Capitol/EMI to Release ``The Legendary Bobby Darin''.

HOLLYWOOD -- 24-Track CD Includes Previously Unreleased Material and Live Versions of Darin's Top Hits: "Mack The Knife," "Beyond the Sea," "Splish Splash" and More; In Stores: Sept. 28, 2004

This fall, much of the mystery surrounding the late enigmatic pop singer Bobby Darin is to be lifted. Darin's life and career is currently at the center of a multi-faceted retrospective that includes a new Kevin Spacey-driven feature film set for wide theatrical release this winter, titled "Beyond The Sea," as well as two new Darin biographies to be published in the coming months. On the music front, Capitol/EMI Music Catalog Marketing will release a newly-compiled 24-track CD, "The Legendary Bobby Darin," featuring well-loved studio tracks and live versions of the versatile and engaging performer's top hits, "Mack The Knife" and "Beyond the Sea," as well as a never-before-released hits medley and "The Curtain Falls," recorded live at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. "The Legendary Bobby Darin" will be released on Sept. 28.

Bobby Darin first hit the music scene in the late '50s with "Splish Splash," a whimsical single from a boisterous young man. As his career blossomed, he jumped into swing territory with 1959's "Mack the Knife," a #1 Billboard Pop Chart smash, followed by "Beyond the Sea" the next year. "The Legendary Bobby Darin" culls several recordings from Darin's early 1960s Las Vegas residency, including a previously unreleased medley of hits recorded live in 1963 at the Flamingo, "Splish Splash/Beyond The Sea/Artificial Flowers/Clementine," as well as "Mack The Knife" and a previously unreleased version of "The Curtain Falls," both recorded during the same Flamingo concert.

Born in 1936 with a rheumatic heart, Bobby Darin rose from his modest Harlem and Bronx, N.Y. roots, always striving to live his life to the fullest, while also burdened with the knowledge that time was not on his side. On Dec. 20, 1973, at the age of 37, Bobby Darin died in Los Angeles during open heart surgery, and the world lost not only a brilliant voice, but also a dedicated and vocal civil rights and pro-peace activist. Darin's socially and politically-aware recordings from the mid 1960s through the early '70s included Bob Dylan covers and self-penned progressive folk/pop songs, and his 1966 return to Billboard's Top 10 was with his cover of Tim Hardin's folk hit, "If I Were A Carpenter," also included in "Legendary's" tracks.

In the span of his relatively brief career, Bobby Darin achieved overwhelming success: his hit "Mack The Knife" became one of the biggest selling singles of all time, earning him 1959's Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Record of the Year. His early fame also launched a film career that led to his marriage to the young actress Sandra Dee, a Golden Globe for Most Promising Male Newcomer in 1962, and an Academy Award(R) nomination for his supporting role in the 1963 feature film, "Captain Newman, M.D." Additionally, the dynamic singer's cross-genre appeal gained new ground in 1963, when his country-tinged "You're the Reason I'm Living" reached #3 on Billboard's Pop Chart.

In 1990, Bobby Darin was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and in 1999, Darin was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. This November, Bobby Darin's legend will be cinematically immortalized by Kevin Spacey and Lion's Gate Studios' "Beyond The Sea," a biopic written by, directed by and starring Spacey that witnesses Darin on his Hollywood journey. In addition, two new Darin biographies by David Evanier and Michael Starr will be published in the coming months.

"My goal is to be remembered as a human being and as a great performer." -- Bobby Darin