Bobby Darin has prompted ongoing debate over whether he belongs among rock & roll vocalists, polished Vegas performers, interpreters of classic standards, or even folk-rock artists. In truth he embodied each of those identities without ever settling on one. Throughout his professional life he refused to restrict himself to a single idiom, inserting a folk segment into his nightclub sets even while riding high as a cabaret attraction. Just when it seemed he might settle into a long run as a younger counterpart to Frank Sinatra, he would release pop and folk-rock singles aimed primarily at listeners outside the adult-pop audience. For a time he billed himself as Bob Darin and cut tracks carrying faint anti-establishment themes that appeared to challenge the very middle-class crowds supporting his most lucrative engagements. Perhaps the most accurate description is that Darin was, first and foremost, a vocalist determined to explore numerous directions rather than specialize in one signature approach. That breadth may have kept him from dominating any single genre at its summit, yet it also rendered his catalog more varied than that of nearly any other singer of his generation.
When he scored his initial successes in the late 1950s, Darin functioned as a sort of teen idol, though one possessing considerably greater ability and poise than most in that category. The novelty-flavored “Splish Splash” became his first major hit, followed by “Queen of the Hop” and the ballad “Dream Lover.” A subtle R&B inflection in his phrasing may have left an impression on subsequent R&B-tinged pop and rock singers such as Dion, even if labeling Darin a blue-eyed soul stylist would overstate the case. Late in 1959 he shifted course when the jaunty “Mack the Knife,” drawn from Brecht-Weill’s musical Threepenny Opera, reached number one. The track appeared on a collection of pop standards, signaling his turn toward light big-band jazz, a direction reinforced by the Top Ten performance of “Beyond the Sea” in 1960.
By the early 1960s Darin had largely set rock aside in favor of the adult-pop market, achieving major success on the Vegas-nightclub circuit and expanding into the role of all-purpose entertainer through leading film parts, among them a non-singing jazz musician in John Cassavetes’ Too Young Blues. He continued to register consistent hits with numbers such as “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” “Things,” and “Lazy River.” To maintain an element of surprise he also delivered a hit version of “What’d I Say” and several country selections, one of which, “You’re the Reason I’m Living,” climbed to number three on the pop charts. Around 1963 he added a folk portion to his stage show that featured guitarist Roger McGuinn, still two years away from leading the Byrds.
Darin did not withdraw into Rat Pack territory when his singles ceased reaching the upper chart positions in the mid-1960s. In 1965 he issued the self-written jangly folk-rocker “When I Get Home,” which later became a British hit for the Searchers. Another unsuccessful 1965 release, “We Didn’t Ask to Be Brought Here,” stood out as an unanticipated antiwar statement. His return to the Top Ten in late 1966 arrived via a cover of Tim Hardin’s gentle folk-rock composition “If I Were a Carpenter.” The following year his last Top 40 entry, “Lovin’ You,” drew on material by another leading folk-rock songwriter, John Sebastian.
Darin may well have been more attuned and politically conscious than most nightclub acts, interpreting songs by Dylan and the Rolling Stones, joining a 1965 civil rights march in Alabama, and composing several Dylan-influenced pieces of his own in the late 1960s. It would nevertheless be imprecise to portray this phase as the authentic Bobby Darin finally discarding his show-business persona. In 1967, the same year he recorded Jagger-Richards’ “Back Street Girl,” he also laid down tracks for the album Bobby Darin Sings Doctor Dolittle. By the early 1970s he was once again appearing in Vegas and comparable venues, trading denim for formal wear while hosting a television variety series. In a still stranger development he began recording for Motown, although those efforts achieved limited commercial traction.
Born with a rheumatic heart condition, Darin lived with the knowledge that his lifespan could prove short, and he passed away near the close of 1973 during open-heart surgery. He left behind an extensive and stylistically diverse body of recordings that later received renewed critical attention, particularly from rock writers, helping secure his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. A 1996 four-CD box set organized its contents across thematic discs in an effort to frame his wide-ranging output. In 2004 Kevin Spacey portrayed Darin in the biographical film Beyond the Sea, which he also directed and for which he performed the songs that appeared on the accompanying soundtrack. While Beyond the Sea represented the most prominent tribute to Darin’s legacy, the singer has remained visible in popular culture through continued placements of his music in films and ongoing reissues, including the 2016 collection Another Song on My Mind that highlighted his lesser-known early-1970s Motown recordings.
