On this day 74 years ago, Bobby Darin was born.
That's difficult for me to believe, I guess, because, as it is with anyone who dies at a young age, it is hard to imagine that person as elderly. But Darin was sickly as a child, and his heart was damaged by rheumatic fever to such an extent that a doctor once told his mother he would be lucky to live to the age of 16. Apparently, he overheard that diagnosis, and it was his belief that his life would be short — as indeed it was — that drove him to succeed.
He actually lived more than twice as long as that doctor predicted, but the public never knew how delicate his health really was so it came as a considerable shock to most when he died after heart surgery in December 1973 at the age of 37.
And now he has been dead nearly as long as he was alive.
Darin was a man of many talents. He played many instruments and composed many of the songs he recorded. He also did some acting.
For many, I guess, he had the public image of one who enjoyed a commercially successful, if somewhat frivolous, life, with popular songs to his credit like "Splish Splash," "Beyond the Sea" and "Mack the Knife" and an acting career that often partnered him with Sandra Dee, to whom he was married through most of the 1960s and with whom he had a son.
But in his later years, his music began to reflect more of a social consciousness. He had demonstrated his ability to sing big band songs, rock 'n' roll tunes and pop music, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he showed his flair for folk ballads.
He was also politically active, working in Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign. He was even present when Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in June 1968 and reportedly was devastated by that event. Clearly, it marked a profound shift in his existence. He sold his home, most of his possessions and spent nearly a year in a trailer near Big Sur.
When he returned to the public eye, he started a new record production company that, in his words, would actively "seek out statement–makers," through which he released some his later works.
For someone who was here so briefly, he left a large mark.
