Sunday, May 08, 2016

Bobby Darin

In case you can't tell, I'm celebrating Bobby Darin this week.  It would have been his 80th birthday on Saturday, and I just decided to dedicate my blog to him for a whole week in recognition of that fact.  If you're a fan of his and are writing a post this week in his honor, please do share a link here so I can read it!


I became a Bobby Darin fan back in 1997, when I went on a quest to find and listen to his version of "Mack the Knife."  We didn't have internet at our home, and even if we did, YouTube didn't exist, so I couldn't just go Google for it and hear it.  I listened to our local Oldies station for weeks, hoping to hear it.  I even called in during their all-request hour and asked for it, but was too late to get my song played.  Finally, I heard it on July 7, and I liked it so well that the next day, I bought a tape of his "Greatest Hits."  A cassette tape, yes -- we did have CDs, but they were more expensive, and I just wanted to hear this one song over and over!  So a $5 tape would do.

I waited to listen to the tape until I was in bed that night -- I would often listen to the radio or a tape with headphones on while I worked on a story before going to sleep.  I put the tape in, listened to "Mack the Knife" a couple times, and then continued to listen to the rest of the songs.  By the end of that tape, I knew everything had changed.  I was seventeen years old, and I had found a voice that would stay with me forever.


Bobby Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto in New York City in 1936.  He had rheumatic fever multiple times as a small child, which stunted his growth and damaged his heart.  When still a boy, he overheard the doctor tell his family that he would not live to see sixteen.  Bobby lived all his life with that eventual death sentence hanging over him, which is probably why he had such a drive not just to succeed, but to produce as much music and as many movies as he could, while he had the chance.


Bobby grew up believing that Nina Cassotto was his sister, and her mother was his mother too.  It wasn't until he was in his 30s that he learned the truth:  Nina was his mother.  She'd been an unmarried, pregnant teen, and so they just moved to a new neighborhood when he was born, and everyone believed that his grandmother Polly was his mother.

Bobby and Sandra

He was married twice, first to Sandra Dee, with whom he had a son named Dodd.  They divorced, and he later married Andrea Yeager, but divorced her shortly before his death because he was afraid Dodd wouldn't inherit his fair share of Bobby's estate otherwise.

Bobby and Andrea

Bobby Darin died on December 20, 1973, at the age of 37.  That's one year older than I am right now.  He died in a hospital following open heart surgery, which was very experimental and risky at that time.  He left behind him an astonishing catalog of musical recordings, as well as quite a few movies, TV show appearances, and so on.

© Guy Webster

Bobby was fiercely intelligent, and almost too talented to be believed.  He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, one of the best schools in NYC at that time.  And he was an avid chess player all through his adult life.  He could play any musical instrument you handed to him, and he wrote a staggering number of songs. And he recorded in every musical style around in the 1950s, '60s, and early '70s:  swing, jazz, blues, rock-and-roll, country-and-western, folk, and even a spoken format some call an early form of rap.


So this week, I'll be doing a series of posts about this singer/songwriter/actor/entertainer who is very dear to my heart.  I hope you enjoy them.

14 comments:

  1. Wow, he was so young . . . I'm sorry he passed away. But at least he left behind so much good music :-)

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    1. Jessica, yes, it breaks my heart that he died so soon. But he really accomplished so much in those few years. Left us a lot to enjoy :-)

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  2. I enjoyed this blog about Bobby very much!! thank you!

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  3. I don't know much about him at all...looking forward to reading your posts!

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    1. Annie, I think you would reeeeeeally enjoy his western, Gunfight in Abilene. I'm so happy that it's finally available on DVD! I've loved it for years, but only by purest luck had a copy on VHS. So glad that when I recommend it to people now, they can actually get a copy themselves. I wrote a bit more about it here several years ago, and one of these days I'll do an in-depth review.

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    2. Oh, it does sound like one I would enjoy! I read about it, then went to Amazon and the IMDb to find out more... :) Does he sing in it?

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    3. He sings the song "Amy" (which he wrote) during the opening credits, but nothing during the actual story.

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  4. Please credit the color photo of Bobby holding the sheet music as © Guy Webster. I am his archivist. Thank you- Lisa

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  5. I came across his version of "Hello Dolly" two years ago And I just couldn't stopped listening to his music since then. I just came across your blog. And I absolutely love it❤️ thank you

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    1. Hi, Anonymous! Always lovely to encounter another Bobby Darin fan :-D As you can tell from the fact that I have 66 posts tagged with his name, I am pretty besotted with him myself :-D Feel free to wander around here and leave comments when you feel like it -- I do respond to them! Takes me a couple days sometimes, but I do ;-)

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