Customer Reviews

Best of

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The following tracks are in mono; 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 16. The others are true stereo. If you want to hear Goodbye Cruel World in true stereo, this is the CD to get. It is in very clean wide stereo.

...but all you have to do is watch Darren as Vic Fontaine on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" to know that he hasn't. Bobby Darin may have been the Baby Boomer's Sinatra, but James Darren was our Tony Bennett. Which makes this album one album too few. Any of you guys at Trek buy stuff at Amazon? Listen up--you ought to co-produce with Darren a "Vic Fontaine Album"--full-length versions of the stuff he sings in the holodeck, plus a few more that maybe "didn't make it onto an episode".

If you're looking for a collection of the type of songs James Darren sang on the "Deep Space Nine" TV show, get his newest CD, "This One's From The Heart". He really does sing better than Sinatra and those other guys and the songs on the "...From The Heart" CD are the proof. Hopefully he will be recording more of the great standards in the near future.

While this is not, strictly speaking, a review of this product, I have posted this information here to bring to light some relevant information about this item.

Again, Amazon.com has cross-referenced two distinct and different products that happen to share a common name, and in this case an identical front cover. The CD listed here is the Sequel label from the U.K. compilation CD of Darren's Colpix recordings. It contains 16, NOT 18 tracks as listed. The last two tracks, "All" and "You Take My Heart Away" are NOT included on this CD. They do appear on the Rhino version of this item. Make no mistake, the Sequel item is as good as the Rhino one with the exception of the missing two tracks.

Be sure you know which version you are getting when purchasing. The reviews and product descriptions for these two similar, but definitely distinct items, have been concatonated by Amazon in a misguided attempt to consolidate their product catalog listings.

From the perspective of a collector of charted hit singles - to which the term "best of" means just that - this CD lives up to its title. I could care less about Vic Fontaine, or any of the other characters he portrayed in numerous films like Rumble On The Docks, The Guns Of Navarone, Let No Man Write My Epitaph, or even as "Moondoggie" in the Gidget films, never mind his TV roles in Time Tunnel and T.J. Hooker.

I see "best of" and Rhino combined and guess what? They more often than not deliver. James had exactly ten singles make the Billboard Pop Hot 100 100 between his first in 1959, Gidget (# 41 Hot 100 billed as Jimmy Darren), and his last in 1977, You Take My Heart Away [# 52], and they're ALL here. That includes, of course, his three best: Goodbye Cruel World [# 3 in 1961], Her Royal Majesty [# 6 in March 1962] and Conscience [# 11 in May 1962].

The four pages of liner notes by Brian Gari are informative, and you also get a complete listing of his Colpix sessions, a paragraph detailing the Colpix disc numbering system, and a list of the titles of all James Darren Colpix LPs.

If I have a gripe it's the inclusion of just one B-side - The Life Of The Party - which backed Mary's Little Lamb [# 39] in 1962. I agree with the reviewer who thinks Put On A Happy Face is pretty lame. So too [in my opinion] are I Ain't Sharin' Sharon, Because They're Young, They Should Have Given You The Oscar, Gotta Have Love, Just Think Of Tonight, and Punch And Judy.

Had they included, instead, his two Adult Contemporary (AC) hits, Because You're Mine (# 30 in late summer 1965) and Didn't We (# 36 in August 1967), along with B-sides such as You, I Don't Wanna Love Ya, Valerie, If I Could Only Tell You, Dream Big, Diamond Head, and Misty Morning Eyes they'd have had a 5-star collection.

Even so, this is easily one of the best James Darren CDs available today and, as usual with Rhino products, the sound quality is excellent.

I have this CD because I've always wanted to own "Conscience", a song you will never hear on an oldies station. "Her Royalty Majesty" and "Goodbye, Cruel World" were expected to be there too as they were the best, the hits. The availability of better songs might have carried James Darren to a higher level in the popular music field, but he seemed to stray into other areas that were just not "cool". "Put on a Happy Face" comes from an entirely different genre and was rather old-fashioned when it came out. Darren fans cringed. "Gidget?" Way too juvenile, And as to "Because They're Young", I'll stick with the Duane Eddy instrumental. Even so, Darren had the voice and style so I give it 4 stars. I wouldn't look for new stuff though; the always youthful-looking Darren can't be too much in demand at his age. Enjoy these gems.

When James Darren assumed the role of the singing hologram Vic Fontaine in Star Trek DS9, he unwittingly struck a massive chord with fans like myself who bought his albums of a similar style namely "This Ones from the Heart" and "Because of You". I am just waiting for James to bring out some more of a similar sort.
The album "The Best of James Darren" although good, is something entirely different, perhaps, with the exception of track 1 Gidget. Great if you like late fifties and early sixties music of a more popular style, but not if you want more Vic Fontaine. Its an interesting album though and Im sure a lot of people will enjoy this retrospective view of JD's singing career. But as for me, I think as a singer James Darren's voice has got better with time. In my opinion and others Ive talked to, he is more than capable of outpeforming Frank Sinatra. Expect to see great things from James Darren he is definitely one to watch!

James Darren has come back to life after 30 years as the DS-9 holodeck night club performer Vic Fontaine. In the series, Vic sings classic standards in his holodeck program with a terrific voice that would put Sinatra to shame. He is in my opinion, now one of the most interesting characters on the show. Unfortunately, this album is James as a teenager in the 50's-60's and, other than for nostalgia, it's fairly awful.

The singer is better than his material here in this 1958-1976 collection which features an awful lot of that post-Buddy Holly, pre-Beatles pseudo-rock-and-roll. "Gidget" is cute, but the biggest hits border on novelty, including "Goodbye Cruel World" and "Her Royal Majesty". "Put On a Happy Face" is a group effort with Darren, Paul Peterson, and Shelley Fabares that almost hurts to listen to. "All", though, is a pleasant upbeat take on a lovely melody from the 1966 film "Run For Your Wife" that marked Darren's last foray into the top 40. The final track is a disco number from the "Rocky" soundtrack that, whicle not bad in itself, is somewhat of a non-sequitor in this company. Excellent liner notes that place each track in context.