"bobby Darin"

This 2CD set anthologises Bobby Darin's singles releases between 1956-1962, and includes two rare-as-hens-teeth promo's, and a couple of equally rare UK-only B-sides. Darin was by far the classiest, most versatile singer of his era, and carved out parallel careers as an R&R singer, a teen idol and an interpreter/updater of show tunes, and what is now referred to as The Great American Songbook. 30 of the titles on this 64-track compilation were major US and/or UK chart records.

Bobby Darin was, by any definition, a superstar - a chart-topping, multimillion-selling, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, a Golden Globe-winning actor, visionary entrepreneur, and committed political activist. Restless and daring, his refusal to be constrained by genre, resulting in an endless string of top 10 hits, including "Splish Splash," "Queen of the Hop," "Dream Lover," "Beyond the Sea," and "If I Were a Carpenter." While his public persona was all bright lights and glamour, Darin was driven and inspired by the generational shifts and social upheaval of the 1960s. Despite his weakened health, Darin devoted nearly all of his free time towards multiple causes, tirelessly campaigning for his friend Robert F. Kennedy until his assassination in June 1968, after which Darin withdrew from the spotlight and embarked on an unlikely personal journey. He swapped his crooner's tuxedo for folk singer denim, his toupee for an outlaw mustache, a Beverly Hills mansion for a secluded trailer at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur. Commitment is grittier and more audacious than Darin's previous work. From the counterculture anthem "Me and My Hohner" (with it's ironic reference to "The Star-Spangled Banner") and the soul-searching "Sausalito" to the wryly autobiographical "Distractions (Part 1)" and the tense funk of "Light Blue," the album's experimentation and free-wheeling songcraft affirm Darin as a generational talent uniquely capable of crossing the borders of age and politics.

This selftitled album was originally released on Atlantic Records in September 1958, and was reissued on CD in 1994. Ahmet Ertegun, an Atlantic legend, produced it and Darin co-wrote seven of the 12 songs. The most commercial songs are "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (In a Five and Ten Cent Store)" and his hit "Splish Splash".

Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, musician, and actor. He performed jazz, pop, rock and roll, folk, swing, and country music. This is a compilation drawn from the 4 albums released by Darin in the mid 1960s; it's a good introduction to his work & features the unreleased track "She Knows" written by the composers of the Turtles' "Happy Together".

Give a pair of medals and hefty raises to the two fellows at Atlantic who thought of pairing Bobby Darin – then 24 – and Johnny Mercer – then 51 – and backing them with the charts of Billy May. These two singer/songwriters, occupying opposite poles of a yawning generation gap, take some often hoary old Tin Pan Alley tunes and kid and swing the hell out of them, with May providing the same kind of hard-swinging, sly-witted big-band backings that he gave to Sinatra.