James Darren

James Darren's connection to genuine rock & roll proved even more superficial than that of the average teen idol. Starting in the late 1950s, he cut records for Colpix just as his acting career took off, leading to roles in many movies including Gidget. Preferring conventional MOR and show tune styles over rock, and lacking strong vocal ability, he was still promoted as a pop/rock artist aimed at his mostly young female audience. In the early 1960s he scored multiple novelty-flavored hits, with "Goodbye Cruel World" achieving the highest success at number three. Material came from prominent Brill Building songwriters such as the Goffin-King, Mann-Weil, and Pomus-Shuman teams along with Bob Crewe, Gloria Shayne, and Howard Greenfield, though these songs fell short of their typical quality. Following his initial peak, Darren continued releasing music and hit the Top 40 in 1967 via "All," with further chart activity extending to 1977's "You Take My Heart Away." During the 1990s he appeared as the hologram crooner Vic Fontaine on the Star Trek spin-off Deep Space Nine, later interpreting those tunes on the 1999 release This One's From the Heart. Heart failure claimed his life in Los Angeles during 2024 when he was 88 years old.