New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

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New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

Post by pmp »

It's been a very strange and exciting year in the Bobby Darin world for reasons which I can't disclose at this stage, but woke up this morning to a friend of mine having come across the following YouTube video. It contains three songs, but only the first two are Bobby - we don't know who the third one is. But both Isabelle and Linda are completely new to us. They are not listed in sessionographies of either Bobby or Atco, and they are not from the Decca period. We are assuming they are demos of some kind from 1957 or 1958, but as there is a full band, this doesn't even seem right. We are flummoxed completely. The songs were never copyrighted. We're digging away, trying to find out more. All we do know is that they were issued on a public domain release here in Europe, presumably run by a one man band, and without any fanfare - presumably they don't actually know what they released. Never tell me the public domain laws are a bad thing. Presumably these songs didn't get released or commercially recorded because the ideas were used in other songs, such as Lost Love.

Does anyone know who the voice is on the third song - it might help us discover something, as it may well be a Bobby composition - that might be how it got labelled as a Darin recording.

Another fan managed to hunt down the CD they were issued on (see link). Does anyone know who is behind the Vinyl Vic CD label?

https://www.oldies.com/product-view/94555U.html



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Re: New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

Post by pmp »

And so it continues! Capitol have released an extended version of Peggy Lee's "I'm a Woman" album, and included a much-rumoured duet between her and Bobby. Well, kind of a duet.

In 1963, Bobby recorded a whopping six albums. Only three of them - You're the Reason I'm Living, Eighteen Yellow Roses, and Golden Folk Hits - were released at the time. As Long as I'm Singing (a big band album) got as far as a test pressing in 1964, but then got cancelled. The live album recorded in November 1963 also got cancelled. There was a third unreleased album, in which Bobby took antique songs (mostly from before the 1920s) and gave them a 60s makeover. It was a nice idea, but hit and miss, and also never made it to record stores. The As Long as I'm Singing songs were released in the 1990s, spread over several releases. The live album got issued in the late 1990s.

The album of antique songs had some of the titles released in the late 1990s, but the rest didn't appear until a few years ago. One of the songs was a number called Jealous. There were long rumours that Bobby and Peggy Lee had duetted on a song called Angry at the same session but, eventually, it was thought to be something of a miss. It turns out that it wasn't. Angry was actually Jealous, and an outtake was released on the extended version of the Peggy Lee "I'm a Woman" album. It's an oddity, with Peggy doing nothing more than backing vocals, but it's a lovely discovery, nonetheless. There's some lovely dialogue before, with Peggy saying "You're ruining my career" and Bobby replying "Yeah, but you're making mine."



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Re: New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

Post by r&b »

Check this out. Sickly, and the year before he died he gives 100%. Overall he was probably the most talented of anyone.




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Re: New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

Post by drjohncarpenter »

pmp wrote:
Tue Mar 28, 2023 8:46 pm
It's been a very strange and exciting year in the Bobby Darin world for reasons which I can't disclose at this stage, but woke up this morning to a friend of mine having come across the following YouTube video. It contains three songs, but only the first two are Bobby - we don't know who the third one is. But both Isabelle and Linda are completely new to us. They are not listed in sessionographies of either Bobby or Atco, and they are not from the Decca period. We are assuming they are demos of some kind from 1957 or 1958, but as there is a full band, this doesn't even seem right. We are flummoxed completely. The songs were never copyrighted. We're digging away, trying to find out more. All we do know is that they were issued on a public domain release here in Europe, presumably run by a one man band, and without any fanfare - presumably they don't actually know what they released. Never tell me the public domain laws are a bad thing. Presumably these songs didn't get released or commercially recorded because the ideas were used in other songs, such as Lost Love.

Does anyone know who the voice is on the third song - it might help us discover something, as it may well be a Bobby composition - that might be how it got labelled as a Darin recording.

Another fan managed to hunt down the CD they were issued on (see link). Does anyone know who is behind the Vinyl Vic CD label?

https://www.oldies.com/product-view/94555U.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5VADycKcb4



Let me lend you a hand, my research will give you answers to several of your questions.

That CD appears to be from a grey market U.K. label, I guess there are plenty of those around.


-----


The discovered disc actually shows four (4) songs credited to Bobby Darin:

Judy, Don't Be Moody
Isabelle
Linda
Lindy With Me Cindy

"Judy, Don't Be Moody" was released in 1958 as the B-side to his big early hit "Splish Splash" (Atco 6117). Perhaps this is a demo version. The song was written by Donald Wolf and Ben Raleigh.

A song called "Isabelle" was written and released by Jacques Brel in 1959.

In July 1958 Jim Reeves covered a ten year-old song written by Jack Lawrence called "Linda," on his RCA LP Girls I Have Known.

"Lindy With Me Cindy" was published by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, probably late 1950s. Could Darin be playing on it? Any female voice has to be prodigal teen-ager Ellie.

https://www.ascap.com/repertory#/ace/search/title/Lindy%20With%20Me%20Cindy


-----


Judging by the four cover images on the disc showing Jerry Landis (aka Paul Simon), Paul Evans, Bobby Darin and Jeff Barry, most of these tracks must be music demos, and probably all out of New York, circa 1957-1960. They may be the performer's own work, or demos of songs by other writers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorded_as_Jerry_Landis


-----


The Vinyl Vic label seems to have released at least two dozen titles. A better cover scan of yours, found on eBay, also has a letter from perhaps the original distributor to the eBay seller, telling him to do as he pleases with the stock.

You should contact the eBay seller to get more information on your Darin find.

Good luck.

FORGOTTEN TEEN IDOLS V.2-PAUL SIMON/DARIN/CICCONE/CYMBAL + 21 MORE NEW CD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/325097756417

stevep43050
https://www.ebay.com/str/stevep43050

'
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Last edited by drjohncarpenter on Wed Apr 19, 2023 4:01 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

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r&b wrote:
Wed Apr 19, 2023 2:04 am
Check this out. Sickly, and the year before he died he gives 100%. Overall he was probably the most talented of anyone.

Yeah, he's in great form there. It's a little strange that he tended to rock harder with Splish Splash in the early 1970s than Elvis tended to on stage. 1972 was a quite good time for him physically, as he'd had the heart op the year before and he'd got over it (he didn't expect to live through the op). But sadly his health didn't remain good for very long. The really sad thing is that he could produce wonderful stuff like this, but in the recording studio he was churning out Carpenters covers. He was doing the drum solo in his Vegas act in 1972, while chases and stunts from silent movies were projected in the background.

It's a little odd that he was so good as a guest on TV - and being the lead performer/host in something like the Kraft Music Hall shows, such as in Long Line Rider (below). But when he got his own TV series, it was incredibly dull and uninspired for the most part. There was a good song or two each week, but most of each episode is pretty poor. The budget didn't help, and the creative team must have been much of the reason. You can even see the different way in which Long Line Rider is edited compared to, say, the rather mundane way Midnight Special is (from the final episode of the series, which was basically his live act.)





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Re: New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

Post by pmp »

drjohncarpenter wrote:
Wed Apr 19, 2023 3:46 am

Let me lend you a hand, my research will give you answers to several of your questions.
That CD appears to be from a grey market U.K. label, I guess there are plenty of those around.
Yep.
The discovered disc actually shows four (4) songs credited to Bobby Darin:

Judy, Don't Be Moody
Isabelle
Linda
Lindy With Me Cindy

"Judy, Don't Be Moody" was released in 1958 as the B-side to his big early hit "Splish Splash" (Atco 6117). Perhaps this is a demo version. The song was written by Donald Wolf and Ben Raleigh.
Hence why it wasn't mentioned in my post. The version here is alternate take 2, previously released on a number of other discs.
A song called "Isabelle" was written and released by Jacques Brel in 1959.
Yes, and it's a different song entirely.
In July 1958 Jim Reeves covered a ten year-old song written by Jack Lawrence called "Linda," on his RCA LP Girls I Have Known.
Yes, and it's a different song entirely.
"Lindy With Me Cindy" was published by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, probably late 1950s. Could Darin be playing on it? Any female voice has to be prodigal teen-ager Ellie.

https://www.ascap.com/repertory#/ace/search/title/lindy%20with%20me
I already stated the third song on the video was not Bobby. But I thank you for the info on the composers. Bobby wasn't playing on other people's records by this point - with the exception of playing drums on his surf-music group in 1963/4 (he played drums alongside Jim (Roger) McGuinn, Frank Gari and Kenny Young.) see below for vids (the Roger McGuinn clip is rather cute.




Judging by the four cover images on the disc showing Jerry Landis (aka Paul Simon), Paul Evans, Bobby Darin and Jeff Barry, most of these tracks must be music demos, and probably all out of New York, circa 1957-1960. They may be the performer's own work, or demos of songs by other writers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorded_as_Jerry_Landis
I already said the two Darin tracks were assumed to be demos from that period.
The Vinyl Vic label seems to have released at least two dozen titles. A better cover scan of yours, found on eBay, also has a letter from perhaps the original distributor to the eBay seller, telling him to do as he pleases with the stock.

You should contact the eBay seller to get more information on your Darin find.
The ebay seller has been contacted and knows nothing. Sadly Vinyl Vic himself (who presumably would have known where the songs come from) is deceased.

While I thank you for your efforts, we're no further forward. Alas, it's likely to remain that way.


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Re: New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

Post by drjohncarpenter »

That will be the last time I make a concerted effort to help out any member so nasty and ungracious.

His request for help generates exactly one response: mine. In return for the extensive research and files shared, I'm given snide, defensive and pernicious replies.

Bobby Darin is fortunate to be deceased if these are the kind of fans he still attracts in 2023.


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Re: New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

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drjohncarpenter wrote:
Wed Apr 19, 2023 10:17 am
That will be the last time I make a concerted effort to help out any member so nasty and ungracious.

His request for help generates exactly one response: mine. In return for the extensive research and files shared, I'm given snide, defensive and pernicious replies.

Bobby Darin is fortunate to be deceased if these are the kind of fans he still attracts in 2023.
I'm not quite sure what you expected when your research didn't extend to listening to the original video and comparing it to the songs you found by Brel and Reeves. There were multiple songs copyrighted under the titles Isabelle and Linda during the late 1950s.

I thanked you twice for your efforts in my reply to you. Alas, I don't have the authority to issue medals.


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Re: New Bobby Darin songs discovered. Can you help?

Post by Walter Hale 4 »

pmp wrote:
Tue Mar 28, 2023 8:46 pm
It's been a very strange and exciting year in the Bobby Darin world for reasons which I can't disclose at this stage, but woke up this morning to a friend of mine having come across the following YouTube video. It contains three songs, but only the first two are Bobby - we don't know who the third one is. But both Isabelle and Linda are completely new to us. They are not listed in sessionographies of either Bobby or Atco, and they are not from the Decca period. We are assuming they are demos of some kind from 1957 or 1958, but as there is a full band, this doesn't even seem right. We are flummoxed completely. The songs were never copyrighted. We're digging away, trying to find out more. All we do know is that they were issued on a public domain release here in Europe, presumably run by a one man band, and without any fanfare - presumably they don't actually know what they released. Never tell me the public domain laws are a bad thing. Presumably these songs didn't get released or commercially recorded because the ideas were used in other songs, such as Lost Love.

Does anyone know who the voice is on the third song - it might help us discover something, as it may well be a Bobby composition - that might be how it got labelled as a Darin recording.

Another fan managed to hunt down the CD they were issued on (see link). Does anyone know who is behind the Vinyl Vic CD label?

https://www.oldies.com/product-view/94555U.html

Good one, pmp.

Thanxs for posting.

Just had a listen to the three newies. Hopefully there are some more discoveries that might lead to a compilation of some kind :D