Me & Bobby D

by Steve Karmen, Bobby Darin

Me and Bobby D. is the exciting coming-of-age story of two teenage boys from the Bronx - Steve Karmen and Walden Robert Cassotto - who meet in high school, play in the same band, and then form a singing act. The year is 1956, at the dawn of rock and roll, a crossroad in the entertainment business rarely written about. Cassotto changes his name to Bobby Darin, makes his first recording, and he and Karmen are booked on the road for their first job ever as entertainers into Club Temptation, a seedy nightclub in suburban Detroit. This is Bobby Darin before "Splish Splash," "Mack, The Knife," "Beyond the Sea" and "Dream Lover"; and Steve Karmen before composing "I Love New York," "This Bud's for You," "Hershey Is the Great American Chocolate Bar" and "Nationwide Is on Your Side." What happens to them during the two-week engagement will alter their friendship, and change both of their lives forever. B/W photos; Hardcover; May; Biography; World Rights Steve Karmen has been a composer/lyricist/arranger/producer of advertising music for over 30 years. In addition to the above-mentioned themes, some of his most memorable compositions "Here Comes the King (The Budweiser Clydesdale Theme)," "Hertz, We're America's Wheels," "Weekends Were Made for Michelob," "Sooner or Later, You'll Own Generals," "Quality Is Job One - Ford," "We Build Excitement - Pontiac" and "At the Nevele." He is the recipient of 16 CLIO Awards, the "Oscar" of the advertising industry; the author of Through the Jingle Jungle, the accepted textbook about the industry, published by Billboard Books; and The Jingle Man, a collection of 152 of his jingles, published by Hal Leonard Corporation. Karmen lives in Westchester, NY.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography

1 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2003

About the author

Steve Karmen is a composer, most famous for several jingles. Among his better known works are the New York State song, "I Love New York", the jingle "Here Comes the King," the Exxon Song (1976), and Wrigley Spearmint Gum / Carry The Big Fresh Flavor (1973). He also composed several music scores for motion pictures during the 1960s, and performed briefly as a Calypso singer, achieving some recognition in Trinidad during that time.

Steve was unique among jingle writers. Unlike other composers, who were paid a flat price for their jingles, Steve was the only one of his peers to receive royalties every time one of his jingles was performed on TV or Radio. His informal industry title "The King of Jingles" may have been given to him because of this extraordinary business ability to retain publishing rights.

He was born into a conservative family. His father was from Russia. Karmen grew up with Bobby Darin, and played with him in a band in the 1950s. He played saxophone and guitar.

Karmen is the recipient of 16 Clio Awards.

Reviews

[Mediaman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ill-conceived misfire that's terribly written, mostly documenting back-and-forth dialogue between the author and his boyhood friend Bobby Darin. Grossly over-detailed in specific conversations that have nothing to do with anything important, as well as impossible to have remembered from 50 years earlier. It's beyond me why this guy thinks we want to hear hundreds of pages about their made-up mundane discussions having to do with mostly nothing.

Halfway through the book the two are still teens doing their first gigs. Then before you know it the two split and the author has nothing to do with Darin during the singer's most successful years.

You'll only enjoy this if you like minutia such as Karmen's talking to the maid while having bathroom towels changed at their hotel or Darin trying to make a move on every female he encounters. Otherwise at over 425 pages this ridiculously dull memoir is a waste of time that would have been better if a knife would have been taken to it and summarized as a short magazine article.

[Carol Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories on life with Bobby Darin as he made his way in show business!