Bobby darin wikipedia

In 1959 a cocky twenty-three-year-old Bobby Darin, flush with the success of “Mack the Knife,” revealed his ambition to Life reporter Shana Alexander: He merely wanted “to be a pop legend at 25.”

Darin’s exuberant, off the-cuff performance of “Mack the Knife,” produced by Ahmet Ertegun, did become the stuff of legend, but Darin could hardly have predicted the path his career would take. Bom in the Bronx in 19366 , Walden Robert Cassotto allegedly chose his stage name by thumbing through the telephone book. Although he had played several instruments as a child, Darin never seriously considered a musical career until after he enrolled at Hunter College, in Manhattan.

Forsaking the student life after a semester or two, he landed a gig as a songwriter for Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music and soon made the leap from writer to performer, cutting a few unsuccessful sides for Decca before signing with Atco/Atlantic.

Bronx-born Bobby Darin was one of those many star personalities of the mid-'50s and '60s, whose on-stage and recording skills belie the underlying talent of songwriting. In fact, Darin was an early example of what came to be known as the singer/songwriter.

A lifelong prisoner of a rheumatic heart condition, Darin was born in May 1936 in New York City. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and studied for a year at Hunter College before succumbing to a need to express himself via music.

Soon he was a regular in the corridors of the fabled Brill Building at 1619 Broadway, where many music stylists, with voice and pen alike, found their way into popular music success. He obtained assignments there as a demo singer and songwriter, in the process making the acquaintance of and working with another star in the making, Connie Francis.

Darin's initial recording experience came on the Decca label, but he found his first real success with Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, wherein his first single records brought him hits with "Splish Splash" and "

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