Live at the Desert Inn

Bobby Darin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 22, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Neon Tonic
• ASIN: B0007DBJTQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,752 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

On a cool February night in 1971, entertainer Bobby Darin gathered the friends, associates, and VIPs he'd flown in for the occasion to a sort of summit meeting in the Crystal Room of Las Vegas' Desert Inn. There and then, Darin again staked his claim as one of the most accomplished, versatile, and creatively unpredictable pop singers ever. Despite having traded his early teen idol incarnation for that of mature and ambitious saloon singer a decade earlier, Darin displays his uncanny knack for recasting contemporary rock and pop in his own image repeatedly here. The show may feature a loose, swinging rendition of "Mack the Knife" near the top of the set, and close with the spare, jazzy bonus version of "Beyond the Sea," but they bookend masterful takes on everything from James Taylor (a blues-charged "Fire and Rain") and BS&T's "Hi De Ho" to the Beatles (a medley of "Hey Jude"/"Eleanor Rigby"/"Blackbird"/"A Day in the Life" whose drama shames most contemporary pop covers) and a warm, elegant version of Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight." His hit version of Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter" is shrewdly paired here with the poignant, Darin-penned anti-war anthem "Sing a Simple Song of Freedom" (which Hardin covered successfully), underscoring the willful genre-bending that made Darin so intriguing. -- Jerry McCulley

Product Description

Live! At the Desert Inn Bobby Darin Label: Neon Tonic Release Date: 3/22/2005 1 Intro Monologue - :37 2 Save the Country - 3:21 3 Mack the Knife - 3:31 4 Fire and Rain - 6:08 5 Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll) - 5:52 6 Monologue - 2:11 7 Beatles Medley: Hey Jude/Eleanor Rigby/Blackbird/A Day in the Life - 6:57 8 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher - 4:28 9 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - 3:52 10 Monologue - 1:10 11 If I Were a Carpenter - 3:44 12 Simple Song of Freedom - 4:22 13 Finale Band Introduction - 6:03 14 Encore: Chain of Fools/Respect/Splish Splash/Johnny B. Goode - 8:31 15 Work Song [*] - 3:33 16 Beyond the Sea [*] - 4:20

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have, April 5, 2005

By 

WJ "Darin fan" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live at the Desert Inn (Audio CD)

This is it folks! According to the CD notes, his manager Steve Blauner, who attended this performance, considers it "to be Bobby's most brilliant work and perhaps one of the best performances of his career..." Darin is in absolute top form, the voice ranging from full throttle hard rock in the encore medley of Chain of Fools/Respect/Splish Splash/Johnny B. Goode to throaty tender in Hey Jude and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight to sexy swing in Mack the Knife and Beyond the Sea to plaintive clarity in the folk tunes. And the humor, and the heat!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He was a Beemer, August 13, 2005

By 

Rick Cornell "RC" (Reno, Nv USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Live at the Desert Inn (Audio CD)

There are two myths/stereotypes propounded about Bobby Darin and Las Vegas, Nevada: First, that Darin was a second-rate Sinatra; and second, that Vegas (or at least the Vegas of the '70's) was a place where over-the-hill singers with a former hit song or two "retired" to sing schlocky versions of their hits and make $250,000/week or so while more worthy singers continued to toil in relative obscurity.

As to the first: Sinatra was considered by many to be the finest American male non-classical singer of the 20th century. To be called a "second-rate Sinatra" begs the question: "If Sinatra was a Ferrari Testarosa, was the person being compared a Ford Escort or a Beemer?"

As to the second: It isn't quite accurate to say that Vegas was a "safe-haven" for over-the-hill singers. After all, Bennett and Torme played there in the '70's, and they were hardly over the hill at that time. But Vegas did have a "sameness house band sound" that tended to make singers who followed the "house charts" sound sort of schlocky.

All of which leads to my comments about Bobby Darin, singing shortly before his death, live at the "Fabulous Desert Inn":

This man could sing. Listen to how he powders the high D on the tag of "Mack the Knife" and holds it through about 6 walkin- bars. The man had breath control. Or listen to how he sings "Beyond the Sea", from a clear high G to a clear low G. The man had range. Or listen to how he interprets "Simple Song of Freedom" , "Work Song", and "Hey Jude." The man knew how to interpret and deliver a song.

But the charts of the house band ulitmately bring him down. Sinatra did Vegas most memorably with the Basie Orchestra. Put Bobby Darin behind that orchestra, with Frank Foster's charts, and you'd have a 5-star album here. As it is, he does best on songs such as the above, or "Fire and Rain", where the charts don't get in the way.

In sum, the man was not a Ford Escort; he was a Beemer. And that's plenty good enough. Recommended. RC

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darin Was In A Class By Himself, August 13, 2004

By 

bix lang "pastafagiole" (Davenport, Iowa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live at the Desert Inn (Audio CD)

I agree with the previous reviewer: Bobby Darin could sing all genres of music with unmatched style, drama, and on the upbeat tunes, a sense of innate syncopation that neither Sinatra nor Bennett ever were able to approach. He was attractive, magnetic, witty, and ingratiating. He won Golden Globes and French Film Critics Awrads for his superb acting, (not to mention an Academy Award nomination). He is in both the ASCAP and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, and he was the highest paid performer in Las Vegas history at the time of his death. Sinatra once told Richard Bakalyan, who was a mutual friend of the two peerless singers--"nobody was better than Darin." Frank was right. It's about time Bobby Darin received the credit a true musical genius deserves. Buy this CD and begin experiencing the majic of one the 20th century's great all-around entertainers and jazz-swing vocalists. Had Bobby lived even twenty more years, he would have blown by Sinatra (and I am a true, blue Sinatra fan). What a shame the poor guy was doomed from childhood to die young. He was the man. He was the man.