Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 11/07/2006
Thirty tracks of
Bobby Darin performances, ranging from
"Splish Splash" to
"If I Were a Carpenter" and beyond, don't come around every day. Granted,
Rhino's
Definitive Pop Collection could have included at least ten more songs spread across these two discs, but the track selection is peerless and the sound is as good as it gets. Beginning with the four Top 40 hits
Darin recorded in the late '50s as a teen idol, the set moves directly into his vocal
pop prime with the Top Ten placings
"Dream Lover" "Mack the Knife," and
"Beyond the Sea," before wrapping up the first disc midway through 1961 (when he recorded no less than seven hits). The second disc finds
Darin coming to terms with the
folk boom of the '60s, most memorably with his
Tim Hardin covers (
"If I Were a Carpenter," "Reason to Believe," "The Lady Came from Baltimore"), but also with great covers of Ray Charles'
"What'd I Say" and
the Lovin' Spoonful's
"Lovin' You." ~John Bush, All Music Guide
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