Now we're honoring the life of Bobby Darin for Italian Heritage Month. Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in 1936. Like Al Pacino, his family moved to the South Bronx when he was a toddler. Darin knew his time on earth was limited due to being born with a heart condition, which is why he crammed everything he had in life.
His mother, Nina Cassotto, was the daughter of an Italian father and English mother. Nina had Bobby out of wedlock and never told him who his real father was while he was alive. But facts eventually proved that she had a relationship with a mafioso named Tony Grillo before he was born, and that the man was his biological padre.
Knowing his time was limited, young Bobby decided to drop out of college to pursue a music career. He wrote songs for pop singers in 1955 and 1956. One of those singers was Connie Francis, who hooked him up with the right people to help launch his professional singing career, instead of being known as only a songwriter with an occasional singing gig at a bar, coffee place or restaurant. In 1958, he signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records.
He started out singing rockabilly songs, as he honored the rockabilly icons Elvis, Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins. Rockabilly is a mixture of country and rhythm and blues, that helped set modern rock and roll in motion. After signing the contract, he wrote “Splish Splash," which became his first hit song. His next hit that year was with "Queen of the Hop." In 1959, he had another big hit with "Dream Lover."
Later that year, he left Atlantic and signed a contract with Capital Records. While changing labels, he also changed the style of music he was doing, and started to be noticed as a crooner with great songs like “Mack the Knife” and “Beyond the Sea.” But he began recording some folk songs that his fans felt wasn't really for him in the late 1960s.
Sadly, the life of this talented singer was cut short due to his heart issues, and he died after an unsuccessful surgery in 1973. He was only 37. And yet, during his life he had major accomplishments. He had eleven top 10 singles, had his own TV show, acted in a few films, was hugely popular as a headliner in Las Vegas, and was responsible for discovering the crooner Wayne Newton. -
