Atlantic / Wea
1991
Mack The Knife - The Best Of Bobby Darin Vol. 2
About This Album
Bobby Darin's career went through myriad phases and permutations across barely 15 years of recording -- which was less a result of seeking success than it was a product of Darin's personal desire to try new songs and venture into new musical territories. Mack the Knife is the companion volume to Atco's Splish Splash, offering another 21 songs out of his Atlantic Records catalog, this time from his transition out of rock & roll and teen pop and into more traditional vocal pop. He had his hits here, including a monster in the form of "Mack the Knife," and "Lazy River," "Beyond the Sea," and "Artificial Flowers," done in a pop vein. Darin still brings a vigorous, usually bluesy edge to his work here, perhaps more effectively than Sinatra or Dean Martin (his two obvious role models in this phase of his career) when they worked in those directions; and it's still music that could appeal to rock & roll listeners as they matured. (One imagines the same individuals who, in high school, had danced to "Splish Splash," sitting back and taking in his "Don't Dream of Anybody But Me," or "I'm Good for Nothing But the Blues"; or a rendition of "Guys and Dolls" that offers his own brand of cool, different from that of Sinatra, if not better or more memorable -- but not bad).
Track List (try track 17)

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