Splish Splash

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We are having fun with language this week at Word and Song, so I decided to keep the levity going with a silly song which hit the airwaves back in 1958. This song, “Splish Splash,” was the breakout hit for a fellow who would “grow up” to be the person I call the last of the real crooners — Bobby Darin.

Bobby Darin was born in Manhattan in 1936 and literally grew up in a world filled with music and theater of the highest order, in the popular vein. These were the days when Frank Sinatra was performing eleven shows a day at Atlantic City as one of Tommy Dorsey’s featured singers, The Pied Pipers. While Bobby Darin was learning to talk, Sinatra was developing The Voice. There was no competing with that, of course, but of all the singers who hit the scene in the late 1950s — when rock and roll was in its infancy — Bobby Darin was the crooniest.

I’ve talked about Bobby Darin before at Sometimes a Song (see “Mack the Knife”), but mainly as a singer. It may not commonly be known now that Darin began his official musical career not as a singer, but as a songwriter, notably for the very popular Connie Francis. Darin and his then songwriting partner Don Kirshner (later to become a noted rock band producer and manager), had their office in the famed Brill Building, where the music-makers such as Paul Simon, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Phil Spector, and countless others were rubbing elbows (literally; offices were the size of broom closets) and all competing with each other for a corner of the music market. What a place that must have been in those days.

We think of Bobby Darin as a singer, and he was a great one, having learned unofficially and officially from some of the greats. At the Brill Building, he met and recorded with some top flight talents who were going to make it big within a few years. These included Roger McGuinn (later of The Byrds) and some young brothers named Gibb (later known as the Bee Gees). Darin himself played a wide variety of musical instruments, including piano, guitar, and drums. Because he was a versatile musician as well as a singer, Bobby could cross genres, which he did several times in his short life, doing swing, rock, country, and folk music in the course of his career.

Bobby Darin set himself a goal of being famous by age 25, and he accomplished that. It’s certainly true that he knew his life would be short; he was born with severe health problems, and so he was determined to make the most of the time he had. He was 22 years old when he wrote — with famed NYC DJ, radio host, and music promoter Murray (the K) Kaufman — today’s song. Kaufman, who played a big role in popularizing The Beatles in the US, bet Bobby Darin money that he couldn’t write a good song using a lyric his mother had come up with, “Splish Splash, Take a Bath.” Clearly, Darin rose to that particular occasion, winning the bet in under an hour! And in 1958, he had his own first charting song with “Splish Splash,” which quickly sold over a million copies. Darin didn’t waste any time, and within a year had another gold record with a song of his own called “Dream Lover.” He was off and running! In 1959 Bobby Darin was the Grammy Awards’ first inductee in the category of Best New Artist, and a year later he received another grammy for his tremendous recording, “Mack the Knife.” All of this he in fact did accomplish before his 25th birthday, and he kept working at his music right up till the day he died (at age 37) of heart failure, brought on by a devastating bout of sepsis, from an infection he developed during an early heart valve operation.

So for today, here is Bobby Darin’s first hit, “Splish Splash,” from 1958. Grab a towel and a bar of soap, and join the party!

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Word & Song is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymn, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. To support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber.

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