A Few Tears and Some Emotion
February 2010

On January 30, 2010, amidst fellow honorees such as classical music great André Previn, country diva Loretta Lynn, jazz trumpet virtuoso Clark Terry,  nonagenarian Delta blues artist “Honey-boy Fats” Edwards,  poet, songwriter Leonard Cohen, and international pop icon Michael Jackson, the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award was granted to singer/songwriter/performer
Bobby Darin.  Neil Portnow, president of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), stepped up to the podium to say the words that longtime Darin fans have waited a long time to hear.

“Our next honoree was someone whose rags-to-riches story is one of exceptional drive, ambition, rare courage, and moving human drama.  He was someone who was an unpredictable musical chameleon.  He was a teen idol, a rock ‘n’ roll singer, an interpreter of the Great American Songbook and even a coffeehouse folkie.  Most of all he was someone who was  true to himself who shared his all too brief life and his talent and his broad appeal with a generosity rarely matched.”  Imitating the singer’s rhythmic singing style, Mr. Portnow asked, “Could that someone be Bobby Darin?”  “Yeah man!” was his reply.  Portnow’s allusion to Darin’s recording of “Mack the Knife,” one of the biggest hits of the Twentieth Century, was met with enthusiastic applause.

Dodd Darin, Bobby’s son and number one fan, accepted his father’s award as his charming daughters stood by his side.  The Darin family was greatly moved by the honor.  Dodd’s beautiful homage was presented with genuine and deep emotion.  As he spoke of his father’s brilliant gifts, Dodd exhibited great pride in his father both as a man and as an artist.  Having lost his father at the tender age of twelve, Dodd movingly shared how deeply that loss still affects him.  After giving thanks to Steve Blauner ( Bobby Darin’s manager and keeper of Darin's legacy to this day), Dodd expressed his admiration of Bobby’s prodigious talent and fine intellect, and his belief that his father’s greatest magic was as a performer on a nightclub floor.  He also highlighted Bobby’s outrage at racism and underscored his activism in hiring African-American comedians as his opening act.  No doubt this moment of personal reflection of the father by his son would be met with equal admiration of the son by his parents, the luminous Sandra Dee and the incomparable Walden Robert “Bobby Darin” Cassotto.  “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of my father,” he said. Since Bobby Darin passed thirty-seven years ago in 1973, it is a remarkable father who is remembered by his son every day over that expanse of time, and that is probably even more meaningful than winning a Grammy Award.  Dodd Darin’s remarks were met with ample and long-lasting applause and moved Neil Portnow to admit that this special award is the “heart and soul of what the academy does.”

It is of passing interest to note that Andre Previn and Bobby Darin both won a Lifetime Achievement Award this year, but this is not the first year that they shared a Grammy moment.  On December 29, 1959, Previn won a Grammy for his work on the “Porgy and Bess” soundtrack album, while Bobby Darin won for Best New Artist and Record of the Year for his uber-hit “Mack the Knife.”   Later, Previn and Darin appeared in a film together (“Pepe”) and again on a Dinah Shore television show.  Each time Bobby’s singing was accompanied by Andre on piano.  It makes one long to have seen them both on the Grammy stage together, one more time – in 2010.

For Bobby’s fans, winning the lifetime achievement award is a satisfying thing.  Some fans were there from the very beginning, while others discovered Bobby through his body of recorded work, or from television and movies of live performances.  They all agree that CDs, DVD technology and the internet provided the means by which Bobby could be heard.  He’s back in the conversation.  Over at the Bobby Darin Official Website, Guestbook comments come from all over the world.  Just look around YouTube.  People sing his praises in French, in Italian, In Dutch, in German, In Japanese, in Arabic.  Just amazing.  Bobby Darin is better known and more appreciated than ever. There is recognition and respect for the career paths he took and the greatness of his work.  As long as he’s singing on radio, TV ads, movies, and YouTube, new fans will discover him every day.  His recordings of “Mack the Knife’, “Beyond the Sea”, “Dream Lover”, “Splish Splash”, “If I Were a Carpenter,” his brilliant interpretations of jazz standards and his protest songs are a legacy of depth and range that will continue to entertain and astonish listeners the world over.

Bobby’s light came from within and he shined it all over the musical universe.  Still does.  Always will.

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