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 While those sessionographies are now somewhat out of date (in that they don’t include more recent releases), they were (and still are) huge achievements that have laid the groundwork for someone like me to come along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.
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.
Really sorry for the lack of updates recently, but here’s something to hopefully make up for that!
When the Bobby Darin Show was released on DVD several years ago, many fans were rightly upset that so many performances had been cut from series. Some of these were numbers that we have no other taped rendition of and therefore unique to the TV series.
The following video contains the audio of five of these “lost” performances, probably not heard in public since the show first aired in 1973.
It starts off with Fire and Rain. This is shorter than the 1971 live recording, but the arrangement is very good all the same, and it’s a shame Bobby didn’t attempt it in the studio. We then move on to Lonesome Road, a song that Bobby had used in his act a lot during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Then he revives the title song from Guys and Dolls before giving us the only known recording of him singing I Get a Kick Out Of You. The video footage of this song (the YT video is audio only) shows Bobby looking really quite unwell, and his performance isn’t up to scratch, but a “new” Darin song is always a cause for celebration. Finally, we have Bridge Over Troubled Water. The version from late March for the final episode of the series is well known, but this one comes from January of the same year, and the performance was aired in episode two of the series. To my mind, this new version beats the one we have had in our collection for years, and is one of Bobby’s best performances from the entire series.
In the summer of 1972, Bobby’s first TV series made it to TV screens in America as the summer replacement for the Dean Martin Show. Reviews were mixed, but positive enough for The Bobby Darin Show to be commissioned for the following year. This post brings together a collection of items from the press that were printed in connection with the 1972 series. Enjoy.
Finally, the following videos contain excerpts from the Amusement Company series, and a complete episode.
At the beginning of 1960, Bobby Darin had recorded two albums and four single sides, and had a residency at the Club Casanova in Miami Beach – and all before February 5th! Meanwhile, Cash Box told its readers in January of a rather bizarre-sounding radio programme:
Bill Spitalsky, indy promo man was instrumental in creating a new show for airing over WNTA-Newark. Hosted by Roy Freezer, the station’s librarian, the show spotlights Johnny Mathis and Bobby Darin, plus a different guest each week. It is titled (obviously) Freezer, Mathis, Darin and Guest.[1]
While in Pittsburgh in early January, Bobby gave an interview to local columnist George E. Pitts. In it, he takes time to praise his friend Sammy Davis Jr. “Sammy is the guy who used his influence to get me booked into some of the bigger clubs,” he says.[2] “I also can say that I was definitely influenced by him. While I don’t try to copy his style, I figure he’s the guy who taught me to do things I wouldn’t ordinarily do.” He also paid tribute to Ray Charles, saying that “he has more soul than anyone in the business. [He] is great because there is at least one outstanding quality, something that sticks with you from every record he makes.” Finally, there is another indication that Bobby was becoming interested in politics and political causes, stating that “I won’t play before segregated audiences. It just doesn’t strike me as being right.”
However, there were times when the hectic schedule took its toll. Darin had withdrawn from the Playboy Jazz Festival the year before, and in February, he withdrew from a rock ‘n’ roll package tour of Australia organised by Lee Gordon. According to Cash Box, it resulted in the entire series of shows being cancelled.[3] Neil Sedaka, The Diamonds, and Bill Haley and the Comets were also due to appear. There were also plans for Bobby to have presented an awards ceremony for the Australian recording industry while he was there.
Bobby was back performing before the end of the month – and in what might have been his most unusual concerts. Dave Dushoff had hired Darin the previous year to perform at his newly-built Latin Casino in Cheltenham, Philadelphia. The problem was that, by the time of the proposed shows, the Casino still wasn’t finished due to a steel strike. So, Dushoff persuaded Darin to perform in his house instead, in front of his fifteen-year-old daughter and one hundred of her classmates. Bobby then did the same thing in two other homes, and for his services got the full salary he would have got at the Casino.[4]
His next venture was to perform in the UK as part of a rock ‘n’ roll package tour. Darin’s arrival in Great Britain was much anticipated. “The fans are rarin’ for Darin,” wrote Melody Maker on February 13, before noting that “five weeks have still to go before the American big-beat package headed by Bobby Darin hits Britain.”[5] The package of Darin with Clyde McPhatter and Duane Eddywas described as the “biggest capture since Bill Haley.”[6] But the frenzy didn’t stop there. The Daily Mirror ran a competition to win a “Date with Darin!” in which a lucky reader (plus friend) would have tea with Bobby before watching him perform live at the London Palladium on April 10.[7] On April 16, the newspaper printed a picture of the winners, Sandra Simpson and Valerie Hutchings, both eighteen and shorthand typists, kissing Bobby following his performance at the Palladium.[8]
Not all the newspapers in the UK were treating Bobby’s tour in quite such a frivolous fashion. The Daily Express carried an interview with a headline stating “They Call Him the Next Sinatra.” It was as original an article as the headline suggests, with the interview carried out in a car as Darin was driven around London. Still, he managed to deliver some zingers: “I’ve been called an angry young man. Guess I got angry with some guy once.”[9] However, the article also gives an indication that Bobby’s time in Britain was not going as smoothly as one hoped. “That cockahoop confidence, that knack of giving the lyric a special twist that Sinatra has – they were both there,” wrote Robin Douglas-Home. “But not the vocal control, the sheer musicianship, the bittersweet tones.”[10]Variety reviewed one of the Glasgow performances, and noted that too many stars were featured in a single evening when “Darin himself, alone, would have been useful enough a marquee name for the kids.”[11] Bobby’s songs included Splish Splash, Dream Lover, Clementine, Beyond the Sea, and Mack the Knife.
Bobby had not ingratiated himself to the British audiences. David Evanier writes that “he became embroiled in controversy on opening night in Lewisham when he segued from his rock hits to a quiet rendition of My Funny Valentine. The rock audience jeered him, and he baited them, saying ‘I thought you people lived on the other side of town.’”[12] The news of the opening night also reached America, with Billboard writing that “Darin had a rough passage for his first house but adapted his act, bringing his hits in earlier, for later shows to win high audience acclaim.”[13] A few days into the tour, Bobby gave an interview to Melody Maker, saying that “I have found the British audiences the noisiest I have played to anywhere in the world – though they are the most demonstrative if they like you. That barracking at Lewisham on my first show was the most shattering thing that has happened to me as a performer. […] When I come back to Britain next time I will insist on a concert tour for adult audiences – or I won’t be back.”[14]
Bobby’s relationship with Britain didn’t fully recover during the tour. When he appeared as a guest on the popular television programme Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Clifford Davis wrote in the Daily Mirror: “Between ourselves I don’t go for this Mr. Darin. He has some of Johnnie Ray’s qualities, but not enough. In terms of an act for television, young Mr. D. is a dead loss.”[15] To be fair to the writer of that article, Bobby does seem a little reigned-in compared to some other TV guest spots of the same period, but his performance was hardly a “dead loss” and was yet another demonstration of how he could captivate an audience.
Perhaps the most significant element of Darin’s time in the UK was This is Bobby Darin, Bobby’s first one-hour TV special, with guests including Duane Eddy, Clyde McPhatter and Dorothy Squires. For this show, Darin made no concessions within his own solo numbers to the rock ‘n’ roll audience, mining his two albums of standards for his songs. However, he wasn’t in the best of form in some sections, most notably during a surprisingly lacklustre (and sometimes off-key) rendition of The Gal that Got Away which, presumably, betrayed signs of wear and tear to his voice after a tiring series of concerts.[16] The musical highlight was I’m Just a Country Boy, a quiet folk song sung by Darin accompanied by Duane Eddy on guitar. It’s a charming and sincere performance that looks forward to some of his later folk recordings. The duet with Clyde McPhatter, where Darin plays piano, is also worthy of note.
Despite the various musical highlights, however, what becomes most noticeable is that Darin wasn’t quite as comfortable as the host of a show such as this as he perhaps should have been. For a man who excelled so much in front of a live audience, it appears that he never quite managed to translate this to his own television appearances when he had hosting as well singing duties. This isn’t the case just for this special, but for those that followed in the following years as well. As a guest on someone else’s show, Darin blossomed and, more often than not, stole the show, but not very often when he was fronting his own. This continued right through to his own, often lacklustre, TV series during the last year of his life. There were exceptions, such as the Sounds of the Sixtiesspecial aired in 1969, and, most notably, his BBC TV special aired in 1967, but that was simply the filming of his live act on stage in London. It was just Bobby on stage, doing what he did so well, without having to worry about the television element or, to be more exact, connecting with the people at home as well as the people on the stage. A similar show was filmed in Australia the following year, entitled Bobby Darin at the Silver Spade¸ but this, alas, appears to be lost. This is a shame as newspaper reports suggest that the programme was a filming of Darin working in a night club and, again, should have shown him at his very best.
That said, it appears that Bobby might temporarily have lost his on-stage magic at the time of the British tour and television shows – although he is very good during the aforementioned Sunday Night at the London Palladiumperformance. On his return to America, he opened at The Cloister and, even there, the reviews were less than stellar. “Whether it was the bombastic beforehand publicity that mushroomed to heights of outer space on Bobby Darin’s return to the Cloister, or just an off-night, the 23-year-old’s opener Thursday wasn’t as spectacular as expected,” wrote Variety. “The weakness of his act,” they go on, “lies in repetitious delivery. It’s here that he loses his impact on the payees. Darin’s entire repertoire is vocalled around terrific Dick Wess arrangements. But what do you do after Mack the Knife?”[17]
[1] “Platter Spinner Patter,” Cash Box, January 30, 1960, 28.
[2] George E. Pitts , “Bobby Darin Gives Credit to Sammy Davis Jr.,” Pittsburgh Courier, January 9, 1960, 22.
[13] “London Bow Big for Darin, Eddy, McPhatter,” Billboard, March 28, 1960, 12.
[14] “Darin Slams Back at British Rock Fans,” Melody Maker, April 2, 1960, 1 & 20.
[15] Clifford Davis, “It’s a Fight Not Worth Winning,” Daily Mirror, April 11, 1960, 26.
[16] Darin misses a number of the “big” notes during the song, but had also missed the high note at the end of Some of these Days on the Sunday Night at the London Palladium appearance as well. It could simply be that after months of near non-stop work, he and his vocal chords needed a rest.
January 31, 1961 saw Bobby Darin head what was called at the time his “first TV special,” Bobby Darin and Friends. This wasn’t true, as he had already starred in his own special the year before in the U.K., but seemingly that show was never broadcast in the U.S. Just as with the U.K. programme, there were some great, and some not so great, moments and, once again, there was a feeling that Bobby’s stage show persona didn’t translate to television when fronting a programme within the hour-long variety show format. Despite this, Bobby was keen to promote the special, saying “It’s been a lot of fun preparing. […] We’ve got Bud Yorkin and Norm Lear producing and directing, also writing. They did the Astaire special that won all the Emmys. I was really flattered when they said they wanted to work with me.”[1]
Part of the problem here is that Darin doesn’t seem entirely at ease when fronting his own show. The jokes, the smiles, the casual delivery, all seem just a little too exaggerated, too faked, for the more intimate medium of television. Arnold Zeitlin, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was mostly positive, writing that the show was “solid, as well as profitable, evidence, he is at the peak of a career which was little more than a wistful ambition five years ago.”[2] Meanwhile, the New York Times was particularly harsh:
In several songs, at a fast tempo, he demonstrated that he is an accomplished finger-snapper. As a singer he is considerably less accomplished – particularly when he attempts a tender ballad, such as I Have Dreamed. […] Most of it was Mr. Darin’s show and it offered little in the way of entertainment.[3]
A slightly more flippant, but no doubt serious, comment on the show appeared in the Bedford Gazette, which described the show as an “appalling hour” and referred to Darin himself as a “flippant overgrown teenager.”[4] The review goes on:
We sat through most of it in the spirit of higher education. It is the same spirit in which we listen to Communistic propaganda or the ravings of Castro. We disagree violently, but we like to know what the other fellow is thinking and doing…Perhaps the big-city beatniks go for a cocky kid whose chief accomplishment is insulting pretty girls; but we hopefully think that this twisted refinement has not penetrated to our sector of the backwoods.
Columnist Fred Danzig was not impressed either. “Somewhere between the conception of the show and the final taping, freshness, cohesion and drive disappeared,” he wrote. “Attempts to blend Bobby into sets occupied by artful dancers and impressionistic designs were foiled by Bobby’s own style. He has a facility for reducing class into flash.”[5]
Interestingly, Variety bucked the trend and praised the show, stating:
On his own show, Darin carried the ball with a display of vocalizing, hoofing and comedy, the whole performance super-charged with his self-assured air. He used his talent to the hilt and gave this variety hour the benefit of his sharp personality edge. The show itself was an entertaining parlay of music and comedy, well-mounted and smoothly paced within a more or less standardized format for this type of presentation.[6]
Bobby himself was at least honest about where the blame would lie if the show failed: “If the show is great, it will be because of the people in it. If it bombs out, it will be MY fault.”[7] Interestingly, when the programme was shown in Australia the following year, it was referred to as “one of the best hours of TV variety entertainment yet.”[8]
Was the television special as bad as the U.S. press would have us believe? Of course not. While it was not spectacularly brilliant, it was certainly on par when it came to shows of this type at this point in television history – compare it, for example, with Sinatra’s TV shows from the previous few years. But this was a tough time for Bobby Darin in the press. His twenty-fifth birthday was approaching, and his earlier quote about wanting to be a legend by the time he was twenty-five was giving his detractors many chances to knock him down at every chance they had.
[1] Guy Maynard, “Bobby Darin, ‘Young Man in Motion,’ Moves to First TV ‘Special’,” Reading Eagles, January 29, 1961, 6.
[2] Arnold Zeitlin, “The Bobby Darin Story,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sunday Magazine, January 29, 1961, 7.
[3] John P. Shanley, “Bobby Darin Heads One-Hour Program,” New York Times, February 1, 1961, 71.
[4] “Old Man on the Moment,” Bedford Gazette, February 3, 1961, 4.
[5] Fred Danzig, “Jack Paar, Bobby Darin Shows Offered Dull, Tired and Pointless Entertainment,” Coshocton Tribune, February 1, 1961, 15.
[6] Herm, “Bobby Darin and Friends,” Variety, February 8, 1961, 76.
As Bobby doesn’t have an official presence on YouTube, I thought it would be useful to pull together some of the TV appearances that Bobby Darin made that are available on YouTube in full (ie. complete episodes). Enjoy. All credit to the original uploaders.
We start with a complete episode from The Bobby Darin Amusement Company in 1972. The second half of the show is in much better quality than the first half.
Next up is Bobby’s appearance on This Is Your Life from December 1959.
Password, a quiz/game show from 1963:
Bobby’s appearance on the Jack Benny Program in 1964.
Here we have a complete episode from The Mike Douglas Show, with Bobby as guest co-host.
Another show from the same week (this one is in two parts)
Jumping back to 1960, here’s a special starring George Burns, with Bobby as one of the guests, sitting at the piano and giving a gentle rendition of My Funny Valentine.
Finally. one of Bobby’s best guest appearances on a show occurred when he appeared on The Dinah Shore Show in 1963.
Finally, we have Bobby’s appearance on The Tonight Show in February 1973.
In 1969, Bobby became “Bob Darin,” in an effort to break away from his previous showbiz persona. He recorded and released his second album for the Direction label, Commitment, in which he protests against police brutality, has a few thoughts about God, and sings about getting stoned. He was spending much of his time in Big Sur, California, away from the spotlight for the most part, and yet Darin in 1969 was something of an enigma. He was seemingly intent in breaking away from traditional showbiz, and using his music to give a social commentary on the world around him – and yet, as the following newspaper cuttings show, he couldn’t quite make that decisive break with the old Bobby. In one moment he is protesting about the use of violence at the People’s Park protest (“Sausalito”), and at others he is singing a medley of Al Jolson songs with Dean Martin on prime time TV, and appearing at the Illinois state fair on the same bill as Liberace. And, as one of the following articles show all too clearly, at the same time, Bobby/Bob’s health continued to cause him problems.
This blog post brings together various newspaper articles, adverts and photos from Bobby’s trip to Australia in 1968. This resulted in a number of live performances, as well as a recording of his nightclub act especially for an Australian TV special, entitled Bobby Darin at the Silver Spade. This special is thought to be lost. Bobby also appeared as a guest on a couple of other shows as well. Enjoy.
This is Bobby Darin 