Search - Bobby Darin :: Live From Las Vegas

"People say I was made for this. Nothing else would I trade

Mary Whipple | New England | 07/31/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Released to honor the 100th anniversary of the settling of Las Vegas, this Centennial celebration CD features Bobby Darin's "last" recorded live performance--November, 1963, at the Flamingo Hotel--an historic recording that sat in the Capitol Music vault for more than thirty years. Darin had previously announced that this would be "the closing night club performance for me for quite a while." Only twenty-seven and suffering from heart problems, he was already using oxygen between sets, his high-energy live performances so draining that retirement in favor of less strenuous aspects of his career was his only option. Here he gives his all in one "final" live performance, possibly the best performance of his career.



A mature performer, despite his age, Darin does everything from hot rock and roll to swing, moody ballads, folk, and a bluesy spiritual. Sounding Sinatra-like on the ballads at the beginning of the show--"Ace in the Hole," which he does "dirty," and "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You"--he works the room, progressing into comedy with a "Medley of 'Ballads,'" including "Splish Splash," and "Beyond the Sea," before reverting once again to a real ballad, "My Funny Valentine," the purest and prettiest song on the CD. As soon as the audience is feeling sentimental, however, he hits them with his version of "I Walk the Line," which begins, "I keep my pants up with a piece of twine."



"Mack the Knife," his 1959 Record of the Year, may (or may not) show his failing health. Though he gradually increases the song's tempo and passion, much of the intensity at the climax comes from the band, which becomes noticeably louder, though Darin's voice does not. A ten-minute comedy routine follows, in which he plays a drunk talking with a bartender, giving impressions of Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando, and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, among others. The audience participates in the folk songs, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and "Mary Don't You Weep," and then Darin sings the touching "I'm on My Way, Great God," a bluesy (and sadly ironic) spiritual which he composed.



On the final track, "The Curtain Falls," a song written as a farewell to performing, Darin sings "If I had this to do again, and the evening were new again, I would spend it with you again, but now the curtain falls." I'm sure there was not a dry eye in the house. (Two and a half years later, Darin was feeling well enough to return to Las Vegas and concerts there.) n Mary Whipple

"

BOBBY DARIN LIVE.....nuthin' better

J. Powers | Rowley, MA United States | 05/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"BOBBY DARIN continues to astound and amaze a new generation of Rat Pack wannabee swingers, and this great CD will once again raise the question of the collective musical consciousness..."Why hasn't DARIN been on our radar all these years???"



Sinatra...Dino...Sammy...Tony...all great...but none possessed the collective talents of the late Bobby Darin..buy this CD and become enlightened..then buy more!!!



macknife@comcast.net"

Treasure from the lost vault

Chris Salzer | Gainesville, GA United States | 06/12/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Bobby Darin had stated that this performance (at the time his marriage to Sandra Dee was on the rocks, he had no time for his young son Dodd, not to mention recording both movies and music) would be his farewell to the nightclub stage. With this mindset, Darin gave the performance of a lifetime (and in his prime no less).



As noted on the insert CD booklet, Capitol sent a remote crew to record this engagement at the Flamingo in November of 1963 for posterity, but the tape sat in a vault for over thirty years. Now, finally it is our treat to enjoy."