James Darren RIP

By"Huckabee" pop culture guru Pat Reeder

September4, 2024

We are very sad to have to report that actor/singer and Hollywood Hi-Fi Hall of Famer James Darren died Monday in Los Angeles at 88.

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/james-darren-gidget-moondoggie-star-trek-1236127756/

Unlike many early '60s heartthrobs who had to be forced to cut records with a figurative gun to their heads, Darren argued against lip-synching the theme song of 1959's "Gidget" where he played Gidget's boyfriend Moondoggie, telling the producers he could sing it himself. He surprised them by doing such a good job that he cut all the other songs, and it sparked a secondary career as a singer.

Darren put out several albums in the '60s and '70s, as well as such hit singles as "Conscience," "Her Royal Majesty," and his biggest hit, "Goodbye Cruel World," which reached #3 on Billboard and sold over a million copies.

Darren even made a Scopitone film (early versions of rock videos that played in film clip jukeboxes) of his song "Because You're Mine," featuring a bevy of bikini-clad '60s babes being subjected to body part close-ups that would get the director canceled these days. Hold your horses, you can see it here…

Okay, back now? You might also want to check out the greatest Hollywood Hi-Fi star Scopitone film ever, Joi Lansing's "Web of Love." But we digress.

Since I'm a big fan of the Great American Songbook with an indie label that produces the albums of my retro jazz singer wife Laura Ainsworth, I was particularly happy that Darren had a career resurgence in the '90s thanks to his role on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." He played holographic Vegas lounge singer Vic Fontaine, and his renditions of romantic standards inspired two Tony Bennett-like albums, "This One's From the Heart" and "Because of You." Here's his fine rendition of one of the greatest songs ever written, "The Way You Look Tonight."

From recording teen pop hits and sophisticated music like this to acting in such TV and film classics as "The Time Tunnel," "The Guns of Navarone" and "Let No Man Write My Epitaph" (presciently also starring Ella Fitzgerald), directing many TV shows, and even providing the singing voice for Yogi Bear in 1964's "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!" James Darren was a true multi-talent. RIP.

For more tributes by Pat Reeder, go here: Tributes - Mike Huckabee

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