Crooner Week: Bobby Darin - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

by Lara on January 15th, 2008

Bobby Darin died in 1973 and never lived to see his own induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 (which I happen to think was long past due, if you ask me) but here are a few details listed about this inductee.

Essential Recordings

Mack the Knife
Splish Splash
Queen of the Hop
Dream Lover
If I Were a Carpenter
Beyond the Sea
You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby
Irresistible You
Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey?
Early in the Morning

His breakthrough single was “Splish Splash,” an uptempo bit of rock and roll doggerel reportedly dashed off in twelve minutes. Darin followed it with the similarly infectious “Queen of the Hop” (#9) and “Dream Lover” (#2). The latter song, which marked his peak as a teen idol, found him marrying the yearning sound of Roy Orbison to the elegant simplicity of Buddy Holly’s later arrangements. Then, in August 1959, he took the world by surprise with “Mack the Knife,” which won a Grammy for Record of the Year. It became his signature song and appeared on the album That’s All, which marked his courting of a more adult audience.

TIMELINE

May 14, 1936: Bobby Darin was born in the Bronx in 1936, as Walden Robert Casotto.

1958: Don Kirshner and Al Nevins form Aldon Music Publishing, hire songwriting teams Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield and Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman. By October Sedaka & Greenfield’s “Stupid Cupid”, recorded by Connie Francis, reaches #14 Bobby Darin’s “Splish Splash” reaches #3.

1959: First Grammy award for an Atlantic Records artist - “Mack the Knife” by Bobby Darin, Record of the Year.

September 29, 1959: Mack the Knife (Bobby Darin) was a hit.

December 1, 1960: Bobby Darin weds movie star Sandra Dee.

In 1967 Darin divorced Sandra Dee.

In 1968, Darin discovered his “mother” Polly was actually his Grandmother and his “sister” Nina was really his mother.This painful revelation altered him for the rest of his life.

Darin died during heart surgery to repair a faulty heart valve on December 20, 1973. His body was donated to the UCLA Medical Center for research.

1990: Bobby Darin inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.