Sings the Shadow of Your Smile

In 1966, five very different songs were nominated for Academy Awards. On The Shadow of Your Smile, which was released in March of 1966, Bobby Darin flexed his musical muscles and covered them all. The first five tracks on The Shadow of Your Smile are Oscar nominees, and were arranged by Shorty Rogers. "The Shadow of Your Smile" is a tender love song from The Sandpiper, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The sensitive "I Will Wait for You" was in the French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Two songs were in comedies of the day: "The Sweetheart Tree" from The Great Race and "The Ballad of Cat Ballou" from the Western satire Cat Ballou. And some have called "What's New Pussycat," from the show with the same name, the "wildest songs ever nominated." Darin showcases his dynamic range on the pop standards album on the rest of the record. The remaining six songs were arranged by Richard Wess and include songs by Ira Gershwin and George Gershwin ("Liza"), Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg ("It's Only a Paper Moon"), Oscar Hammerstein ("Lover Come Back to Me"), and even a Darin original ("Rainin'"). The Shadow of Your Smile has all of Bobby Darin's hallmark traits: schmaltz, swing, and humor. It was his first album for Atlantic Records. Recommended if you like well-written showtunes interpreted with upbeat bravado. In other words, if you like Bobby Darin the entertainer. The artist recorded a version of "Strangers in the Night" during the The Shadow of Your Smile recording session, but abandoned it when Frank Sinatra rushed his version of the song from James Garner's film A Man Could Get Killed. While only making a small dent in the charts, The Shadow of Your Smile was a hit with the critics. Darin celebrated his tenth anniversary in showbiz with sold out shows at Los Angeles' Coconut Club and New York's Copacabana. His Broadway and razzmataz period was Darin's most successful since the days of "Splish Splash" and "Mack the Knife." But it would be short-lived when, after the 1968 killings of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Darin temporarily abandoned glitz and glamour for the authenticity of folk music. ~ JT Griffith|