BOBBY DARIN: "For Teenagers Only"

Original released on LP ATCO SP 1001

(US, September 1960)

In 1960, titling your LP "For Teenagers Only" was betting on a long shot that teenagers would fork over the money for a full-length when they could buy at least half a dozen 45s for the same price. But with Bobby Darin's recent success in the adult pop market (thanks to "Mack the Knife" and the "Darin at the Copa" LP), executives at Atco were understandably concerned that they were leaving behind some of Darin's earliest fans (i.e., younger listeners who'd loved "Queen of the Hop" and "Splish Splash"). "For Teenagers Only" is a very strange beast, with a few of the bluesy uptempo numbers that Darin had done so well with during the late '50s - just listen to "Bull Moose" (not included here) if you think he wasn't a great rock & roll singer - combined with several titles that would have done much better on his adult-focused albums of the time. (As it turns out, nearly all of the material was from the vaults, mostly recorded during 1958.) The opening blast is straight-ahead rock & roll, with "I Want You with Me" and "Keep a Walkin'" (the latter written by Darin friends and teen pop maestros Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield). Darin himself wrote the next two songs, and keeps things light with a fun title by Doc Pomus-Mort Shuman, "I Ain't Sharin' Sharon." The second side mellows considerably, with versions of songs at least a decade old in "That Lucky Old Sun" and "A Picture No Artist Could Paint" as well as the Otis Blackwell R&B standard "All the Way Home." Teenagers weren't biting, however, and the LP languished without even a whimper on the charts. (John Bush in AllMusic)

BOBBY DARIN: Live "At The Copa"

Original released on LP ATCO 33-122

(US, July 1960)

"Darin at the Copa" is the live document from Bobby Darin's standing-room-only engagement at Jules Podell's Copacabana club in New York City, an appearance that confirmed for the adult pop crowd that the former singer of ephemera like "Splish Splash" had made the complete transition from rock & roll to more "serious" music. Serious this record certainly isn't, though. A complete entertainer, Darin only occasionally concentrates on the business of singing, making "Darin at the Copa" the type of concert work that rarely succeeds as a purely aural recording. Bobby Darin is obviously performing, not just singing, and listeners are often left out during his countless jokes and vocal asides - each of which get enormous responses from the original audience. The music is solid and Darin does his finger-popping best, but he walks a thin line between swinging and an outrageous parody of same. At the time, his big hits - "Mack the Knife" and "Dream Lover" - were such common currency that he thought it only natural to play around with them; listening decades later, it's difficult to avoid the wish he'd played this date just a bit more straight. (John Bush in AllMusic)

BOBBY DARIN: "This Is Darin"

Original released on LP ATCO 33-115 (mono)

(US, January 1960)

"This Is Darin" was the follow-up to his 1959 breakthrough LP, "That's All", for which Bobby Darin won Grammies for Record of the Year and Best New Singer. "This Is Darin" showcases his confident phrasing with some moments of humor and a few trademark "hut hut"s (six in the first song!). Atco has digitally remastered all 12 songs, rendering the orchestration by Richard Wess crystal clear. Darin hoped this album would establish his reputation as an interpreter of standards. Gone is the bobby-sock rock of "Splish Splash" and even the crossover appeal of "Mack the Knife." In its place is a more mature Bobby Darin aiming for adult - not pop - credibility. «With rock & roll, I'm like a thousand other guys,» he said, according to his son's book. «Now, I've got to prove I can sing.» (In fact, "This Is Darin" is his first LP to not include a Bobby Darin original.) This album's covers include E.Y. Harburg's "Down with Love," Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin's "The Gal the Got Away," Duke Ellington's "Caravan," and Frank Loesser's "Guys and Dolls." Every song in this set is good. "Clementine" should be a neo-swinger favorite; it's language about a large woman is mildly offensive now - but not for the time. The smooth sax, slinky piano, and piercing trumpet solos on "Have You Got Any Castles" make it one of the standouts. Darin's interpretation of Johnny Mercer's lyrics here are fabulously tongue in cheek. (Maybe producers Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun deserve credit for first matching Darin and Mercer, since the combo would strike such gold with 1961's Two of a Kind.) "This Is Darin" is highly recommended if you have long since tired of the Swingers soundtrack and want to discover Darin's more traditional fare. ["This Is Darin" was on the Billboard charts for 50 weeks and peaked at number six.] (J.T. Griffith in AllMusic)

BOBBY DARIN: "Inside Out"

Original released on LP Atlantic SD 8142 

(US, May 1967)

Encouraged by the critical reception to the Carpenter album if not by its failure to make the Top 40, Darin returned to the recording studio in March 1967, to fashion a follow-up. The result was this "Inside Out", a similarly folk-inclined offering. One that, again, dipped into the Hardin and Sebastian songbooks but also included Randy Newman's reflective "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today", a subtle interpretation of the Stones' "Back Street Girl", and a trio of songs penned by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, formed members of New York group The Musicians, who'd become suppliers of hits to The Turtles. Additionally, Bobby had shaped a couple of originals that fitted snugly into the concept, "Hello Sunshine" sounding for all the world like something Lovin' Spoonful might have cooked up, I am proving to be a ringer for anything that might have appeared on a Best Of Tim Hardin album. Darin, not just vocally but also from a songwriting point of view, was always the chameleon (Fred Dellar)

BOBBY DARIN - "If I Were A Carpenter"

Original released on LP Atlantic 8135

(US, December 1966)

Bobby Darin has been praised by some critics for his courage in moving to folk-rock in late 1966, at a time when his core audience would probably have been much happier if he'd continued to be the all-around mainstream pop singer. But let's get this straight: this is much more a pop album of folk-rock songs than it is a pure folk-rock album. In addition, the scope of Darin's folk-rock repertoire at this time was almost wholly limited to songs by Tim Hardin and John Sebastian; indeed, five of the 12 songs here are Hardin compositions, two (the hit title track and "Red Balloon") of which Hardin had not yet released. What's more, there's some reason to believe - no pun intended - that the record would not have taken the shape it did had there not been something of a conscious effort on his part to emulate Hardin's approach. Hardin himself was convinced that Darin had copied his vocal style by listening to his yet-to-be-issued version and the album as a whole boasts a production similar to the orchestrated folk-rock heard on the debut album in question, though it sounds like an inferior copy. Leaving aside the issue of whether Darin was trying to cop Hardin's style, this is a fair but unexceptional record. Darin falls short of the originals on Buffy Sainte Marie's "Until It's Time For You to Go" and the Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream." In fact, aside from "If I Were a Carpenter," the standout is the odd low-charting single "The Girl Who Stood Beside Me," with its odd muted psychedelic bagpipe effects constantly buzzing in the background of an actual fairly strong folk-rock tune. (Richie Unterberger in AllMusic)

BOBBY DARIN - "That's All"

Original released on LP ATCO 33-104

(US, March 1959)

"That's All", Bobby Darin's second LP, is his most important record. Darin's reputation as a teen idol was established in 1958 and 1959 with the Top Ten hits "Splish Splash," "Dream Lover," and "Queen of the Hop." Later in 1959, "That's All" broadened his appeal and secured his imortality. The LP begins with Darin's trademark song, Threepenny Opera's "Mack the Knife" which was number one for an impressive nine weeks. "That's All" won Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Best New Singer. In his first attempt to select more mature material, Darin chose songs like Ira and George Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So" from Porgy and Bess and the Hammerstein song "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise." "That's All" is an album of pop standards but also includes the Top Ten hit "Beyond the Sea." Much is made of Frank Sinatra's band leader Billy May, but Richard Wess shines on Darin's early LPs. His orchestration in "I'll Remember April" is a brassy and swinging success. "That's All" might not be a new fan's first Darin purchase. However, it is an important release in the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's career. This LP proves that not every rocker suffers the "sophomore slump." ["That's All" was on the Billboard charts for 52 weeks and peaked at number seven.] (JT Griffith in Allusic)

BOBBY DARIN Debut Album

Original released on LP ATCO 33-102 (mono)

(US, September 1958)

Born Walden Robert Cassotto in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, Bobby Darin was reared by his maternal grandmother, whom he thought was his mother. Darin's birth mother, Vanina Juliette "Nina" Cassotto (born November 30, 1917), became pregnant with him in the summer of 1935 when she was 18. Presumably because of the scandalous nature of out-of-wedlock pregnancies in that era, Nina and her mother hatched a plan to pass her baby off as Nina's younger brother. Years later when Nina finally told Darin the truth about his upbringing she refused to reveal the identity of his biological father, and she continued to keep that secret even up until her own death in 1983. Darin's maternal grandfather, Saverio Antonio "Big Sam Curly" Cassotto (born January 26, 1882), was of Italian descent and a would-be mobster who died in prison from pneumonia a year before Darin's birth. His maternal grandmother, Vivian Fern Walden (also born in 1882), who called herself Polly, was of English ancestry and a vaudeville singer. From his birth, Darin always believed Nina to be his older sister and Polly his mother. But in 1968, when he was 32, Nina told Darin the truth, reportedly devastating him. By the time he was a teenager, Darin could play several instruments, including piano, drums, and guitar. He later added harmonica and xylophone.

Darin moved to the Bronx early in his life and graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. In later years he attributed his arrogance to his experiences at the high school, where he was surrounded by brighter students who would tease him. He then enrolled at Hunter College and soon gravitated to the drama department. After only two semesters, he dropped out to pursue an acting career. Darin's career took off with a songwriting partnership, formed in 1955 with Don Kirshner, who he met at a candy store in Washington Heights. They wrote jingles and songs, beginning with "Bubblegum Pop." In 1956 his agent negotiated a contract with Decca Records. The songs recorded at Decca had very little success. A member of the Brill Building gang of struggling songwriters, Darin was introduced to singer Connie Francis, for whom he helped write several songs. They developed a romantic interest of which her father, who was not fond of Darin, did not approve, and the couple split up. At one point, Darin wanted to elope immediately and Connie has said that not marrying Darin was the biggest mistake of her life.

Darin left Decca to sign with Atlantic Records' Atco subsidiary, where he wrote and arranged music for himself and others. Songs he recorded, such as Harry Warren's "I Found a Million Dollar Baby," were sung in an Elvis style, which did not suit his personality. Guided by Atlantic's star-maker Ahmet Ertegun, Darin's career finally took off in 1958 when he recorded "Splish Splash." He co-wrote the song with radio D.J. Murray Kaufman after a phone call from his mother, Jean, a frustrated songwriter. Her latest song idea was: "Splish, Splash, Take a Bath." Both Kaufman and Darin felt the title was lackluster, but Darin, with few options, said «I could write a song with that title.» Within one hour, Darin had written "Splish Splash". The single sold more than a million copies. His partnership with Kirshner, who was not involved in the writing of that song, ended at that time. He made another recording in 1958 for Brunswick Records with a band called "The Ding Dongs," with the success of "Splish Splash" the single was re-released by Atco Records as "Early In The Morning" with the band renamed as "The Rinky Dinks". It managed to chart, and made it to number 24 in the United States.