BOBBY DARIN
Bobby Darin had health problems all of his life that were exacerbated by having several bouts of rheumatic fever beginning at age 8, though the general public was completely unaware. He still had a colorful musical career that is entertaining just to read about. As an example, he wrote his first hit song “Splish Splash” on a bet (via the mother of a musician friend of his – they both made the songwriting credits) that he couldn’t write a song that started out, “Splish, splash, I was taking a bath”. He had a generous spirit to match his outsized talent; he passed along “Danke Schoen” to his friend Wayne Newton, when it was really sent for him to record. Bobby Darin also served as a mentor to Jim McGuinn (later known as Roger McGuinn) prior to his founding the Byrds. Following his huge hit songs “Mack the Knife” and “Beyond the Sea”, Darin had record-breaking appearances at the Copacabana and was starting to give Frank Sinatra a run for his money as America’s favorite song stylist. As shown in Beyond the Sea (masterminded by and starring Kevin Spacey, and one of the best musical biopics I have seen), Bobby Darin fought a losing battle to record and perform as much music as he possibly could before his inevitable death at age 37 in 1973.
(June 2011)
