Nineteen hundred and fifty-nine was Bobby Darin’s year of ascendancy to the top of the pop charts. Mack The Knife was the song of the year and Bobby was the year's best new artist. Sometimes I remind myself that even though Bobby seems contemporary in many ways, it is important to consider his accomplishments within the context of his own time.

It was a year that stood on the cusp of change. Perhaps it was the events of the two world wars, or perhaps it was a cultural lag at work, but 1959 seems to be the demarcation line between the way things were and the way things were going to be in the Camelot great society. It was the year that ended the first half of the 20th century even though it was nine years past that mark. Radio, as a popular storytelling medium, had just about vanished. The Eisenhower presidency was in its last months. Gypsy and The Sound Of Music appeared on Broadway for the first time in a time when musicals were the source of hit songs. Show albums sold very well. Gigi won the Academy Award as best film and Barbie made her first appearance in the stores. Jazz music lost the iconic sounds of Lester Young and Billie Holiday. Rock music had its “day the music died” when a plane crash killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper. The Hit Parade aired its last episode. Westerns such as Gunsmoke ruled our television airways.

It was also the year where there were signs that the times were beginning to change. The microchip made its appearance and seven men were judged to have the right stuff and selected to be the Mercury Seven astronauts. Fidel Castro rose to become Premier of Cuba. The Twilight Zone aired its first episode on television. Peter Gunn epitomized the cool detective while its music epitomized cool, west coast jazz. Berry Gordy began Motown Records.

Enter Bobby Darin

He was a multi-faceted entertainer and seemed to be both old and new at the same time. Darin had equal parts of Al Jolson and Ray Charles in his soul by choosing to sing from the American songbook and the equally American soulbook. He gave all those songs a twist of Darin. In a year where the charts were ruled by boy singers crooning about Venus and a Lonely Boy or oddities such as The Battle Of New Orleans, or mild sounding groups cooing to Come Softly To Me, Darin rocketed onto the charts with a trio of songs of long lasting appeal including one that would go on to become one of the greatest recordings of the twentieth century.

It was the year of Mack The Knife, Beyond The Sea, and Dream Lover. Mack The Knife is a swinging version of a German showtune written by a great composer by the name of Kurt Weill. Beyond The Sea is a swinging version of a lovely French ballad translated smashingly into English by Jack Lawrence. Dream Lover is a song composed by Bobby Darin himself. Taking old songs and turning them upside down, making them contemporary and fresh and exciting was the modus operandi for this megatalent. Darin could sing it all and write it all.

Nineteen hundred and fifty-nine was Darin’s year, and a very good year it was.

     

This riff is dedicated to Michael for his smashing return to the Bobby Darin Yahoo group, his new business endeavor (DarinLand.com), and for not letting an illness sucker punch him.                                       

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