Customer Reviews

Splish Splash: The Best of Bobby Darin, Vol. 1

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A pretty terrific collection of Bobby Darin hits with an emphasis on the pop/rock corner of his versatile career. By no means definitive (and completely overshadowed by the "As Long As I'm Singing" boxed set), it nonetheless includes such treasures as "Dream Lover," "Things," and the best available version of Darin's self-penned "Simple Song of Freedom," a "protest" song that ironically became the only hit single for folk singer Tim Hardin, the author of "If I Were A Carpenter," Darin's last major hit single which is also included here. The accompanying booklet with background on each of the songs and an insightful overview of Darin's career adds to the pleasures of this collection.

This collection and the companion Mack the knife contain forty of Bobby Darin's finest songs from his peak years. Purely in terms of hits, this is the stronger volume, containing fifteen American hits, including six top ten hits, these being Splish splash, Queen of the hop, Dream lover, You must have been a beautiful baby, Things and If I were a carpenter.

Among the lesser hits, I'll be there later became a much bigger hit for Gerry and the pacemakers, while Early in the morning was also a hit for Buddy Holly.

Bobby's singles were sometimes covers of older songs. Here you can find his versions of Nature boy (Nat King Cole), What'd I say (Ray Charles) and Lovin' you (Lovin' spoonful).

This volume, with a lot of up-tempo songs and a few ballads, is generally more of a rock'n'roll collection than Mack the knife, which contains a few up-tempo songs and a lot of ballads. Taken together, the two volumes present a comprehensive collection of Bobby's A-sides from 1958 to 1961, plus three later songs - the last three tracks here.

The CD has many great songs, especially I like Dream lover, Splish splash and You must have been a beautiful baby.

Despite a turbulent career, Bobby Darin proved time and time again that if anyone had the power to stand in a vocal class with Frank Sinatra, it was him.

The only song that was left off hear that should have been a bonus track is "More" which can be found on "Wild, Cool, and Swingin'."

Very good old style rock and roll and some big band renditions. It is so trajic that this fine performer left us at a very young age.

You are either a fan or not. I just happen to like some of his music. It's more the particular songs that I'm after.

This compilation of Bobby's "best" with the Atlantic label and its Atco subsidiary does indeed include some of his best work there, including Early In The Morning which he wrote in 1958. This caused a bit of flap when Decca [Brunswick] tried to pull a fast one by having Bobby record it while under contract to Atco and release it as by The Ding Dongs to hide his real identity.

When the folks at Atco found out they immediately raised such a stink that the record was withdrawn, and then re-released by Atco themselves under the billing The Rinky-Dinks, and it climbed to # 8 R&B/# 24 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in August 1958 b/w Now We're One. Brunswick then turned the same song over to Buddy Holly whose version even included the same flipside, only the best he could do was a # 32 Hot 100.

Other hard-to-find Darin hits in this set include Nature Boy [# 40 Hot 100 in 1961], Beachcomber [# 100 Ht 100 in 1960 and billed to Bobby Darin at the Piano], What'd I Say [# 24 Hot 100 in 1962] and, a real hard-to-find, If I Were A Carpenter [# 8 Hot 100 in 1966].

If there is one fault its the inclusion of uncharted obscurities in a so-called "best of" album such as Mighty Mighty Man, She's Tanfastic, Moment Of Love, and Similau (they weren't even the B-side of hits), all to the exclusion of bona-fide hits such as Christmas Auld Lang Syne [# 51 Hot 100 in 1960] and its flipside, Child Of God [# 95], I Found A New Baby [# 90 in 1962], and Milord [# 11 Adult Contemporary (AC)/# 45 Hot 100 in 1964].

Minor hits as these may have been, they at least WERE hits and so significantly more representative of his "best" than the four mentioned above. Those remain among the toughest to find - at least on an affordable CD.

Other than that quibble, this is a first rate collection of one of the most significant song stylists to emerge from the earliest days of R&R.