Atco
1991
Splish Splash [Atco]
About This Album
Considering that this is only the first of two volumes devoted to Bobby Darin's Atlantic hits -- between them representing 42 songs, a significant chunk of his released output for the label -- the range on this CD is amazing. Of course, one is aware of the sheer number -- as a number -- of hits that Darin had in a career that lasted scarcely 15 years. But this collection, produced by Gregg Geller as part of the Atlantic Masters line (the point where Atlantic's vintage stuff started to sound really good on CD), is almost dizzying in its breadth of material, when it gets spread out, all in one place. Rock & roll ("Queen of the Hop"), novelty tunes ("Splish Splash," "She's Tanfastic"), soul ("Early in the Morning"), gospel ("Moment of Love"), rockabilly ("Somebody to Love"), Elvis-style pop/rock ("Mighty Mighty Man"), Brill Building pop ("Dream Lover"), vocal pop ("I'll Be There"), even an instrumental ("Beachcomber" -- arranged by Shorty Rogers, no less) on which he played keyboards. As becomes clear about halfway through this CD, there was little in popular music that Darin couldn't do well, and much of it exceedingly well.
Track List

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