Customer Reviews

Hello Dolly / Oh! Look at Me Now

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sinatra learned his craft in the Big Bands but how on earth could B.D , so good at pop and c&w ,also outdo even Mr.S. at Swing and Ballads ? His voice control , phrasing and changes of timbre are impeccable .
If you like the "mack the knife/beyond the sea" Darin this Cd. is for you .If you like swinging Big Bands this Cd is for you .If you like singers with terrific Jazz feel ,easy swing and constantly changing phrasing and emphasis on lyric repeats then yes, this is for you.There is not one duff track on this double album Cd.
Both big bands are superb and full of star players but I'd particularly like to mention the great drumming of Jack Sperling on the Richard Wess sessions.There are 16 swingers and 7 ballads,including the beautiful, new to me, Van Heusen/Cahn "Where love has gone" and the only slight reservation I have, on the whole Cd,is the Choir on 3 of the Billy May tracks.
This Cd is great value and has so many good tracks that I can't bring myself to highlight any for you.Just buy it!
What a loss Darin was,I hope Spacey's film helps others realise Darin's genius.

This CD is loaded with goodies, from ballads to swing to big band and back again. A bargain to be able to pick up two 'lost' albums of this quality!

Highly recommended!

I am probably like you, and grew up hearing Bobby Darrin's "Mac The Knife," the staple left on 1980s oldies radio.

But for early 1960s rock, Mac had quite the charm. Mixing jazz and rock when Bobby Vinton was making puppy cudos. And when I saw Beyond the Sea where Kevin Spacey plays Bobby, my best suspicions were vehemently confirmed: This Bobby Darrin was a pretty cool guy.

Now I'll confess of this twofer, I have only Oh! Look At Me Now" on vinyl, not available individually on Amazon. But let me tell ya, this is more than enough to start gnawing on the Darrin bone.


Billy May, who did a lot of Sinatra's brassier outings, co-pilots here, and alternates tracks between "Mac"-like swing and 1950s style coral tracks. Darrin can swing and croon and when he does either, it is with a cool, direct delivery. There is never paint eating and never maple syrup. And it works every time.

Oh Look At Me Now is the only Bobby Darrin I have, but it sure won't be the last one.

Timely delivery. I've been looking for the From Hello Dolly To Goodbye Charlie portion of this album for years. Sounds great.

Bobby Darin was a brash youngster who gained fame in the Fifties with hits like "Splish-Splash" and "Mack The Knife".
During his tenure with Capitol in the early to mid-Sixties, the song material often stayed on the very safe side and the arrangements by Billy May (who could have very stong likes and dislikes) of the tried and tested songs on the first half of the disc display a fair amount of listlessness that Darin tries to overcome in part by his almost tightfisted determination to show what a great singer he is, as in "Blue Skies", where he shows off his breathcontroll in the coda (and goes terribly over the top). Don't get me wrong, the results are never less than professional and quite listenable, but somehow I feel the real spark is missing, the combination May-Darin simply does not yell.
The second half of the album, with his arranger-bandleader from ATCO days Richard Wess, is certainly an improvement and the saving grace of the collection, "Hello Dolly" using the same formula as "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea" from earlier days, building from an almost timid beginning to a rousing climax. The high point of the album is "Once In a Lifetime" taken at express-train speed, where band and singer seem to make a long nose at Billy May in showing him what kind of backing made Darin give his best performance.