Bobby Darin and Dick Clark

"I've always admired Bobby Darin tremendously," Dick Clark has said of his good friend. "Bobby was one of the most complicated and interesting people I have ever known ... he was a true, one of a kind."

When Bobby premiered "Splish Splash" at Clark's "Caravan Of the Stars" in 1958, Clark said, "Bobby moved and danced like it was opening night at the Copa. He was a terrific performer and always knocked kids out with his stage moves, even in the days before he had his first hit record."

Clark and Darin's friendship became very close. Dick attended Bobby's mother's (now as we know it, his grandmother's) funeral. Bobby was there to offer moral and emotional support to Clark throughout the years.

As in every friendship, there were some disagreements. Clark told Bobby that "Mack the Knife" would never make it as a hit. ("I told him if he wanted to turn his career into chopped liver, so be it.") Of course Clark was wrong, and admitted it.

Dick tried to help Bobby through his identity crisis in the late 1960s. ("You're a latter day hippie," Clark scolded him, "Go back and put on your tuxedo ... do what people expect of you.") Soon Bobby took Dick's advice and added "Mack the Knife" back into his nightclub act.

The last time Dick Clark talked to Bobby was shortly before his death. "I always thought that Bobby had a fear that he wasn't going to grow old, that he wouldn't live long ... I miss him a lot, because he was a total full-out pro and real friend."

(Thanks to Jimmy Scalia for this picture)


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