously two sessionographies of Bobby: one on the Praguefrank website, and the other by Jan-Jaap Been. I really want to take time out to thank them for their work. While those sessionographies are now somewhat out of date (in that they don’t include more recent releases), they were (and still are) huge achievements that have laid the groundwork for someone like me to come along and build on.
The problem with this endeavour for Bobby is that so much information is still not known – especially regarding musicians in some sessions, but also even dates of sessions are uncertain – but I have done everything I can to bring together everything we do know about Bobby’s recordings. There are still gaps, but I have been honest where we don’t know something, rather than make guesses. There’s a lot of misinformation online about Bobby, and I’d rather say we’re unsure of something rather than add to it. The session information in the new book looks something like the following – it is then followed by the kind of critiques and information that owners of a previous edition will already expect.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Kenneth Kelly Jr. and David Ortoleva for all the information they passed on to me regarding alternate takes that have been issued through the years, and for providing me with the audio of some of them.
So, when the session info was getting close to being finished, my plan was to issue it as a 100 page book that could sit on the shelf alongside the 2018 edition of the “Listener’s Guide.” And then something weird happened – unreleased Bobby recordings started appearing in the most unlikely of places, most notably various auction sites. There was an inexplicable flurry of them over a period of eighteen months or so. While they all remain unreleased for now, I was given access to them by the new owners for the purposes of this book, meaning I could add in analysis of music that not only have we not heard before, but also didn’t know existed! There are some significant (and historical) surprises among them, and I hope you will get to hear them in the not-to-distant future, but it was great to be able to include them in the book so that it is already up to date when they find their way out into the Bobby world. And so, bearing in mind the new musical material AND the sessionography AND it being the 50th anniversary of Bobby’s passing, the decision was made to re-release the book.
Another sample page:
The decision was made to include everything that Bobby recorded that has been included on audio-only releases (official and unofficial). So, for example, the duet with Judy Garland from The Judy Garland Show is included because it was released on the Judy Duets CD album. Some might be surprised to see the inclusion of the songs from the Seeing is Believing DVD, but just the audio did actually get its own release in a digital album back in 2006, and so those songs are included within the book (both in session information and critique/analysis). I have also included info on all of Bobby’s officially-unreleased audio recordings that we know of, such as the 1959 recording at the Hollywood Bowl, and radio recordings from 1960 and 1966. As stated earlier, I have gone into details about unreleased material when it was made available to me.
It is now a rather hefty tome – A4 size. 135 images. 540 pages. 225,000 words!! It’s been a long (and sometimes very trying) endeavour, particularly with technical proofing issues delaying the book’s release by about two months. All but two images from the previous edition have been retained, and some new ones added. The book is being published in hardback and paperback options. I recommend the hardback (although I get less royalties from it!), but Amazon have about a 4 week delay on dispatching that in the USA, hence why I have also done a paperback option. There are no hardback delays outside of the USA.
And so, at this point, I release this commemorative 50th anniversary edition of the book into the wild! Many thanks to everyone who helped me during the writing of this or the previous editions, especially Karin Grevelund, Matt Forbes (whose cover design is stunning), Alex Bird, and L. Vergara Herrero. I really hope you like it, and that you feel it does Bobby’s legacy justice.
A couple of months ago, it was announced that Bobby Darin’s Direction label was going to be relaunched, some fifty-three years after its demise. We were told that, “Direction Records will expand to include previously released albums as well as newly found recordings.” The first announcement was that five of Bobby’s Atlantic albums would be available to stream for the first time. This happened on July 14th, 2023. But what are we to make of what Direction might have to offer?
Forgive me for not applauding wildly about this first set of releases. While it is great, of course, to have these five albums available on streaming platforms for the first time, the real question is why hasn’t it happened before? Only a couple of songs from 1965 to 1967 have been (officially) available in the past. Was this to do with the label in question not putting them out there? Hardly, for the Estate owns those recordings – so why put them out a decade later than they should have been? Your guess is as good as mine.
The good news is that the five albums in question sound fine – The Shadow of Your Smile album is in mono, which is particularly good news as the stereo mix is appalling. The bad news is that these are bare-bone releases. There are no bonus tracks at all, despite the fact that there have been plenty on the CD releases of the same albums. This is a huge shame, as it means a significant amount of Bobby’s Atlantic output is still unavailable. The single sides Breaking Point and Silver Dollar were recorded during the Shadow of Your Smile sessions, and so would have found a good home here (and they’re actually much better than most of the album!). Likewise, Weeping Willow, recorded at the same session as the album’s Rainin’, remains unreleased. As a reminder, this has been out there amongst collectors in perfect sound for two decades.
The Shadow of Your Smile isn’t the only album here bereft of bonus tracks that should have been included. The remarkable Manhattan in My Heart remains officially unreleased, despite the fact that it would have been perfect as a bonus track on In a Broadway Bag, as it is very much in the same vein as the ballads on that album. Its release was announced in a radio interview eight years ago, but the album never came out. Quelle surprise. Likewise, Walking in the Shadow of Your Love was the B-side to the single release of Mame, the album’s opening track. That’s not here either.
Criminally, the A-side of Bobby’s first single for Atlantic, We Didn’t Ask to Be Brought Here, is still not available on streaming services, despite being a Darin classic. In fact, there are still at least fifteen tracks from the Atlantic years (that have been previously issued or are known to exist) that still are unavailable for streaming. On top of that is an entire live album, Something Special, which hasn’t ever been reissued officially, and has therefore been out of print for more than fifty years. One also has to wonder where the two albums released on Direction in 1968 and 1969 are. They also have never been issued in complete for on streaming platforms. The situation is ludicrous.
The Only place to hear “We Didn’t Ask to Be Brought Here” online is on YouTube.
Is this just a case of me being a glass half-full kind of guy? Not really. While the Direction announcement a couple of months ago seemed promising, what’s happened since has been disappointing at best. Most notably, there seems to be no movement when it comes to Bobby’s online presence. If people hear these new-to-streaming albums, where can they go for more information about Bobby? Can they go to the new website, http://www.bobbydarin.com? Well, they can, but, despite going live two years ago, the discography on there is less than half complete when it comes to Bobby’s original lifetime albums. What’s more, the dates attached to most of the albums are the year of CD or streaming release dates and not the original year of release. Go figure.
And, get this: the albums released on July 14th aren’t mentioned in the discography at all!
Beyond that discography, there is precious little there, other than a brief biography. It’s an empty shell of a website that is not going to spur visitors on to find out more about Bobby. It feels like a holding space – but it’s been up for two years. It’s pathetic.
But that’s only half of it. The social media presence for Bobby remains utterly appalling. The twitter, instagram and facebook accounts are vapid, mostly consisting of nice pictures and bland captions to go with them. Oddly, they have barely talked about Direction being relaunched other than the initial announcement. Even worse is Bobby’s presence on YouTube. The “official archivist” has spent years uploading incomplete songs, horrible colourised videos of TV performances, and other TV performances in the ratio of a mobile phone or, conversely, squashed into widescreen. No, Bobby never was that shape.
A new official YouTube channel launched a couple of months ago with two videos and fans waited with bated breath.
And they waited.
And waited.
Finally, another video appeared yesterday – Bobby singing If I Were a Carpenter from a show most fans own on DVD, and with the picture again squashed into widescreen. You couldn’t make it up.
Squished Bobby. He wasn’t tall, but he sure as hell wasn’t this shape!
Forgive me for saying that Bobby’s online presence (outside of Facebook groups run by fans) is a joke.
It sucks.
And what seems to be missed is that these social media accounts are of vital importance if this relaunch of Direction is going to be a success. It is so important these days for people new to Bobby to have somewhere to go to find out information and to see interesting, imaginative posts on social media. In 2023, official social media accounts HAVE to be helmed by professionals – and I don’t say that to dig at whoever does run them and has kept them for the last ten or fifteen. But times have changed, and Darin’s online presence has to change with it. One has to only look at the official Sammy Davis Jr social media accounts to see just how it could be done.
What will happen if nothing changes? Someone will hear the If I Were a Carpenter album (for example), and then their interest will fizzle out quickly. That means there is no interest in future releases from Direction, and then the label folds again, with the Estate making out there is a lack of public interest in the venture. That isn’t true. Bobby and his music are as vital now as they were sixty years ago, but you can’t just release something and sit back, waiting for the views and listens to mount up. Believe me, as an author, I know that all too well. And if you want real proof of that, check out the YouTube video the official channel uploaded 6 weeks ago: it’s had just 47 views.
And what about the Direction relaunch? Well, we have yet to see if it will actually result in some physical product rather than just digital albums – and digital albums are pretty useless if you actually care about the music. There’s no booklet, and so no way of knowing what version of a song you are getting to hear, or on what date it was recorded etc. Check out the Rare Capitol Masters release for proof of that. It includes unissued material, but Bobby attempted some of those songs on three occasions, and we are none the wiser as to which version is on that digital album.
So, whereas the news of the relaunch was welcomed, it hasn’t been accompanied by a professional online presence, or, it seems, the dedication to get Bobby “out there” again following what has been a pretty barren fifteen years or so, with the exception of discs covering the Motown years and the Godawful The Milk Shows set, which sounds like a ten-year-old edited it together with Goldwave.
And let me make one thing clear: I moan because I care. As do others – but sadly, it appears, not the people in the right places.
The report card most definitely reads: “must do better.”
In 2023, it’s difficult to remember life before YouTube. What started off as a relatively banal endeavour has, inadvertently, morphed into one of the greatest archives of music, television and film in the world. Forgotten performances have appeared on there by some of the greatest musicians and singers the world has seen, often from private archives. So here’s a look at some of Bobby’s greatest, and most obscure, TV performances available on the website that have never appeared commercially. The second part of this blog post will appear in a week or so!
The Midnight Special, 1973
We start at the end and work backwards, as that allows me to highlight first and foremost a new addition to YouTube. This weekend, the entire Midnight Special episode from March 16th 1973 appeared in wonderful quality. Many Darin fans are familiar with this performance through an “OK” version that has been on YouTube for years, but here it takes on a whole new life. This was Bobby’s penultimate performance recorded for television before his passing in December 1973. It contains a nice version of If I Were a Carpenter (although Bobby looks rather ill during it, seemingly holding on to the piano for support), and this is followed by Dream Lover and a medley of Splish Splash and Roll Over Beethoven. This might have been once of his last TV appearances, but it’s also one of his best. He sings and rocks with an abandon that is missing from 95% of his TV series, recorded around the same time. Bobby’s contribution starts at 7:51 in the following video.
The Bobby Darin Amusement Company, 1972
While The Bobby Darin Show series was released (kind of) on DVD about ten years ago, the Amusement Company series remains hidden away for the most part. Here’s an episode featuring Dionne Warwick. It’s in black and white for the first 25 minutes or so, and then the rest is in colour. What’s interesting is just how much better it is than the later series. Bobby is in better form, the arrangements are better, and it is more engagingly presented, complete with split screens etc.
The Irish Rovers, 1972
1972 was a good year for Bobby on TV. Here he is on the Canadian series hosted by The Irish Rovers, singing Beyond the Sea and his protest anthem Simple Song of Freedom.
The David Frost Show, 1972
Also from 1972 comes this wonderful performance on The David Frost Show, where we get to see him play harmonica, drums, and rock out on Splish Splash. It’s a first class, showstopping performance that displays Bobby’s on-stage magnetism in all its glory.
The Mike Douglas Show, 1970
During the summer of 1970, Bobby co-hosted The Mike Douglas Show for a week, which resulted in him singing a number of songs that he never returned to on TV and never recorded in the studio. He was also interviewed, and even entered into political discussions when the guests required it. Here we have a complete episode, spread over two videos. It includes Bobby singing And When I Die and If I Were a Carpenter, and speaking about his sojourn in Big Sur.
The Sounds of the Sixties, 1969
Bobby was great in the Kraft Music Hall series of TV specials that he was occasionally the star of. We have two clips from this one. Let’s start with Bobby duetting with Stevie Wonder on If I Were a Carpenter.
From the same TV show, we have this “mini-concert” of sorts. Sadly, the quality of the copy isn’t great, but it’s a delight, nonetheless. He begins with a rendition of Splish Splash and follows that with a performance of Honey, Take a Whiff on Me. It has recently come to light that Bobby attempted a studio recording of this song in late 1967, but only got as far as getting the backing track down, and never returned to record his vocal. And so this live performance is about as close as we can get to hearing what that studio version might have sounded like. Finally, there’s a dynamic (and possibly the best) TV version of Long Line Rider.
This is Tom Jones, 1969
In 1969, Bobby was in full “Bob Darin” mode, but not everything he wrote and performed during the period was a protest song. Here, on This is Tom Jones, he shows his humourous side, and reminds us that he didn’t always take himself too seriously.
Bobby Darin in London (recorded 1966, broadcast 1967)
Here we have Bobby fronting his own one man show on prime-time BBC TV. The soundtrack from the special was released on the album Something Special, available only in the UK. Here we have Bobby singing his blues number Funny What Love Can Do in a version very different to his studio recording.
From the same TV show comes this beautiful rendition of Once Upon a Time from Bobby’s In a Broadway Bag album.
That brings us to the end of part one of Bobby on YouTube. Part 2 will cover the period 1957-1965. However, I will leave you with discussion from The Mike Douglas Show, where Bobby butts heads with Mary Avara on the subject of film censorship. It’s just as fine a performance from Darin as any song in the main section of this post, putting his beliefs across with both firmness and politeness.
I recently uploaded four videos to YouTube. Each one is around half an hour in length, and contains rare Bobby Darin performances and some obscurities that are quietly hidden away on various releases. To compliment these videos, the following is a guide to the recordings and their sources. I have indicated when a track has been lifted from a particular CD. “Private source” indicates that it’s from my own collection and not commercially available either officially or on bootleg.
Volume 1
You Never Called (Stereo Version). Recorded on January 24, 1958. The mono version of this song, written by Woody Harris, was first issued over two years after it was recorded, on an album of leftovers entitled For Teenagers Only. The stereo version was issued several years later on a compilation album on the Clarion label. That stereo version was reissued in 2009 on the Collector’s Choice label’s CD of For Teenagers Only.
Distractions Part 1 (alternate take). There has always been some mystery as to why this song was called Part 1, as part 2 never appeared! The song is best known as being part of the Bob Darin album, Commitment. The alternate take heard here, though, mysteriously appeared on the Songs from Big Sur CD compilation. Was it released by mistake, or was it a different take used for one of the single releases back in 1969?
Wait by the Water (alternate take). Wait by The Water was recorded on January 13th, 1964. It was Bobby’s last recording session for eight months, partly due to arguments with his label at the time, Capitol. The track was released as a single. The song made its CD debut on the Capitol Collectors Series CD, but, at the time of that release, the stereo master was missing, and so this alternate take was used instead.
The Shadow of Your Smile (live). In the early 1990s, a Bobby Darin bootleg CD appeared called Rare Performances, featuring an edited set of recordings from a live show at Lake Tahoe in 1967. These were recorded from the soundboard, and the sound was not the best, but the show included some songs not included on other live albums. This arrangement of The Shadow of Your Smile was arranged by Roger Kellaway, and is different to the studio version. While the sound is still problematic, the version here is an improvement on that 1990s CD.
A Grand Night for Singing (demo). We now travel to some point in 1962 (date unknown), for a song featured inthe remake of State Fair that Bobby was part of. This recording was a try-out/demo version of a duet in the film, here with just piano accompaniment. The duet voice is that of Anita Gordon. This was issued a few years back as a bonus track on a digital release of the film’s soundtrack.
Drown in My Own Tears (TV performance). We go from A Grand Night for Singing to A Grand Night for SWINGING, a TV special starring Bobby that aired in 1968. No video has surfaced of the show, but we are lucky enough to have the audio of this song circulating amongst collectors. It is a very different performance to the one on the Bobby Darin Sings Ray Charles LP: much slower and much longer! It’s remarkable that Bobby was willing to risk something of this length on a prime-time TV special. Private source.
Sixteen Tons(TV performance). Bobby never recorded Sixteen Tons, but we do have a couple of TV performances of it. This one is from late 1967 or early 1968, from an appearance on The Jerry LewisShow. It’s another powerhouse performance, and a complete reinvention of the song. Bobby also included the number on his 1973 TV series The Bobby Darin Show, but it was edited out of the DVD release. Private source.
Queen of the Hop (take 9). Queen of the Hop was recorded at the same April 1958 session as Splish Splash. Here we have an alternate take, with the key difference being the prominent use of a bass singer in the arrangement. This was released on the bootleg disc Robert Cassotto: Rare, Rockin’ and Unreleased.
Here I’ll Stay (alternate version). This comes from the same Collector’s Choice CD as You Never Called. Here, the song is not just in stereo, but has a notably different arrangement compared to the finished version. The master take was recorded on October 30th, 1958. This may or may not be from the same date.
I Wish I Were In Love Again (live). In 1966, Bobby came to the UK to record a TV special for the BBC. This was aired in 1967, and a UK-only soundtrack LP was also released, entitled Something Special. This audio is taken from that album, which has never been officially re-released since the 1960s. This Rodgers & Hart song had also been recorded in the studio by Bobby, but went unreleased, and is now thought to have perished in a 1978 vault fire. (I mistakenly also included this song on volume 3 of these videos, for which I apologise!)
Volume 2
Hello Young Lovers (live). This track was recorded at the same November 1963 Las Vegas season as the The Curtain Falls Capitol CD. Matt Forbes informs me that these were overdubbed with some dialogue (not on this particularly track) and used on Here’s to the Veterans V-disc. Thanks, Matt. The source for this recording is the aforementioned Rare Performances bootleg disc.
A Sunday Kind of Love (studio recording). The recording of Bobby’s This is Darin 1959 album wasn’t particularly smooth, and a number of songs were recorded and discarded, including this one. It finally surfaced in 1976 on a record set entitled The Original Bobby Darin. The song has never been reissued and remains unavailable.
Weeping Willow (studio recording). This song remains officially unreleased. It was recorded in 1966 at the same session as Rainin. Very little is known about the song itself. In 2015, it was announced that it would finally be officially released on a forthcoming CD. Neither the song or the CD have materialised. Private source.
Love Look Away (alternate take). Most Bobby Darin fans know this song from a rather odd compilation called A&E Biography that brought together a strange mix of unissued and well-known songs. Love Look Away, recorded in early 1963 for the As Long as I’m Singing album (which was never issued) turned up on this disc. But, earlier, this alternate version had popped up unexpectedly and unannounced on a various artists compilation called Capitol Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein.
Leavin’ Trunk (live) This live recording of the Taj Mahal song is from 1969 (during the Bob Darin phase), and probably from a performance at The Troubadour. It has never been issued on an official disc or on a bootleg CD. Private source.
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (studio version). Most fans know of Bobby’s live version of this number (in a medley with Lonesome Road) which is featured on Darin at the Copa and a couple of TV appearances. This early 1960 studio recording is very different, though. It was recorded at the same sessions as Bill Bailey and the Winners album, and, like both of those, uses only a jazz combo as backing. It was released as a single in 1964, and has never been officially reissued since.
Lovin’ You (live). Lovin’ You was one of the highlights of the If I Were a Carpenter album, and here it gets a live outing in the same show as The Shadow of Your Smile on volume 1. An attempt has been made to improve the sound.
Autumn Blues (studio recording). Another single side, this time an instrumental. It was released as the B-side of Beachcomber and, outside of Europe, hasn’t been available since. In Europe, it can be found on The 1956-62 Singles CD set on the Jackpot label.
Trouble in Mind (live). After the November 1963 Las Vegas season, Bobby stopped performing live for over two years. In 1966, he made his return, and this number was recorded at the Copa on March 31st. The performance is from a radio broadcast. Some of the show has circulated among collectors for years, but the entire unedited show exists in the Paley Center for Media. Private source.
Mack the Knife (alternate take 3). Mack the Knife changed everything for Bobby, and this is alternate take 3 from the studio session for the song. It’s slightly more laid-back, but it just needed a bit of tweaking before the hit version was taped. This is lifted from the Rare, Rockin’ and Unreleased bootleg CD mentioned earlier.
Volume 3
That Darn Cat (film soundtrack). This number was recorded as the theme song for Disney’s 1965 film. Sadly, Bobby was with Capitol at the time and so the song couldn’t be released at the time. It still hasn’t been officially released, and this version is lifted from the opening credits.
Splish Splash (alternate take 1). This is the very first recorded take of Splish Splash. Most of the ingredients are already in place, but it’s still rough around the edges, and needed some work. From the Rare, Rockin’ and Unreleased bootleg disc.
Come-a-Rum-Rum (live). Another live recording from the 1969 live season at The Troubadour. Sadly, I know absolutely nothing about this song! Private source.
Tall Story (single side). Another single side that has been notoriously hard to find. This one was written by Andre and Dory Previn, and was probably recorded at the same session as That’s How It Went, Alright, which was sung in Pepe, Bobby’s film debut. Warner have recently made Tall Story available digitally.
Schatten auf den wegen (German single). Bobby recorded this German version of Eighteen Yellow Roses exclusively for the German market. It was released in 1963, with the German version of You’re the Reason I’m Living on the B-side. The German translations have, so I’m told, no real relationship with the English words.
Ace in the Hole (live). This live version takes us back once again to November 1963. This is from the same source as Hello Young Lovers on volume 2, and was used for the Here’s to the Veterans V-disc. The original song would have had the verse included, but it was removed at some point.
All By Myself (TV performance). Bobby was always a great guest on TV, and he made over 200 such appearances in a span of just 17 years! This is from a spot on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1962, and may even be better than the studio take that appeared on Oh! Look at Me Now! Private source.
Mack the Knife (live). This live version from November 1963 was released officially on the A&E Biography CD mentioned earlier. Bobby fluffs the words, and equates forgetting the lyrics to his signature song to Moses forgetting The Ten Commandments. This alternate version tells us that more than one show was recorded during this season.
That Lucky Old Sun (alternate take 11). We go back to 1958 again for another outtake, this one of the faux-gospel That Lucky Old Sun. This is from the same studio date as Here I’ll Stay, which is featured on volume 1. This outtake is sourced from the Rare, Rockin’ and Unreleased bootleg.
I Wish I Were in Love Again – see volume 1!
Beyond the Sea (TV performance). This TV performance comes from The Bobby Darin Amusement Company series from 1972. It first appeared on the Seeing is Believing DVD. This audio however is, oddly, from a various-artist Reader’s Digest set called The Swinging Sound of Easy Listening. Quite how it landed up there is something of a mystery, as it hasn’t appeared on any other audio release before or since. The fade out is on the CD set, and not through tinkering by me.
Manhattan in My Heart(studio recording). This unreleased song from 1966 is quite possibly the most famous of the Darin unreleased recordings because it has been kicking around amongst collectors for a couple of decades, and also because it is one of the best ballad performances of Bobby’s career. As with Weepin’ Willow, a CD release was announced about seven years ago, but never came to pass.
Volume 4
Beach Ball, Sun Tan Baby, Powder Puff, Fifty Miles to Go(studio recordings by the City Surfers). The City Surfers were a short-lived surfing group featuring Bobby on drums and backing/harmony vocals, with Roger McGuinn and Frank Gari. To my knowledge these four sides haven’t been reissued since they first appeared back in 1963.
You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You (live, 1963). This is another alternate version from the November 1963 Las Vegas season. This one was released on a Here’s to the Veterans disc. Bobby had recorded the song in the studio in a very different arrangement earlier in the same year. It finally got issued in the late 1990s.
The Girl Who Stood Beside Me (live, 1966). Here we have a track from London in 1966, which was issued on the UK-only Something Special album. The noticeable difference between this and the studio version is that the bagpipes (or similar) are not present here, and we can here much more of Bobby’s lovely vocal.
Judy Don’t Be Moody (alternate take 2). This song (hardly Bobby’s best) became the B-side of Splish Splash. This is an alternate take lifted from the Rare, Rockin’ and Unreleased bootleg CD.
Bullmoose (alternate take). The single version of Bullmoose must surely be Bobby’s best rock ‘n’ roll recordings, but an alternate stereo take was used to open the Twist with Bobby Darin album. Sadly, it doesn’t have the same impact as the single version – both because of the performance and the unsatisfactory stereo sound.
I’ve Got the World on a String/Yesterday (live, 1966). This rather strange medley comes from a radio broadcast from the Copa in 1966, a season that saw Bobby introduce much new material to his live act, but which was not professionally recorded.
Let the Good Time Roll (TV, 1973). We close this final volume with a staggeringly good performance from Bobby’s 1973 TV series. Inexplicably, this was edited out of the series when it was released on DVD, despite being one of Bobby’s very best moments from his final years.
The following post is a transcript of a 1967 Bobby Darin interview that, it’s fair to say, is the most in-depth that we have yet come across. The audio was found in a corner of the internet by Alex Bird (and if you haven’t heard his own albums, check them out now!). Running for half an hour or so, much of it was distorted or playing at the wrong speed. Alex got everything running at the right speed, and then did a transcription of the interview. That was then passed to me, and I have edited it and added notes. Matt Forbes (and if you haven’t heard HIS albums, then you should check them out, too!) also helped with this process over the last few weeks.
In the interview, Bobby chats about his own recording career, what he thinks of the music scene at the time of the interview, and also tells us about the times when he was working as a demo singer – filling in a period of time in his early career that we knew nothing about. I have edited the interview, but made very few changes of note. I’ve removed repetitions etc, and also short sections that, for one reason or another, don’t make much sense (often because the audio was missing). In short, I’ve tried to make it work as piece of text rather than a piece of audio. Sections in bold are notes added by myself. Sections in blue are spoken by the interviewer, although I have tried my best to make this read more like an article than an interview, but that wasn’t always possible.
We hope you enjoy this rare and very revealing interview. The original audio is linked to at the bottom of the post.
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“It’s Got to Be Right:” Bobby Darin discusses his music career. (1967)
The Writing and Recording Process
In 1958, I sit down and write a song called Splish Splash, which is a novelty song with rhythm and blues chords and a simplistic approach piano wise – because I’m writing songs at the piano trying to use both hands. Now, it becomes a hit record and, the next thing I know, there’s a typification program happening. Then we come with Queen of the Hop, which is more or less in a similar bag. It’s got more of a New Orleans kind of flavor to it. And Early in the Morning is a real gospel, I Got a Woman kind of changes. And, of course, I Got a Woman is a derivation from church – the gospel rolling piano that Ray Charles was so famous for, along with slews of people who never made the pop scene.
Soon after, I get into what I liked to call at that time “a pretty chord sequence,” like, Dream Lover. Again, to me, it requires a different sound. First of all, I don’t have the same vocal placement. When I hear a certain kind of thing, when I go into a country bag, I’m into a country bag and it becomes a vocal placement. I couldn’t sing a country and western tune in the same approach that I would sing a pop standard ballad and/or a rhythm & blues tune. So, what I don’t realize at the time is all of it’s coming out at once and I’m trying to place it. I’m as guilty of the thing I resent most, which is categorization, but I can’t control it.
We dissolve and it’s 1964 or 1965, when I find myself in this position that I’m starting to force things. I’m trying to overlap, and place into specific bags, individual things that I’m doing. All of a sudden, it’s 1967, and I just have to do what I feel, as I feel it. So, I go in and I do a Dr. Doolittle, which I feel in a certain way.
Bobby singing Talk to the Animals on The Jerry Lewis Show, 1967
[Right] now, I’m in the process of putting together an album of what I call potpourri. There’s some rhythm and blues things in there, some country-oriented things, some bluegrass-oriented things, because I feel those things. And I’m doing them now for me. Again, I’m back into recording what I really dig and groove behind. Whether they are commercial successes, well, that’s a later factor. I would like them to be – no artist wants to go in and have a bomb – but that’s not a significant factor.
[Note by Shane Brown: The sessions that Bobby is talking about here were taking place in late 1967. The rhythm ‘n’ blues numbers he mentions are probably Easy Rider and Everywhere I Go, first issued on the Rhino boxed set in the 1990s. The country track is likely to refer to the likes of Tupelo, Mississippi Flash (unreleased), as well as I’m Going to Love You and Long Time Movin’, both of which straddle the country and folk genres, and both were, again, released on the 1995 Rhino box. The bluegrass song is Honey, Take a Whiff on Me. Many fans will be aware of Bobby’s performance of this on a 1969 TV special, but, until recently, there was no record of a studio version being made. However, we now know that the song was taped in the studio in 1967. It remains unreleased. It’s worth adding that Easy Rider, Everywhere I Go, I’m Going to Love You, and Long Time Movin’ were referred to as demo recordings when first released. This 1967 interview corrects that, with Bobby confirming these sessions were intended for an album project. Documentation seen recently also confirms that these were regular studio recordings.]
The 1995 Rhino Boxed Set
I used to try to plot what an audience wanted to hear. I don’t mean this to sound like a professional and a penance session, but, by the same token, these are facts that I’m expressing. You put me into a studio with five guys who are really nitty gritty funky blues players, and that’s where I go. That’s where I am. You put me into a Nashville studio with guys who have got that twang, [and] that’s where I go. You put me into a studio with 35 lush strings, and that’s where I go. So, the music really dictates to me rather than me dictating to the music. I can just say that it happens on an emotional level. It happens to me. I know I respond to it, and I know that people there respond to it. And I’m hoping now that what happens is I go in and I have that freedom, which is something that I’ve always had. Nobody’s ever squashed it, nobody’s ever tried to put it away, but, by the same token, I did it to myself. I started over-listening instead of doing.
We’re going in on Thursday to record a couple of tracks. We may not get them Thursday, [so] we’ll come back on Monday. That’s the thing I could never do before, and now I can. I couldn’t understand how it would take so long to do one or two tracks. Well look, the chemistry’s not working today. It’s Thursday [and] it’s rainy…the car broke down, the market’s off…I’ve got a headache. Instead of trying to account for all those factors, make them work for you. If they don’t work for you, just stop, go back, and do it again. Do it until it’s right. That’s really where it’s at. There’s nothing now that will ever come out that’s not right. Now I’ll stand behind it.
[Note by Shane Brown: What Bobby is saying here about not previously going into the studio to re-do songs he wasn’t happy with isn’t actually true. There are many occasions where Bobby was unhappy with his first attempt at a song, and so went back into the studio at a later date to try again. His willingness to do this goes back as far as the late 1950s and continued through the Capitol years and beyond.]
It started with the Carpenter album, there is nothing on that album that I won’t stand behind, nothing on the Inside Out album that I will not stand behind, nothing on the Dolittle album that I won’t stand behind. On the new project [there’s] a couple a things we don’t like. We hear them back and say the track is wrong, and the song is not for me. We just put a pass on those things that aren’t right, because my needs have changed. It’s got to be right. Now, if it sinks or if it swims, fine. But at least it’s right going out.
Bobby as Songwriter Demo Singer
I earned my living, for about a year and a half, recording songs for the artist to sing. I was a demo record singer in New York City, and you would get 10 or 15 bucks a side, depending on the publisher involved, or whether you knew the writer etc. And he would say “Now look. I got a song for Perry Como”. And he would give me the tune, and I’d learn it. We’d go in with a trio or quartet, and I’d sing “Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, never let it fade away.” Or “we got a song for Presley” (Bobby does Elvis Presley impression). Having that vocal flexibility, I was able to sometimes earn $100 dollars a week – just going in and singing songs that were going to be put onto acetates and mailed out to other artists. And nobody ever asked who it was singing
[Note by Shane Brown: This is new information. When looking through magazines and newspapers from 1956, Bobby seems to just disappear for about nine months or so from the late summer of 1956, reappearing again in the spring of 1957. He doesn’t appear to have been doing commercial recording sessions, TV work, or live appearances. Bearing in mind that he references Catch a Falling Star and Elvis here, it is almost certain that Bobby is talking about that “lost” period. It is known that some demo records by Bobby from the mid-1950s are still in existence, but the titles are unknown, and they haven’t been heard by the editors of this interview transcript.]
Bobby with Elvis Presley
As I say, the demo record business was quite a lucrative thing for me. And it was never for professional or commercial use, merely to present [the song] to the A&R man or the artist himself. It’s a great experience, certainly, because so many times I had I had a chance to get before a microphone in the studio before I was up to bat as Bobby Darin. So, it kinda worked.
[Note by Shane Brown: This would explain how and why Bobby’s recording and singing technique improved so much between the Decca recordings and the May 1957 sessions which ultimately led to his ATCO contract.]
Bobby on Influences and Writing
People that you really are strong for cannot help but influence you. I’m as influenced by Ray Charles and by a Frank Sinatra as I am by an Al Jolson, for that matter, or a Bing Crosby, because those people have made contributions. There’s no question about it that there’s some degree of innovation involved. Now, I think, that there is little left to innovate but the little that is left is what I’m after. I don’t know that anybody can consciously do it, I think you can sit with all the maps, all the records, all the charts in the world and try to…and it doesn’t happen.
You take Ray Charles, a classic case in point. Ray was an underground artist for a long time. I go back with Ray Charles in terms of being a fan to when he sounded like Nat Cole. Some people might stand up and say, “now, wait, he never sounded like Nat Cole”. I’m telling you he sounded like Nat Cole and worked with a trio and came out of Washington in the [early] days.
Ray was influenced by Nat. Now, all of a sudden, he got into a church kind of thing and now he was starting to do, you know, Ain’t that Enough or What’d I Say or I Got a Woman. Things that were new and fresh – not for the people who would listen to them and heard those things, but for a whole mass who had never heard them. Strangely enough, though, he was never as successful as he was at the moment he had the vision to see that a Hank Williams in his game was doing exactly what Ray was trying to do in his game, in the R‘n’B bag, and fuse the two. So, all of a sudden, he had I Can’t Stop Loving You and You Don’t Know Me. He took a basic Americana source, fused it with another basic Americana source and came up with something which everybody considers new, which, in reality, certainly is not new. There is nothing that is new. But the fusion tended to be, and was, innovative, at least to the degree that it was virtually unheard of in this country.
He was charted. For people to accept a rhythm and blues artist doing “their material” was a huge, huge step. Now, a Sinatra does it in a sophisticated, maybe not as stylized, approach, but [he] takes a song and makes it his own. I think that really determines what I mean by innovative – somebody that takes material and puts it into such a shape and remolds it to such a degree that you exclude it. [With] hundreds of other people, you’re precluded [from] recording that song in any similar fashion at all because the stamp is on it. And Ray does that. Jolson did it. Sinatra does it. Barbara Streisand does it. I think I had an opportunity, and a couple of times did it. I think a song like Mack the Knife and/or Bill Bailey.
Now, it’s more difficult to do it with songs that you do write. Again, you look to the track record [of] Ray Charles [and] the biggest songs he’s had are the songs that he did not write. He had a chance to place something of his own into someone else’s work, a combination factor.
Being a writer, I find that, when I write a tune, the person best suited to sing it is me, because I’ve written it, knowing all my foibles, all my shortcomings, as well as all of the flexibilities, you see? And strangely enough, I’ve had a lot of recordings on songs that I have written, but never a hit with someone else – which implies some sort of weakness in the material. There’s no question about it. Because I write a song like Things and I have a top ten record with it. Dean Martin records it, puts it on an album a couple of years later. It does not step out as a single. And Nancy Sinatra has it out now, but it’s not as a single record. Well, who can figure that? Or You’re the Reason I’m Living. I write it, I sing it, it’s a top three tune and and a lot of people record it, but it’s just placed into an album. So, there’s something generically wrong with my being able to write for other people.By the same token, I think I’m getting closer to being able to write for me as well as do other people’s songs with more of me in them, because the question in the final analysis is “who are you?” You say “I’m me,” but me happens to spread out in more than one or two directions and, therefore, is confusing. I think, for example, that I have let the record player down to some degree when he goes and buys an album in which out of 11 or 12 selections, he does not hear a similarity throughout the 11 or 12 cuts. And he scratches his head and wonders what is going on?
[Note by Shane Brown: His comments here are a bit perplexing, because most of his albums do, in fact, have a coherent style or sound to them. There are very few (outside of compilations of hits and leftovers like Things and Other Things or For Teenagers Only) where he includes country songs and jazz, for example. Sure, he combines country with big band on You’re the Reason I’m Living, but he does that throughout the album, not one style and then the other.]
When you buy Mathis, you buy one sound. When you buy Sinatra, virtually, you buy one sound. When you buy Ray Charles virtually you buy one sound. Well, when you buy BD, you buy a potpourri of things.
Bobby on Being Pigeonholed
I am never bored in a recording studio. I don’t think the people who buy my product are ever bored by the similarity or the sameness of the sound. I’m always experimenting, which is, at points, a hang up, at other points a great advantage. I did an album called Earthy on Capitol, several years ago, which was played for the true folknicks. They asked who it was. Because they dug it. I used natural skin players, the gut string players. The guys who had played those things all their life, the natural pickers. So that the only thing that wasn’t authentic was “Bobby Darin never got on a freight train and he wears a suit and tie.”
I felt bad about that until I realized that’s what they did to Bobby Dylan after he electrified his guitar. So to be good and poor is all right. To be good and successful somehow or other, you’re out, like it or lump it. And I think it’s a shame that that can happen to a Bob Dylan, etc., not that his popularity has waned. I think it’s reached the mass, which is where it belongs. When you’re saying something good. I’m now referring to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and Judy Collins. And, if being heard by the mass precludes it being an underground art object any longer, well, I’m sorry about that. I was never in any of those categories, so I don’t have to personally feel put down. But, to me, it’s sad that an individual has to be bagged and remain there by any number of his peers. That’s kind of a shame.
Now, what happens is that people come to see a show or performance that I give knowing that they’re going to see a good cross-section of all of the things that have been going on, that I’ve been doing for years. I mean, I used to go out and do Canaan’s Land, an old folk standard spiritual kind of thing, and get 650 out of 1000 rednecks up on their feet with a deafening applause. It got them all together. I do Work Song, which, certainly, it’s got to make you think, since it’s a song about a guy that commits a crime. And they would crack in a nightclub – in that place where you’re supposed to only do songs like My Funny Valentine and I Get Along Without You Very Well, and so forth. And I made them respond to that and I still make them respond to it. And I constantly change the songs involved. But the various approaches can’t change. Otherwise, I could not get up and do the hour and 10 minutes that I do of any one given kind of music. You know, I close with with a medley of Respect, What’d I Say, and Got My Mojo Working. So, I mean, it’s lunacy. And, before that, I’ve done Drown in My Own Tears and Talk to the Animals, Don’t Rain on my Parade and Carpenter.
Bobby singing Work Song on The Bobby Darin Amusement Company, 1972
So, the people who buy albums, I think more or less want to buy a given sound, a given set of similarities. In a club, they want to be entertained. To bridge that gap is a little more difficult than [that], it requires a Superman.
I started to say before that I at least find people now saying, “Gee, I’m glad that you do all of those things. I’d rather have you do all of those things than just be locked into a particular kind of thing.” Because to me, the song is the essence. Songs [that are] not good, I don’t care who does it. Doesn’t mean a thing. A song better be good. And that’s pretty much where it’s at. And those people who think that their particular styles and/or an arrangement are selling them are, I think, short lived. They better be able to go after and find the song constantly and/or perform the song. They must have the material.
Bobby on his first hits
(Interviewer) Back in 1958 when you did Splish Splash , where was your head then? What were you after? What were your goals at that point, when you started to really record professionally?
I wanted a hit record so bad I could taste it.
I don’t think I have told this to any anybody more than an intimate friend or two, but I don’t mind talking about it now. I had a rather severe case of psoriasis, which is a kind of a rash that breaks out on your hands. That’s usually triggered by some emotional disturbances. And I was being treated by a marvelous dermatologist in New York, and he would give me these ultraviolet treatments and cream. And after a long time, part of his treatment was to sit and discuss things. The treatment would only take 10 minutes. We’d shoot the breeze for 15 or 20. And one day he said to me, “when you have your first hit record, all this is going to go away.” Now, whether he planted that, or whether that was a fact that he had picked up on as a result of conversation, I don’t know. But I had recorded Splish Splash on a Monday, it released on a Thursday by the following Monday, we had sold 50,000 records, and it was just breaking all over the place. And by the following Thursday, my rash disappeared. You know, people out there could sit and laugh, and say “That’s funny.” That’s exactly what happened.
[Note by Shane Brown. This isn’t exactly how it happened. Splish Splash wasn’t released until five weeks after it had been recorded. It was recorded on April 10, 1958, and released on May 19th.]
So, I had such limited views, direction, such a narrow beam of light that I was looking through and traveling on, that the first hit record was an immediate. Then it was OK, now I’ve got to get the second one and the third one, the fourth one, and when I went in to do the That’s All album which had Mack the Knife in it, that was clearly and simply designed to show some people that I could do something else other than this rock and roll thing. Now, if somebody wants to get super analytical, they can say that’s because you were putting down the rock and roll thing. I don’t deny it. I was. But without knowing it. However, when they wanted to put Mack the Knife out as a single, I argued. I said, “don’t do that. You’ll hurt everything I’ve got going,” because, to me, I was like a man running on a treadmill and going nowhere. Inside I wasn’t going anyplace at all. I was starting to become the celebrity that I had wanted to become all my life.
Now, my attitude is very simple. I must do what artistically pleases me, and not worry about [what happens later].
And when you ask where was my head at in Splish Splash, that’s what sounded to me like it would be a hit record, and I went and did it. And Queen of the Hop sounded like it would be a hit record, and Dream Lover sounded like it would be a hit record…
(Interviewer) While we’re on Dream Lover, I want to point out that, to me, that stands out so far above [other pop hits]. I think it’s an excellent record from that period. Could you tell me a little something about the composition of that and the recording just for the heck of it? It was a very good record. I think it still is.
I had just discovered the C, A minor, F G seventh changes on the piano, and I stretched them out. And I liked that space that I left in there. And I don’t know why, because, as I say, I have no theory to base it on. And I did, “Every night, I hope and pray a dream lover…” And it just flowed because, usually, all of the songs that I’ve written that are hits have flowed out just like that. Whether I’m playing guitar and writing and/or piano and writing it, it just happens. That’s one of those cases in points. Splish Splash did as well. Then, to go in and record. I felt that should have some voices and some strings. So that was a little bigger date than I’d been used to doing. But, we did 32 takes on the song because we couldn’t get, in that particular afternoon we couldn’t get everybody to gel.
Bobby singing Dream Lover on The Ed Sullivan Show, May 31, 1959.
When I listen to the record today, I’m flattered that you say you think that out of that period, that was a good selection and I think it was a well-produced record…overproduced for today’s market. I think it’s a much more simple market today, put out a simple song with a simple idea that everybody could relate to. Again, though, I was going in to write for some people. I can’t say that I emotionally was divorced from looking for that love of my life, that would make me happy, and that’s what Dream Lover is all about. You’re the Reason I’m Living comes from it. But it comes from a definite need. An emotional need. And I think a thing like 18 Yellow Roses is a definite emotional need expressed in song.
Then I got a case of the cutes. And I started to write what I thought would sound like an emotional need, and things like Be Mad Little Girl – things that are so obscure and nobody even knows them, which is just as well. Now I’m back into writing things that I feel that I can relate to totally. And we’ll see what happens from there.
Bobby singing Be Mad Little Girl.
Bobby on the 1960s Music Scene
(Interviewer) I’d like to ask you, what do you think about the contemporary music scene now? What’s happening? Do you find it as exciting as I do and as everybody else seems to?
There is so much good music happening. So much. I mean, stimulating songs coming from stimulated songwriters being performed by stimulated artists that it really is a golden time. If you’ve got a capsule, a period of music, you may as well take the last couple or three years and really lock it up right there.
When you have a Lennon/McCartney combination, you have a John Sebastian, you have a John Phillips, Randy Newman, a Bob Dylan. You’re not talking about any lightweights, pal. And a Leslie Bricusse is the same, you know, coming into the same time era. You’re talking about giant strides forward musically, even though they are based on more simplistic ideas. They’re simplistic with involvement, simplistic with commitment.
True, there is nothing new, but the [key thing is the] way that today’s music is being presented. You take an Aretha Franklin. What a giant, what an absolute giant this girl is. Diana Ross and the Supremes, the entire Motown operation. Dylan, of course, has to be put very, very high on the list of major contributors. The Beatles. You know, somebody once said about Irving Berlin, they said, “well, outside of Irving Berlin, who’s the best songwriter?” Because it’s automatic, you know? Irving Berlin has contributed that much. Well, [now it’s] “outside of Lennon and McCartney,” because they have contributed [so much] in their short three or four years of success that they have to be separately categorized, separately positioned. They’re the triple A.
[Interviewer asks about how contemporary songwriters stand up to the likes of Rodgers and Hart.]
I think that if anybody wants to stack them up against Rodgers and Hart, that there’s a basic failing someplace. I think most people have a tendency to fondle yesterday and embrace it to the point of it being ludicrous. You know, I don’t want to make that comparison between Lennon and McCartney because I don’t think there is one to make. I think Rodgers and Hart served, and will continue to serve, a need on the part of the music appreciated by the music listener. Lennon and McCartney do just as much to serve a need on the part of the music listener and therefore the comparison ends where you say they write songs. There’s no need to compare them any more, so that there is a need to compare Woody Guthrie with Bobby Dylan. Now, the fact that there’s a bag to place Woody Guthrie and a bag to place Bobby Dylan in, that’s a shame that there has to be a bag to place them in. But if they’re right and they’re saying strong things, then that’s where it’s at for me, at least.
It might be hard to believe, but Bobby Darin only released two live albums during his lifetime, and one of those was only issued in the UK. Despite this, there are a number of live recordings which have appeared posthumously, and this post takes us on a little tour through them.
The earliest live recordings that have been released come from Australia in early 1959. Bobby was there as part of a rock ‘n’ roll package, and so his four songs all fit into that genre. It is, perhaps, rather fitting that this short set exists as it allows us to hear Bobby performing in a way very different from even just a year later. Bobby’s banter with the audience tends to fall rather flat, and his jokes and stage patter are pretty awful, but once he sings he gets the young audience in the palm of his hand. You can find this set on a bootleg CD entitled From Sea to Sea.
Later in 1959, Bobby was recorded at a tribute concert for songwriter Jimmy McHugh at the Hollywood Bowl. He was part of an event that also featured Vic Damone and Anne Marie Alberghetti, and not only did Bobby sing solo, but also in a series of duets and trios. The concert was recorded by arranger Buddy Bregman, but, for whatever reason, it has never been released, and the location of the tapes is now unknown. This is a shame as Bobby performed some songs here that he didn’t revisit later, such as On the Sunny Side of the Street, I Feel a Song Comin’ On, and Let’s Get Lost.
The following year came Bobby’s first live album, Darin at the Copa. It was perhaps inevitable that ATCO would record Bobby’s season at the venue, although the venue itself wasn’t exactly a great place for live recording. The acoustics rather remind me of the live albums recorded over the years at Ronnie Scott’s in London. The sound is a little lifeless – a word that couldn’t be used to describe Bobby’s performances. The resulting album is a bit of a strange one. For all the fine performances, it’s badly edited together, and some strange choices were made. For some reason, My Funny Valentine, Splish Splash, and The Birth of the Blues were left off the album, but Alright, Okay, You Win was included – despite part of it being a dance number. Interestingly, the highlights are the songs that Bobby hadn’t previously recorded: I Have Dreamed, Love for Sale, and You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To. But the album desperately needs someone to go back to the master tapes (if they exist) and remix them from scratch. And, in all honesty, there’s little chance of that happening!
Bobby’s next live album was recorded in November 1963 in Las Vegas, in what was his final season before he was to retire permanently from live performances. For some reason, the album wasn’t released until the year 2000, although a handful of tracks had emerged on a boxed set in the 1990s. The first thing we notice here is that Bobby’s act is much more refined. Instead of sprinkling every song with an impersonation or an aside, he now separates that from the rest of the act with a comedy routine, which is a huge improvement. Perhaps the most impressive section of the act is the folk sequence near the end. Bobby reworked Eighteen Yellow Roses earlier in the show, but here continues with Work Song, Mary Don’t You Weep, and I’m on My Way. Mary Don’t You Weep is exquisite in this setting, with Bobby managing to get a campfire atmosphere in a Vegas showroom.
In 1966, Bobby returned to live performing. In January of that year, he was performing a season at the Flamingo in Las Vegas, and his show brought in reviews that most people could only dream of. Sinatra was performing at the same time in the Sands hotel – and told his audiences that they should take in Bobby’s show while they were in town. In April of the same year, Bobby was back at the Copa, and some excerpts from these shows circulate amongst collectors, albeit in dubious quality. Bobby had completely altered his show by this point, now including Yesterday, I’ve Got the World on a String, Trouble in Mind, I Got Plenty of Nothin’, and I Left My Heart in San Francisco.
In November, Bobby was in London, and was recorded at the Shepherd’s Bush theatre for a BBC TV special broadcast in 1967. The soundtrack from this was released in the UK (but not elsewhere). The Something Special LP is the same as the TV show, except for a few edits. Again, Bobby had altered his repertoire, and the highlights of the show were a new arrangement of Once upon a Time and a slow blues version of Funny What Love Can Do. The disc also includes the only official version (on album) of Bobby singing A Quarter to Nine and I Wish I Were in Love Again. It has not been issued officially on CD.
In the 1990s, a bootleg album appeared called Rare Performances, and this included an edited version of a concert in Lake Tahoe in 1967. Recorded from the soundboard, with rather a hissy sound, this demonstrates how Bobby’s performances were always changing. Here, he incorporates a fun version of (Sittin’ Here) Lovin’ You and I’ve Got You Under My Skin, a song he never recorded professionally.
We now move on to the Direction years, when Bobby turned his back somewhat on the traditional nightclub show and, instead, performed material with social commentary, some blues, and traditional folk songs. Bobby attempted to film the shows, but the resulting footage was not of good enough quality (technical quality, that is) for it to be issued. However, a quartet of songs recorded from his stint at the Troubadour have emerged, and one can only wonder why there hasn’t be a full disc containing a complete show. These live versions of Distractions, Long Line Rider, Questions, and Simple Song of Freedom are delightful – as are Bobby’s humble and amusing introductions to them. They can be found on the Songs from Big Sur CD and also as bonus tracks on the UK release of the Commitment album on CD. Also from the same period is a version of I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight recorded at The Bonanza in Las Vegas. This was on the 1995 Rhino boxed set. Again, nothing else from these recordings have surfaced.
The final set of Darin’s live recordings come from early 1971. These were recorded at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, and are probably the best live recordings we have from Bobby. He is on absolute fire here, giving epic renditions of a Beatles medley, Fire and Rain, Higher and Higher and Hi-De-Ho. A few days after the performance, Bobby was having life-saving heart surgery. Why the Desert Inn album wasn’t released at the time is a mystery – not least because it got shelved in favour of a studio album which was nowhere near the same quality. A couple of songs from the Vegas season were made available as singles and, eventually, Motown issued the whole album in 1987, with an extended version issued in 2005. This later version was remixed and, to these ears, sounds worse than the original version from 1987. Other than Mack the Knife, If I Were a Carpenter, and Splish Splash, it might not have the big Darin hits, but this is still THE must-have disc if you only want one Darin live disc in your collection.
This is Bobby Darin 