Bobby Darin

 Bobby Darin, born Walden Robert Cassotto (May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973)

He performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock'n'roll, folk, and country. Darin started as a songwriter for Connie Francis, and recorded his own first million-seller "Splish Splash" in 1958. This was followed by "Dream Lover", "Mack the Knife", and "Beyond the Sea", which brought him world fame.In 1959, Darin recorded the self-penned, "Dream Lover", a ballad that became a multi-million seller. With it came financial success and the ability to demand more creative control of his career. His next single, "Mack the Knife", the standard from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, was given a vamping jazz-pop interpretation. In 1962, he won a Golden Globe for his first film Come September, co-starring his first wife, Sandra Dee. In 1962, Darin began to write and sing country music, with hit songs including "Things" (US #3/UK #2) (1962), "You're the Reason I'm Living" (US #3), and "18 Yellow Roses" (US #10). The latter two were recorded by Capitol Records, which he joined in 1962, before returning to Atlantic four years later. In 1966, he had his final UK hit single, with a version of Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter", which peaked at # 9 (# 8 in the US). He performed the opening and closing songs on the soundtrack of the 1965 Walt Disney film That Darn Cat!. "Things" was sung by Dean Martin in the 1967 TV special Movin' With Nancy, starring Nancy Sinatra. Darin's musical output became more "folksy" as the 1960s progressed, and he became more politically active. In 1966, he had a hit with folksinger Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter," securing a return to the Top 10 after a two-year absence. One song of his, "Artificial Flowers", about child labor, however had a jazzy, Big Band arrangement, which was a sharp contrast to the tragic theme of the song. Darin suffered from poor health his entire life. He was frail as an infant and, beginning at age eight, was stricken with recurring bouts of rheumatic fever that left him with a seriously weakened heart. In addition, he learned later in life that he had been brought up by his grandparents, not his parents, and that the girl he thought was his sister was actually his mother. These events deeply affected Darin and sent him into a long period of seclusion. In January 1971, he underwent his first heart surgery in an attempt to correct some of the heart damage he had lived with since childhood, where two artificial heart valves were implanted in his heart. He spent most of that year recovering from the surgery. In 1973, after failing to take antibiotics to protect his heart before a dental visit, Darin developed an overwhelming systemic infection (sepsis). This further weakened his body and affected one of his heart valves.

On December 11, he checked himself into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for another round of open-heart surgery to repair the two artificial heart valves he had received two years earlier. On the evening of December 19, a five-man surgical team worked for over six hours to repair his damaged heart. Shortly after the surgery ended in the early morning hours of December 20, 1973, Darin died in the recovery room without regaining consciousness. He was 37 years old.