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For those of you who are on Pat's forum:
I finally got the straight story
on Bobby Darin's production work
with the Drifters. I had thought it was on This Magic
Moment, and
I'd tried to stump Pat with a question about it. As he
and others
have pointed out to me, however, that record was actually
produced
by Lieber and Stoller.
Bobby Darin and his production
company were involved in Under the
Boardwalk, according to my sources on a list devoted to
Darin.
Apparently (and not surprisingly) he was deeply into
R'n'B, and was
very hands-on with the project.
Also, here's some info from a
Billy Vera article on DooWop Cafe that
mentions the fact that the authors of the tune were
Darin's
songwriters:
>>Out of Bobby Darin's
publishing operation came a couple of staff
songwriters named Artie Resnick and Kenny Young. They
crafted, if
not a work of art like the songs Leiber & Stoller
chose, a perfectly
commercial ditty which was an ideal summer hit,
"Under The
Boardwalk." The date almost didn't happen. The
night before, Rudy
Lewis was found in a hotel room, with a needle in his
arm, dead from
an overdose of heroin.
Jerry Wexler recalls the
incident: "Bert, the English arranger and
The Drifters all balked; 'Boardwalk' was written for Rudy
and the
charts were in his key. At first, the union wouldn't let
us cancel,
or even postpone the date. So, here we are, with all
these union
musicians sitting around. We had to pay them, the show
had to go
on." Johnny Moore sang the song, with his great
range, and The
Drifters ended up with what would be their last Top 10
pop hit.
Years later, Ricky Lee Jones cut
a very nice version of it. The
flipside was a song written by Berns and Wexler, "I
Don't Want To Go
On Without You." At the time, there was a rumor
going around
backstage that it was written for Rudy. It makes a good
story, but
Jerry assures us it is not the case. Rudy's death the
night before
may have had some impact, however, on Charlie Thomas's
moving vocal.
The song was later recorded by Patti LaBelle & The
Bluebelles and
yours truly cut a version, as well.
>>
-- http://www.doowopcaferadio.com/Drifters.html
An intersting, informative and
cool site. Home page:
http://www.doowopcaferadio.com
- Boz
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