Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008

Bobby Darin

When a radio DJ named Murray the K bet Bobby Darin that he couldn't write a song beginning with the words "Splish splash, I was takin' a bath," the 22-year-old musician proved him wrong within 12 minutes. The 1958 single was a smash hit, and Darin followed it up with two more chart-toppers: Dream Lover and Mack the Knife, the latter of which went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts and earned Darin two Grammy Awards. Movie roles, more hit songs and a highly-publicized marriage to (and subsequent divorce from) teenybopper Sandra Dee kept him in the public eye. Unfortunately, Darin's teen idol phase overlapped with Elvis', so his name never got the recognition it deserved.