Bobby Darin - Music Career

Music Career

Darin's career took off with a songwriting partnership, formed in 1955 with fellow Bronx High School of Science student Don Kirshner, and in 1956 his agent negotiated a contract with Decca Records. The songs recorded at Decca did very little business.

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 did not approve, and the couple soon split up. Francis has said that not marrying Darin was the biggest mistake of her life.

Darin left Decca to sign with Atlantic Records (ATCO), 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.

Under the guidance of Atlantic's Turkish-American co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, Darin's career finally took off in 1958 when he recorded "Splish Splash," which he co-wrote with radio DJ Murray Kaufman after a bet that he could not write a song that started out with the words, "Splish Splash, I was takin' a bath". The single sold more than a million copies.

In 1959, Darin recorded the self-penned "Dream Lover", a ballad that became a multi-million seller. With it came financial success and the ability to demand more creative control. His next single, "Mack the Knife", the standard from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, was given a vamping jazz-pop interpretation. Although Darin was initially opposed to releasing it as a single, the song went to No. 1 on the charts for nine weeks, sold two million copies, and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1960. Darin was also voted the Grammy Award for Best New Artist that year, and "Mack The Knife" has since been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

Darin followed "Mack" with "Beyond the Sea," a jazzy English-language version of Charles Trenet's French hit song "La Mer". Both tracks were produced by Atlantic founders Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün with staff producer Jerry Wexler and featured arrangements by Richard Wess.

This success saw Darin set the all-time attendance record at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City. He also headlined at the major casinos in Las Vegas.

Darin married actress Sandra Dee in 1960. They met while making the film Come September (released in 1961) together. She was under contract to Universal Studios; the films she made as an adult—including a few with Darin—were moderately successful. On December 16, 1961 they had one son, Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell Darin). Dee and Darin divorced in 1967.

In the 1960s, Darin owned and operated a music publishing and production company (TM Music/Trio) and signed Wayne Newton, giving him a song that was originally sent to Darin to record. That record went on to become Newton's breakout hit, "Danke Schoen". He also was a mentor to Roger McGuinn, who worked for Darin at TM Music and played the 12-string guitar in Darin's nightclub band before forming The Byrds. Additionally, Darin produced Rosey Grier's 1964 LP, Soul City, and Made in the Shade for Jimmy Boyd.

In 1962, Darin began to write and sing country music, with hit songs including "Things" (US #3/UK #2) (1962), "You're the Reason I'm Living" (US #3), and "18 Yellow Roses" (US #10). The latter two were recorded by Capitol Records, which he joined in 1962, before returning to Atlantic four years later. In 1966, he had his final UK hit single, with a version of Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter", which peaked at #9. He performed the opening and closing songs on the soundtrack of the 1965 Walt Disney film That Darn Cat!. "Things" was sung by Dean Martin in the 1967 TV special Movin' With Nancy, starring Nancy Sinatra, which was released to home video in 2000.