Latest Release
- 8 FEB 2024
- 15 Songs
- The Very Best of James Darren · 1962
- The Essential James Darren · 1994
- This One's from the Heart · 1999
- Great British Classics, Vol. 3 · 2014
- This One's from the Heart · 1999
- Goodbye Cruel World · 1992
- Presenting James Darren · 1958
- Mammy Blue (Remastered) · 1971
- Emaline · 1958
- The Very Best of James Darren · 1963
- 2024
- 2022
- 2014
- 2013
- 2001
Music Videos
- 2023
- 2023
- 2023
- 2023
- 2022
- 2022
- 2015
About James Darren
Even more than the typical teen idol, James Darren's roots in authentic rock & roll were tenuous. Darren began recording for Colpix in the late '50s at the beginning of a screen career that saw him star in numerous films, most notably Gidget. More at home with standard MOR, show tune-like material than rock, and not much of a singer in any case, Darren was nonetheless marketed as a pop/rock performer to his predominantly young female constituency. He ran off quite a few novelty-tinged hit singles in the early '60s, of which "Goodbye Cruel World," which made number three, was the biggest and best. Top Brill Building pop songwriters -- including the Goffin-King, Mann-Weil, and Pomus-Shuman teams, as well as Bob Crewe, Gloria Shayne, and Howard Greenfield -- gave Darren material, albeit material that was well below their usual standards. He recorded quite a bit after his early-'60s heyday, reaching the Top 40 in 1967 with "All" and charting as late as 1977 with "You Take My Heart Away." During the '90s, Darren co-starred on the Star Trek spin-off Deep Space Nine as hologram crooner Vic Fontaine, reprising songs from the series on the 1999 album This One's From the Heart. ~ Richie Unterberger
- HOMETOWN
- Philadelphia, PA, United States
- BORN
- 8 June 1936
- GENRE
- Pop