5/5 My Favorite Darin CD
  by Mack_T_Knife (USA)
I've owned this CD for months and still listen to it daily. It's upbeat, swinging music. Gets everybody into a great mood at a get together. Darin is passionate, brazen, slick, cool, and funny all at the same time. What a talented man. Dig the way he plays the vibraphone (a la Red Norvo) on one cut. His live version of "Love For Sale" is the best I have ever heard (and I have the same song done by Harry Connick, Anita O'Day, & Ella----pretty tough competition!). Take it from someone that owns 4 Bobby Darin albums and the box set...this captures the essence of a great performer. Possibly the best CD I own.

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5/5 For that Darin fan who has everything!
  by Kelly Dillman (Pittsburgh, PA)
Here's the thing about this album: I was hesitant to buy it because I was afraid it would be too cheesy. You know, cheesy like "Thank you, don't forget to tip your waitress. Good night!" Here's what I forgot: It's impossible for the great Bobby Darin to be anything but genuine and charming and brimming with a love for life as a performer. He's the coolest of the cool, a swinger who could rock the socks off any venue and crowd, and I could listen to him holler "Thank you, you are beautiful!" to a cheering audience all day long.

There is just an unbelievable flow going all the way through this album. The first combo "Swing Low Sweet Chariot/Lonesome Road" is bursting with soul. And the pace really never slows down from there. Whether he's doing one of his hits (gotta love the girls shrieking when he starts Dreamlover), hamming it up with the audience, or displaying his instrumental talent, you can just feel the electricity of this awesome performer.

This CD is great to pickup if you have many other Bobby Darin recordings. A good number of the songs can't be found on any other Darin album, and even if some of the songs are on your other CDs, these are Live! This, when coupled with Darin's flare for improvisation and the great band backup make it just as good as having a completely new song. Throw that CD in for another spin and let's hear that W.C. Fields impersonation one more time!

5/5 Darin Was Sinatra's Heir Apparent
  by
"Darin at the Copa" is a gem. Today we all hear about Tony Bennett, but that is in great part because none of the great male vocalists are left, with the exceptions of the talented but styleless, boring Jack Jones and Vic Damone. The shame is that Bobby Darin did not live a normal lifespan. He had the pipes, style, and panache to have been the next generation's Frank Sinatra. He combined the finest elements of Frank, Dean, Perry, and Sammy all in one, with a touch of Ray Charles thrown in for good measure. Darin, when he took his singing seriously, could handle a ballad with the best of them (listen to "The Other Half of Me," or "Try To Remember"), and his uptempo tunes are in a class by themselves. Not even Sinatra at his best could swing with the syncopation of Darin, as on "Artificial Flowers," "Beyond the Sea," or "Mack the Knife." In this CD, Darin shows why the critics all believed him to be the next Sinatra. Indeed, as he reached his mid-thirties (just before his death) Darin's voice mellowed, matured, and deepened into a rich baritone, and his breath control (despite his failing heart)was superb. His range was immense, and unlike Tony Bennett, on high notes he never sounded grating or strained as if his head was about to explode. Darin was the real thing---what a shame so many of today's youths have no idea who or what he was about. This CD might help educate contemporary music fans (God help us)about a genuine talent whose brief life was glorious but tragic.

5/5 Darin Was the Greatest Jazz-Cabaret Singer of All Time
  by
If you are a Darin fan, a jazz fan, or simply a fan of good, old-fashioned cabaret, you must purchase this CD! Darin was remarkable. Sammy Davis, Jr. once said that Bobby Darin was the only act he would never follow on stage. Wayne Newton called Bobby "the most consummate entertainer he'd ever known." Walter Winchell admitted that Sinatra himself was spellbound by the young Darin when Frank watched Bobby open for George Burns in Las Vegas in the late 1950s. Winchell said Sinatra watched every Darin show for weeks---(this is true irony since Sinatra was Darin's boyhood idol, yet it was Sinatra who became obsessed with the young singer from the Bronx in the latter's early live performances). In "Darin At The Copa" the listener comes to understand why Darin received such praise. The man could flat-out sing---and sing any kind of song with style and rhythm beyond belief. Furthermore, he was a dancer, impressionist, and instrumentalist of the highest order. But most important of all was Darin's keen wit and showmanship. It is well known that Darin had a genius IQ and a natural panache that few others came close to possessing. To hear Darin live is to hear an ingenius musical artist. I have always been a fan of "Sinatra At the Sands," but if I am to be honest, Darin's "Copa" album just blows away Sinatra. Darin had a coolness that appealed to every generation---and he never came off sounding like an old fart trying to be hip. He was hip. Combine Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. and you come close to having Bobby Darin. But not quite. Bobby would still have that unique magnetism that transcended mere talent. Buy this CD, and pay special attention to Darin's versions of "Love For Sale" and "Some of These Days." It is my guess that---had Darin lived even another ten or twenty years----he would have become the Sinatraesque icon to whom we'd all be referring whenever discussions occurred regarding the greatest cabaret singer of them all. Darin had no equal---and keep in mind that he was only twenty-two years old when this performance was recorded! How great would he have become had he lived a normal lifespan?

5/5 Show Me A Better, Cooler CD. There Isn't Any.
  by Ruth Ann Box
Please tell me, someone, if there is a cooler, more medodic, hipper CD than this. There simply isn't. They say Frank Sinatra was afraid of Bobby Darin. Listen to this album and you'll know why. There was only one Bobby Darin. Lucky for Frank, Bobby only lived to 37. Still waiting to hear about a cooler CD.