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InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
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Louis Armstrong
Listen to Louis Armstrong:
Walden Roberto Cassotto was born and raised in a tough part of the Bronx, New York. His father died a few months before he was born so he was raised by his mother and older sister (whom he later discovered was actually his grandmother and mother). Although he was a very sickly child, he developed a toughness and a will to succeed. He harbored a desire to get into show business and taught himself to play a variety of musical instruments. When he was old enough, he played for a while with a dance band in the Catskill Mountains resort area, and he took the stage name of Bobby Darin. For a short while, Darin teamed up with future impresario Don Kirshner, and they cut a few demo recordings together. Eventually, Decca Records took an interest in Darin and signed him to a solo contract. Kirshner, meanwhile, wished him luck and went on to start the groundwork for what would soon become a multi-million dollar publishing empire.
Decca had no luck with Darin and released him in 1957. Then his old friend Kirshner approached Atlantic Records chief Ahmet Ertegun on his behalf, and Darin was signed to their subsidiary label, Atco Records. His first three releases fared miserably, however, and Darin became something of a pariah, since nobody at Atlantic was willing to put their reputation in jeopardy and produce him. Undaunted, he sold one of his recordings to his old label, Decca, under an alias and then went directly to Ertegun, asking for another opportunity. Ertegun consented, named himself as producer, and allotted ninety minutes of studio time for Darin to prove himself. The deliberately juvenile "Splish Splash" and "Queen Of The Hop" were recorded, and both became top ten hits. Novelty rock-and-roll style songs were the rage and Darin found a niche. But he preferred to sing more substantial fare, so in 1959 he wrote and recorded "Dream Lover", which reached #2. This was an important hit for Darin because it moved him away from the mold of being just another teen idol who sang novelty records. How and why he made the weird decision to record "Mack The Knife" as the follow-up to "Dream Lover" is anyone's guess, but it proved to be a very inspired choice.
Kurt Weill could never have known just how popular his character study for Berthold Brecht's "Threepenny Opera" would become. It was written in 1928 with the original German title, "Moritat". Translated to English and taken out of context, the obscure references to real and fictional characters are rendered meaningless, yet the song was revived and reached the charts six times in 1956 alone. Louis Armstrong's memorable interpretation served as Darin’s blueprint. Darin sticks very close to Armstrong's vocal line, but he adds a sophisticated, finger-snapping cool that was perfect for the pseudo hipster-cum-gangster lyrics. The steady crescendo and key changes of the orchestra build and build until the near riotous swinging collapses, while the all-too-cool Darin adds the line, "Look out, ol' Mack is Back!" Nine weeks at #1 and a record that crossed generational lines was the result. Bobby Darin was no longer the singer of silly rock and roll songs, but the purveyor of modern pop swing.
 
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