Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin is an early rock singer and artist from Brooklyn. He had to overcome both a family background that was a bit dark (his ‘parents’ were actually his grandparents and his grandfather died in prison before he was born, and his older ‘sister’ was actually his mother), being born and living during the Depression, and he was very sickly, though he kept this from the public. Despite his warped past, Darin went on to become a pioneer in the field of rock music. He loved Ray Charles, James Brown, and Sophie Tucker, whom he first saw when he was eight and joining his grandmother on her vaudeville tours. He spent his teenage years going to school and clubbing around nightclubs as an entertainer, mostly as an unpolished singer.
Bobby Darin had the good fortune and the foresight and passion, to try for a deal with Don Kirshner in 1955 to move forward in the music world. In 1956, Darin’s agent pushed for a contract with Decca Records and Bobby Darin began to rise to rock stardom. After a few mediocre records, he signed on with the budding Atlantic records and began his journey to stardom with ‘Splish Splash’ a song that was written as a dare, more than in seriousness, but ended up selling more than a million copies and giving him his springboard into stardom. He went on to record Dream Lover which also sold millions and gave him the push to have more creative control over his music which resulted in music that was big band, rock and roll, pop, and later folk music. What truly pushed him though was not fame and glory, but rather a desire to do as much as possible in a lifetime that he knew was going to be short because of his battles with various illnesses. Bobby Darin also enjoyed a bit of an acting career.
In the late sixties, before he died, he gave up all of the things that his wealth and fame had gotten him and lived in seclusion in a trailer before recording more folk music that was politically charged. In the seventies his health began to fail due to a botched heart surgery (he didn’t take his medications correctly) and the fact that he was just too weak from various illnesses and surgeries to carry on. He died in 1973 right after a surgery meant to fix the problems with his heart and his body was donated to science.
What should be learned from Bobby Darin is to strive for whatever you dream of despite everything. Bobby Darin overcame poor health, a poor economic background and the fact that his music was still in the budding stages when he started to become an icon in rock and pop music. Although he died relatively young, his legacy lives on today.
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