I am coming to a sad conclusion.  That Bobby Darin released his two biggest songs at the turn of the decade: “Mack The Knife” and “Beyond The Sea.”  And then he fell off a cliff in terms of song quality.

“You’re The Reason I’m Living” – Bobby Darin

#3 peak
#23 year-end

Bobby Darin wasn’t a bad artist.  After scoring his two biggest hits back to back in 1959 with “Dream Lover” and the smash hit “Mack The Knife,” he gave the world his magnum opus “Beyond The Sea” as the follow up single.  The problem is, when artists lose it, they often lose it quick.  Bobby Darin is a perfect representation of this, because while he scored three more top five hits in the 1960’s, boy did his songs get worse.  My main exposure to Darin came from a greatest hits CD my parents had back when I was a kid with his most notable songs in chronological order, and there was a considerable drop off in quality after “Beyond The Sea.”  I remember hating his 1960 rendition “Lazy River.”  Two years later, he scored his biggest hit after “Mack The Knife” with “You’re The Reason I’m Living,” a song Darin wrote himself, reaching #3 on the Hot 100.  That doesn’t mean it was good.

Unlike most songs that will be on this list, “You’re The Reason I’m Living” is almost entirely here because of the music.  Darin’s singing performance is fine, but producer Nick Venet’s team just piles on the strings and backup singers, and the result is not a wonderful surprise from a supportive lover, but the equivalent of being woken up at 2 AM by a bunch of hooligans yelling and screaming outside your apartment.  The orchestra and especially the backup singers drown out Darin on the recording, and the music quickly becomes grating to listen to.  Especially because the song starts with the backup singers singing “You’re the reason I’m LIVING!!!!”, with no warning or time to prepare for them.  At the end of the song, the strings and singers pick up in intensity, leading up to one ugly sounding high note from the strings that caps off the song.  Try listening to it without plugging your ears.  Adding to the failure of the music is its attempt to sound country, after years of Darin as an early conventional pop artist.  Darin sings with a slight twang to his voice, and there is a country and western piano in the verses that would have sounded decent if it were attached to a better song.  The problem is that the strings and backup singers dominate the song, so it’s easier to attach it to the problems that drown failed traditional pop songs like the same year’s “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” (Yes, that song sucks!  Fight me!).

And yet, despite how overproduced this song is, at the same time, it’s strangely unmemorable.  This was the hardest entry for me to write not because of how bad this song is, but because there’s nothing to say about it.  Which overall explains why this segment is running shorter than the other entries for this list.  Honestly, I could just play the opening lyric “You’re the reason I’m living, you’re the breath that I take” and you would have the summary of the entire 2 ½ minute song.  Nothing that comes in sticks other than the production issues I just discussed.  Darin’s lyrics are pretty one note throughout the song, just repeating the whole “You’re the only reason I’m still here” sentiment.  None of the country instrumentation stays with you.  It’s all about everything else.

While “Dream Lover” and “Mack The Knife” are just fine in my book and not great, I understand why those songs have the fans they have.  They have memorable hooks, and the lyrical content in those songs are far more engaging than it is in “You’re The Reason I’m Living.”  This song was a further example of a decline in Darin’s fortunes, as after his follow up single “18 Yellow Roses” hit number 10 on the charts but failed to become a true hit, Darin had only one other hit, 1966’s “If I Were A Carpenter,” a return to form that sadly proved short lived for the artist who tragically died at just 37 years old.  Unfortunately, regardless of changing times, good songs are needed to keep an artist relevant, and “You’re The Reason I’m Living” failed to provide this for Darin.  

Insert “Kevin Spacey sucks” joke here. Bobby deserved better.

UP NEXT: The most controversial pick of the list at #8.

IMAGE SOURCES

Album cover from uDiscover Music

Photo of that loser from iMDB