4/4/14

Hi Everyone.

It seems as the concert in Russia was a great success. Il Volo loved being there and expressed they would like to return soon.

On their return, they had a brief rest,  we see Piero enjoying a soccer match on TV. Ignazio tweeted about going to Venice, “The City of Love”. Gianluca sent out an adorable picture of him and Ernesto at a young age ,so cute!! You can view the pictures on Mundial and All Things Il Volo.

Now Il Volo is in Venice!! We don’t know why yet, they’re moving around so much this year it’s hard to keep track!!

I found kelly’s post about a Novella based on Il Volo and their lives VERY interesting, think of the fun that will be!

I thought some of you, like me, were “bobby soxers” back in the day, you might want to remember Bobby Darin.

DID YOU KNOW?

Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor of film and television. He performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock’n’roll, jazz, folk, and country.

He 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 1962, he won a Golden Globe for his first film Come September, co-starring his first wife, Sandra Dee.

Throughout the 1960s, he became more politically active and worked on Robert Kennedy’s Democratic presidential campaign. He was present on the night of June 4/5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Kennedy’s assassination. The same year, he discovered 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.

Although he made a successful television comeback, his health was beginning to fail, as he had always expected, following bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood. This knowledge of his vulnerability had always spurred him on to exploit his musical talent while still young. He died at age 37, following a heart operation in Los Angeles.

Darin was born in the Bronx borough of New York City. He was reared by his grandparents, whom he thought were his parents. Darin’s mother became pregnant at age 16 and, presumably because of the scandalous nature of such in that era, the family hatched a plan to pass the baby off as his maternal grandparents’ child. Darin’s mother never revealed who the father of her child was, not even to Darin, who was reportedly devastated at learning the true circumstances of his birth. His maternal grandfather, Saverio Antonio Cassotto, was of Italian descent. His maternal grandmother, Vivian Fern (Walden), was of Colonial English and Danish ancestry  and a vaudeville singer. His mother, Vanina Cassotto, was presented as his elder sister. He only learned of their actual relationship in 1968, when he was 32.

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. So he meant for his That’s All album to show that he could sing more than rock and roll. His next single, “Mack the Knife”, the standard from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera  was given a vamping jazz-pop interpretation. Although Darin initially was opposed to releasing it as a single, the song went to No. 1 on the charts for nine weeks, sold two million copies, and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1960. Darin was also voted the Grammy Award for Best New Artist that year, and “Mack The Knife” has since been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

Darin followed “Mack” with “Beyond the Sea,” a jazzy English-language version of Charles Trenet’s French hit song “La Mer”.

His first major film, Come September (1960), was a teenager-oriented romantic comedy with 18-year old actress Sandra Dee. They first met during the production of the film, fell in love, and got married soon afterwards. Dee gave birth to a son Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell) the following year, 1961, but the couple divorced in 1967. Dee and Darin made a few films together with moderate success.

In 1962, Darin won the Golden Globe Award for “New Star Of The Year – Actor” for his role in Come September.  The following year he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Best actor) in Pressure Point.

In 1963, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a shell-shocked soldier in Captain Newman, M.D.. At the Cannes Film Festival he won the French Film Critics Award for best actor.

In October 1964, he appeared as a wounded ex-convict who is befriended by an orphan girl in “The John Gillman Story” episode of NBC’s Wagon Train western television series.

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 in January 1971. 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.

There were no funeral arrangements; Darin’s last wish in his will was that his body be donated to science for medical research. His remains were transferred to UCLA Medical Center shortly after his death.

Let’s have some of your thoughts on Bobby. It’s sad that his life was cut so short.

Waiting for more news from Il Volo on their next tour, trip, appearance, anything. We’re anxious for more news.  In the meantime,Guys, enjoy your time off!!

Picture sent by Il Volo from Venice.

Linda