Bobby Darin might have disappeared from newspapers and trade magazines for reasons unknown in June 1956, but he reappeared in April 1957 with much more positive press than he had been receiving a year earlier. For example, on April 12, the Cullum Democrat wrote: “Bobby Darin is appearing in Birmingham this week at Mike’s South Pacific [Club]. Darin has a record out that’s doing well around these parts entitled, Dealer in Dreams. If we just give this fellow a chance he may in just a few years have as high a rating, worldwide, as did Eddie Fisher, two years ago.”[1]
Bobby was also appearing making his first appearances at the Paramount Theater in Montgomery, Alabama, in a revue entitled Teen Time. In an article in The Montgomery Advertiser, it is suggested that the release of Dealer in Dreams had created more of an interest in the singer, something which may have well been true (if only on a regional basis) given that it is mentioned in several articles and advertisements of the time. Bobby told the newspaper that he had “just caught on within the past month – and man, is it ever hectic.”[2] In the same article, he said that he was planning to change labels “in a few days.”[3] That interview had taken place on April 13, 1957, more than six weeks before any deal with a new label was actually made.
In reality, Bobby hadn’t recorded anything for Decca since June 1956, and had been dropped by the label in early 1957, and possibly earlier. In mid-to-late April 1957, Bobby was in Birmingham, Alabama performing three shows a night at Mike South’s Pacific Club, and he somehow pulled enough money together to book a recording studio and musicians in order to put down four songs that he planned to use to help get himself a new record deal. That session took place in Nashville on May 6, and the recordings he made impressed Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records, and it was soon announced that Darin was signed to their subsidiary label, ATCO.
May 6, 1957: Studio Session
When Bobby cut these four demo sides in Nashville, it had been ten months since his second and final session for Decca. The sound he created for these new recordings was very different to those he had used previously. The sound is much more stripped back – there is no big orchestra here (possibly because it would cost too much) – and Bobby used some of the best musicians around, including Hank Garland on guitar and The Jordanaires and Millie Kirkham on vocals. Elvis had been using The Jordanaires on his recordings for nearly a year, and Kirkham would be added to the Elvis sound during the sessions in September 1957 for Elvis’ Christmas Album. Hank Garland would also play for Elvis between 1958 and 1961, but was already regarded as one of the best guitar players in Nashville by the time he recorded with Bobby Darin on this session. Garland was involved in a car accident in 1961 and, despite recovering, was never able to return to the recording studio. The line-up of top talent on these recordings suggests that Bobby was pulling out all the stops. He had tasted fame having been on national TV, and on a bill that also featured Mahalia Jackson and Nat ‘King’ Cole, and he wasn’t planning to let it slip away without a fight.
Bobby was now placing himself firmly in the sphere of rock ‘n’ roll, and his first release for ATCO reflected this. I Found a Million Dollar Baby is interesting as it was another sign that Darin had interests beyond modern pop. Here, he took an old standard and gave it a rock ‘n’ roll makeover. The results are enjoyable enough, and certainly more commercial than anything he had achieved the previous year, helped by the musicians he was working with. However, despite the recording being more in line with the chart music of the day, it still wasn’t hit material. Interestingly, though, it would be the formula of giving old songs a makeover that would give Bobby some of his biggest successes.
The flip side, Talk to Me Something, was a Darin-Kirshner composition and considerably better material than the originals he had recorded during his time at Decca. The performance is hardly a masterpiece (and Bobby can’t quite work out whether he is Elvis or Jim Reeves), but there are some nice moments, particularly during the swell in emotion and volume during the third line of each verse when Darin and the backing vocalists sing together.
While the first ATCO single is generally listed with I Found a Million Dollar Baby as the A-side, an advertisement in Billboard for the single lists Talk to Me Something first, as does the Cash Box review. ATCO were doing something that Decca never seemed to do, which was to promote Bobby’s singles. The advertisement in Billboard has the headline “Darin’s Dynamite!” with a picture of the singer underneath and the titles of both sides of the single.[4]
The single became one of Cash Box’s “Sleepers of the Week,” with the reviewer saying that Talk to Me Something was “a melancholy romancer sentimentally set to a slow blues beat and chanted with great heart by the polished songster.”[5] Meanwhile, I Found a Million Dollar Baby was a “top-drawer oldie” given a “tremendous revival treatment in today’s rock and roll technique.” Overall, the disc promised “to be a stepping stone to a promising future.” Variety thought that the single “should make some headway in the jock and juke fields.”[6] Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer thought that the single was important enough to review, referring to Talk to Me Something as a “slow and dreamy rock ‘n’ roll ballad, and the way young Bobby plays with it, should make plays a plenty on the juke boxes.”[7]
The Billboard review was also favourable, with Million Dollar Baby being referred to as a “hefty, rocking, commercial reading of a great standard.”[8] Despite being a “commercial reading,” however, the single performed disappointingly and failed to chart. However, this was not the story that Bobby would tell Modern Screen magazine in an article published in May 1959. Here he is quoted as saying that the song climbed “the sales charts to top twenty tunes. But I was such a novice in the business I didn’t know how to follow it up. One hit record doesn’t make a singer.”[9] Neither does a make-believe hit, Bobby!
The other two sides recorded at the session would be held back for release. Just in Case You Change Your Mind was another attempt at a rock ‘n’ roll ballad which what not far removed in style or execution from Talk to Me Something, but the performance didn’t manage to rise above the ordinary. It was all just a little too similar to other songs in the charts over the previous couple of years, and Bobby’s rather polite performance was in need of some “edge.” The song itself was not a new one, though, and is an early example of Bobby talking an obscure number and giving it something of a makeover. The song dates back to 1945, when it was recorded by Deek Watson and the Brown Dots (Watson was also co-writer of the song), and the group also sang it in the 1947 film Boy! What a Girl! (Arthur H. Leonard, 1947). Interestingly, the number had also been recorded in 1946 by Bull Moose Jackson, whose name, it has been suggested, may have been the inspiration for Bullmoose, which Bobby wrote and recorded in 1959.
Just In Case You Change Your Mind would be released as a single in January 1958, but it found its real home as filler on Bobby’s first album, released in July of the same year. Once again, though, the single was prominently advertised by ATCO within Billboard,[10] and Cash Box were enthusiastic, saying that “Bobby Darin, a youngster destined to become a name performer, hands in a smooth R & R ballad reading of a wonderful oldie. Side has a good blues feeling.”[11]
Wear My Ring, probably the first song recorded at the session, didn’t receive a single release but also appeared on the Bobby Darin LP. It’s no better or worse than Just in Case You Change Your Mind, although it has marginally more interest being another Darin-Kirshner original. A month after Bobby cut his version, Gene Vincent recorded the song, and released it as the B-side to Lotta Lovin’, a song that reached #13 in the US charts. Vincent’s version manages to make the most of the song’s potential, taking it at a faster pace, giving it a slight novelty value with the falsetto “Won’t you” at the beginning of each verse, and providing an edgier vocal and a fine guitar solo.
August 21, 1957: Studio Session
The four songs recorded in May had resulted in Darin signing with ATCO, and the single release of Talk to Me Something and I Found a Million Dollar Baby had attracted an encouraging amount of attention, even if it hadn’t been a hit record. On August 21, Bobby returned to the studio for his first official session with ATCO, and it is clear from the songs attempted that the intention was to build upon the success of the previous session. Bobby stuck with the rock ‘n’ roll genre here, and, once again, the results were varied.
The first single to come out of the session coupled Don’t Call My Name with Pretty Betty, both of which were originals by Darin and Don Kirshner. Don’t Call My Name was by the far the best cut of the session, and certainly the most commercial. However, as with some of the recordings from May, there was still a sense that Bobby was somehow holding back, and the result is unsatisfying, polite rock ‘n’ roll which appears to be influenced by Fats Domino, but lacking the vibrancy of his recordings.
Pretty Betty, the flip-side of Don’t Call My Name, is a step forward in this direction. Bobby’s vocal is more exciting, and the guitar solo is competent and energetic. The problem here is the material, with the song being derivative of many other rock ‘n’ roll songs from the period, most notably the vogue at the time for songs to be based around girls names (Good Golly Miss Molly, Peggy Sue, Lucille etc). Neither song was distinctive enough to stand out from the crowd, and the pairing performed badly.
The single was released in October 1957, and Billboard picked up on the influence of Fats Domino on Don’t Call My Name, as well as stating that the saxophone “comes in midway to good effect. A chorus adds a big sound.”[12] Of Pretty Betty they wrote that “Darin rocks right along with this one.”[13] Elsewhere, reviews seemed more enthusiastic, with Al Wolfe writing that “here is tempo (sic) designed for teen-agers and young Darin sets his sights on that particular contingent as he belts out Pretty Betty, a genuine house rocker that has shades of Tutti Frutti. He furthers his attraction of the young set with another jammer, Don’t Call, although he slackens the pace on this one.”[14] What is clear is that the single had garnered less attention than its predecessor, both from the critics and ATCO itself, which seemed to reign in on the advertising within trade magazines.
So Mean suffers from many of the same problems. This ballad is competent enough, and Darin puts in a fine performance, but it’s also similar to many other rock ‘n’ roll ballads of the period, with the main point of interest being that it was another Darin and Kirshner original. Paired with Just in Case You Change Your Mind from the May session, it also failed to dent the charts, despite the ATCO advert for the single declaring that the sound of the song was just “‘the hippest’ to teenage ears.”[15]
The remaining song, (Since You’re Gone) I Can’t Go On, is an unremarkable rock ‘n’ roll ballad with country overtones that has a slightly awkward feel about it, and was held back until it appeared on Bobby’s first LP. This was the first song recorded by Bobby that was written by the hit songwriting team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, who would also write Plain Jane, which would be a top forty hit for Darin in 1959.
*
Bobby did not record again until early the following year, but he kept busy with live performances and his first television appearances since Stage Show over a year earlier. In July 1957, around a month after the release of the Talk to Me Something single, Bobby appeared on The Big Beat TV show singing the song, and then in December he was seen on American Bandstand for the first time, performing Don’t Call My Name. It is likely that, in between those two dates, Bobby appeared on local TV shows to promote his live performances and/or his singles. Sadly, however, no documentation has been found to confirm this.
Following the release of Talk To Me Something, Bobby’s star was on the rise, albeit temporarily and only in certain regions of the United States. He made his third Teen Time revue appearance in Montgomery, Alabama in September, and had become popular enough for lunch with him to become part of the prize for those lucky enough to be crowned “Mr and Miss Teen Time.” The Montgomery Advertiser raved: “In case you squares don’t dig this Darin cat, he’s just the coolest. Why man, Darin has waxed Dealer in Dreams and Talk to Me Something and is a top star for the ATCO label.”[16] A few days later, it was reported that Collins (Boogie) Walker and Sara Ann Sansom were the winners of the lunch date, with Walker also winning a nine-year-old car as part of his prize.[17] As with the article a couple of days earlier, there were some slight exaggerations within the text, with Dealer in Dreams being called a “big hit,” and the writer telling readers that thirty of Bobby’s songs had been recorded by other singers, which seems an unlikely number.
At the same time as performing at record hops and revues aimed at teenagers, Bobby was also singing in clubs and hotels, with the autumn of 1957 taking him to clubs in Birmingham, Miami, Detroit, and Atlanta. He continued making a name for himself through live performances. Cash Box states that when he appeared in New York at a rock ‘n’ roll revue in November, “he was booked so late he wasn’t even mentioned in the ads or on the marquee. However, after the first performance, when he really rocked the house, his name was quickly added to the billing.”[18]
The following month, he was back in Montgomery for another Teen Time appearance, with Bill O’Brien, organiser of the event, telling a newspaper that “of all the entertainers I have met, including Eddie Fisher, Bobby is the most talented, most sincere and just the greatest and as long as he makes records, whether they are hits or not, I will still play them.”[19] The same newspaper article also states that “he was so popular he was engaged at the Copa Cabana (sic) in New York only a few weeks ago.” If this were true, then it would have been as a support act, and some three years prior to the autumn of 1960, which has hitherto been thought of his debut. Sadly, at the time of writing I have been unable to confirm the appearance in 1957.
Bobby ended the year by performing at the Community War Memorial in New York on New Year’s Eve, on a bill that was topped by Bill Haley and the Comets. Despite the illustrious company, a review of the performance the following day singled Darin out for praise, stating that the “chief vocal pyrotechnics came from Bobby Darin, who specialized in hand-clapping and toe-tapping accompaniment to his own singing.”[20]
Slowly but surely, Bobby was making a name for himself.
[1] “Your’s Very Musically (sic),” Cullum Democrat, April 12, 1957, 5.
[2] “Teen Timers Greet Darin With Cheers,” Montgomery Advertiser, April 14, 1957, 8.
[3] Ibid.
[4] “Darin’s Dynamite!” Billboard, July 1, 1957, 13.
[5] “Record Reviews,” Cash Box, June 22, 1957, 16.
[6] Mike Gross, “Jocks, Jukes and Disks,” Variety, June 12, 1957, 60
[7] Phil Sheridan, “Record Review,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 21, 1957, 30.
[8] “Review Spotlight On…” Billboard, July 1, 1957, 53.
[9] George Christy, “So You Want to Be a Singer!” Modern Screen, August 1959, 53.
[10] “At ATCO a Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” Billboard, February 10, 1958, 43.
[11] “Record Review,” Cash Box, February 15, 1958, 10.
[12] “Reviews of New Pop Records,” Billboard, November 18, 1957, 52.
[13] Ibid
[14] Al Wolfe, “Record Review,” Tyrone Daily Herald, December 27, 1957, 6.
[15] “At ATCO a Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” Billboard, February 10, 1958, 43.
[16] “Teen-Agers to Elect Teen Time Winners,” Montgomery Advertiser, September 1, 1957, E3.
[17] Stuart Culpepper, “2 Local Youngsters, Bobby Darin Cheered by 1,800 At City’s Biggest Teen-Time Show,” Montgomery Advertiser, September 8, 1957, B4.
[18] “R & B Ramblings,” Cash Box, November 2, 1957, 42.
[19] “Bobby Darin Fan Club is Formed Here,” Montgomery Advertiser, December 15, 1957, Teen Topic section, 8.
[20] Brian Sullivan, “Teen-Agers Rock Into ’58,” Democrat and Chronicle, January 1, 1958, 44.
This is Bobby Darin 