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Welcome
This Week's Song :
"Dream Lover"
May, 1959
#2 Billboard Hit
The Artist : Bobby Darin ( Walden Robert Cassotta ) was perhaps the first artist of the Rock & Roll era to achieve that which all the others aspired to. Whether they admit to it or not, most Rockers of the 50's and 60's wanted to be the next Frank Sinatra. Before dismissing the idea, consider the implications. Sinatra had it all. Fame, fortune, a "tough" reputation, and a career that brought him out of the musical stage and on to the silver screen. Elvis tried and almost succeeded, but for the most part his film efforts were misguided if not outright laughable. Bobby Darin, now overlooked and often forgotten, managed to succeed in every facet of his professional career.

Having developed rheumatic heart condition as a child, he knew all along that his life would be a short one. That knowledge fueled the push and drive he applied to everything he undertook. A strong stage performer, he was also gifted at songwriting and arranging. In fact, before breaking through with his first hit recording, he walked "Tin Pan Alley" with none other than Don Kirshner knocking on doors trying to peddle songs. His singing career had at least three distinct periods. This week's song, "Dream Lover" eases the transition between his first "rock'n'roll" period of "Splish Splash" and "Queen of the Hop" and the following "jazzier" hits "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea", two songs rooted in the "big band" tradition.

His singing success led him to Hollywood and there he made 13 films. He was married to actress Sandra Dee from 1960-67 and they co-starred in the film "Come September". Unlike Elvis and most of his singing contempories, Bobby Darin got some good movie parts and made the most of them. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1963 for "Captain Newman, M.D." and he won the French Film Critics Award for Best Actor for the same film.

Aware of the ongoing changes in the music industry, Darin recorded Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter" in 1966. With the success of this record Darin moved into the realm of "Folk Music". 1968 was a pivotal year for Bobby Darin. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King spurred him to greater political awareness, and he was working for Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign when he too was gunned down. This led him to release two albums of "political protest" music and he began to launch a career of his own in politics. Unfortunately, a background check at this time revealed that his "mother", Polly, was actually his grandmother, and his "older sister" Nina, was in actuality his mother ! For the rest of his life he had trouble coming to terms with this unexpected revelation.

Politics aside, his popularity continued and in 1972-73 he hosted his own variety show on NBC. However, in December of 1973 he died from the rheumatic heart disease that plagued him from childhood. He was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and Bobby Darin is perhaps the only entertainer who would be equally at home on American Bandstand, a Las Vegas stage or at a Folk festival.