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Album Notes Audio Remasterers: Dave Schultz; Dan Hersch; Bill Inglot.Liner Note Author: James Ritz.Recording information: The Desert Inn (04/10/1958-02/06/1971); The Flamingo, Las Vegas, NV (04/10/1958-02/06/1971).Arrangers: Donald Peake; Fred Norman; Jack Nitzsche; Richard Wess; Richard Behrke Trio; Jimmie Haskell; Billy May; Bob Halley; Quitman Dennis; Bobby Darin; Bobby Scott.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 |
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