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FAMILY WEEKLY
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BETTER ... by MCKESSON
IMPORTANT
THING
1THE
WORLD
$ if jmMi
When I w&s a Km growing up in a ten
ement section of she Bronx, ray
mother said something I will never forget.
1 was talking Ho her shout what I wanted
to be when I was an dd guy c 25. She
turned to ane and im a serious, trok4 voiae
said thai on- arte thing mattered in any
soooessfiil life: '"Yon must realise that yon
are the most important iflrmg in the world.
- "You've got to believe this if yon1 me ewer going to get any
where on this earth," she said. TonTwe also got to realize the
vastness of the world. No matter how important you are,
you re only one -small person in a world where everybody
believes he is just as important as you."
It was good advice, and IVe tried to follow it. I remember
two years back when I wanted to do an album of songs,
some of them new arrangements of old-timers. This was
during the period I was still known exclusively as a rock
'n roll singer.
In trying to apply my mothers philosophy, I made the
decision along with ray record company to take the money
earned from "Splish Splash" and "Queen of the Hop, and
pour it back into myself through this album of pop material.
Although the record-company executives weren't as crazy
about the idea as they might have been, I believed it was the
right thing to do. And mat particular album just happened to
be responsible for the sudden skyrocketing of my career.
One of the songs I included was Kurt Weill's "Mack the
Knife." Between the album and singles of that song which
came out later, I sold more than a million and took that first
important step out of rock V roll into really adult singing.
"Mack the Knife" proved one thing: you've got to believe
in yourself enough so that no one can force you to back down
to where you get stuck in the crowd.
When it comes to planning, I've got a
mind like an IBM machine. Nearly every
thing I do is part of a master plan to make
me the most important entertainer in the
world. I'm not a spontaneous human being.
Show me any top entertainer or top busi
ness executive, and 111 show you a guy who
has mapped out his life from the very start.
rcmily Weekly, October 11. I960
Sometimes, though, I can go overboard by pushing too hard.
I've got to watch that streak of fake in me. For example, I
like to play up ordinary things with tricks, gags, stunts.
When I walk into a strange room, I usually try to cover my
nervousness by shouting and playing to the entire room.
This is a weakness. Maybe when I'm a bit more grown-up,
US he able to cut out this "wingadingding" nonsense and just
walk into a room straight.
Ijord knows, I don't expect anybody to think the way I do.
-Wor do I figure that I'm the guy to tell people, especially
teen-agers, what to do with their lives. But the trouble with
the world, I think, is that there aren't enough egotists who
really think they're important There aren't enough indi
viduals tough-minded, independent thinkers who are self
centered enough to stick to their own ideas.
The rock 'n' roll craze is a perfect example of group think
ing. It hit the country like a tidal wave in 1953. Suddenly,
we were flooded to the eyeballs with rock 'n' roll. I was writ
ing a few songs that year while trying to break in as a pop
singer. I took a ballad I was excited about over to a friend
who was a music publisher.
The publisher took one look at it, shrugged his shoulders,
and said sourly, "Who needs it? All the kids are buying these .
days is rock 'n' roll."
I took the song home, changed it in about
15 minutes to a rock 'n' roll beat with a new
name, and mailed it off to the same pub
lisher. A day later, I got a call. "Great,
kid," he said. This is the kind of stuff we're
looking for. Send us more!"
So how are you going to think independ
ently in this rock V roll world? First
you've got to have something upstairs to
think with. This means you've got to listen
and learn. You've got to know as much as possible about
the world.
I get frightened when I bump into things I don't know
about, and this is what's wrong with kids today. They get
scared, too, but instead of learning about the problem, they
slip into conformity, where others think for them.
An awful lot of American parents aren't helping the prob
lem, either. "They're so busy giving their children the best
of everything that they're robbing them of
the ability to do things on their own.
The way I see it, parents ought to be
. guideposts to a kid. They should direct the
youngster and teach him, not force him
into a set pattern.
For example, if my mother had seen me
rolling on the floor when I was little, she
wouldn't have worried: if that's what I
. wanted to do, I could do it. If, on the other
hand, there was broken glass on the floor,
she would have warned me and told me
that I would get cut and it would hurt if
I didn't stop.
She wouldn't just swat me on the head
and say, "Stop that. It's stupid." If I stayed
on the floor and cut myself, I had nobody
to blame but me. My mother showed me
the way but let me learn by myself. She
didn't squeeze the individualism out of me
that way.
In all fairness, I've got to say that many
kids don't give their parents a fair shake.
You hear a constant wail from teens that
"my father doesn't talk to me." But how -would
the kids know? They're not even
listening; they're too busy trying to get the
car out of Dad for Saturday night.
Part of education is making flubs. The
first song I sold was a flop called "My
First Real Love." But that didn't stop me.
The real blunder with most kids I meet
is not that they make these flubs, but that
they don't make them often enough. Their
theory is: why try for something hard?
Why try to be tops when you can join the
crowd of second-raters?
Learning, I find, is a continuous process,
and a great way to learn is from people. I
can sometimes learn more having dinner
with friends in New York than I can from
five volumes of philosophy. You don't have
Frankly, says
this teen-age idol,
it's me!
Here's how he
explains his
startling philosophy
of life
By BOBBY DARIN
as told to
Marya Saunders
and Robert Gaines -
to think like a guy to learn from him or
to ,like him.' But to be his friend, you've
got to accept the fact that he can be dif
ferent from you.
A famous entertainer, for example, is a
good friend of mine, but we're as different
"as Fabian and Crosby. Once, in a night club
in Los Angeles, I saw him wasting his
time sitting at a table after the show with
a small army of people. He didn't know
half of them, and they were only there be
cause he was famous and not just Joe Blow
from Hohokus.
I walked over to him. "Waddya need all
these characters for?" I said bluntly. He
looked at me, surprised and hurt. I sud
denly had the feeling that I had asked a
painful question and there was no reason
for my doing it. That's the way he is; I'm
the way I am.
I'm not like him or Sinatra or Como. I'm
just Bobby Darin an individual but I :an
still be friends with all of them.
Sure, I've got my faults. I'm the ego
maniac you read about. I'm an honest guy,
but I can sometimes be cruel. I try to be
completely objective about myself. But in
the meantime, I'm a guy with some very
definite ideas about just how my life should
be lived. "
I think that I come first. But when I say
"Jump," the fewer people that jump, the
better I like it!
I'm not saying you should.be like me.
I'm only saying you should be exactly like
you and not try to be like
anybody else.
I know that I'm the
most important guy in the :
world! It would be a bet
ter world if you felt the
same way about you.
Family Weekly, October 23, 1960
Kit !
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"J."- .,
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I OKIE SHI'S TAD, CO-PRODUCER OF ICE FOLLIES
W MM .
to soothe my eyes and so
relax tension"
"After the bright lights and tension of a show, I find a
couple of drops of Murine a welcome comfort to my eyes.
.And when my eyes feel rested, I seem to relax better all
over." Try Eddie's trick. Keep Murine handy at home,
in your car. Then use Murine whenever you feel the need
to soothe your eyes and so relax tension..
Jl Er. NewT
' -ni; 'BYES V WI1H VOII
for your eyes'
Murine it also anllable in familiar glass bottle with separale eye dropper.
1
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