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Online ChatwithSteve Blauner
Vinnie: Steve, do you have a complete inventory from all the record labels regarding BD's unreleased records? Steve: Yes. Vinnie: Will they eventually all be released over the years? Steve: I hope so. Patricia: Can you tell us how Bobby felt about the NBC shows? Steve: He hated them. He didn't think they were very creative. In fact, after the first 4 shows taped in December of 1972 he asked to get him out of it. Lorraine: Are any of the Direction LPs going to be officially released on cd? Steve: Yes, in time. The Varese album due out in September will have a few of the songs. By the way, Collectors Choice has the CD in their new catalog.(and also online). Tom: Any chance of ever seeing his TV show get released on video? At least a compiliation? Steve: I hope so. Lorraine: Is it a rights issue? Steve: The cost of clearing the music is very costly. Donna: The unreleased documentary from the Cocoanut Grove 1966 ... will it be released ? Steve: I hope so. Vinnie: Do you feel there's a renewed interest in BD? Steve: I think that this web site started by Linda has helped put Bobby back in the minds of the people. Also the release of all the cds has helped, as well as the PBS special. Pat: Any funny stories about Bobby you can share? Steve: When we were on the road we would get into all sorts of playful fun to keep us from being bored. Like in Syracuse we used to have food fights in the local diner. Childish, but fun. Andy: What Darin releases may we expect to see over the coming months and years? Steve: There is the CD from Varese that covers the folk and singles coming out. Also out this week from capitol, is a compilation. Lorraine: In Dodd's book, you mentioned a strange experience with your daughter at the Copa after BD passed on, where you were sure your sunglasses disappeared because Bobby was letting you know he was there. Had that ever happened before or since? Steve: Never. It was really quite a moment. All my daughter wanted was to go to the toy store. Vinnie: Anyone yet cast to play BD yet in the movie? Steve: Not officially but Kevin Spacey is hot to play Bobby. Tom: What in your opinion was Bobby best in? Standards, protest, country? Steve: The thing about Bobby was that anything he sang he was good at. There is no singer in the history of performers who ever covered all the bases that he did and did them well. Christine: What actor would you like to see portray Bobby? Steve: Johnny Depp. Vinnie: Steve, don't know if you know this but Nancy Sinatra wrote me and told me that her father had great respect for BD. Steve: Sinatra thought he was the best of the next generation. Tony: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Who would decide which NBC show to try to release-you with Dodd, or Dodd alone, or other people? Steve: Me. Tina: Who did Bobby like to perform with? Steve: Any good looking lady and the older giants such as Burns, Durante, etc. Cathy: What's your favorite song of Bobby's? Steve: When he performed "Higher and Higher." Tony: How did Bobby discover Wayne Newton? Steve: Wayne was performing in the Copa lounge and Bobby called me to meet him at the Copa and that night I took him aside and signed him to Bobby as his producer. In fact his first record that bobby produced "Danke Schoen" was given to Bobby to sing himself but he gave it to Wayne. Andy: There is the story of the fire in Atlantic's warehouse that allegedly destroyed all of Darin's unreleased tracks. Yet on a recent Diablo CD, we were treated to "My Baby Needs Me." Do other previously released Atlantic tracks still exist? Also, what about the other "live" album in Capitol's vaults? Steve: The fire was tragic. Most everything on Atco was burned up. Donna: In Dodd's book, Bobby called you a genius. Did he ever tell you he felt that? Steve: Bobby gave me his life when I had only been in the business a year and a half. Our deal was he would sing but I would do everything else. We never had a contract, just a handshake and he always lived by it. Mitch: What do you think Bobby's best professional moment was? Steve: His Academy Award nomination. Lorraine: If rights could be secured, do you think there would be interest to license the NBC shows to some channel like TVLAND? It's a pleasure to see BD on Flip Wilson. Cathy: Or Nick at Night? Steve: I'm not sure we have all the rights. If you can sell it, I'll deliver. Cathy: We'll sure do our best! Steve: Great. Cathy: Would a one-man show on Broadway be good for Kevin Spacey to perform as Bobby? Steve: Not if he wants to sing. Billy: Steve, one of the greatest moments of my life is when my good friend Jimmy introduced me to your good friend Harriet. I had the pleasure of having dinner with her twice. What a remarkable lady! Steve: Harriet introduced me to Bobby. If it wasn't for her I would never have met him, as he was a rock singer then and I wasn't a fan of rock. Long live Hesh! Donna: Will Bobby's albums be re-released in orginal form on CD or will there simply be various complilations? Steve: I hope both. Tony: Steve, do the sales of the Legends of Entertainment video of the last TV concert give you optimism for good sales for future releases? Steve: I hope so. Here's a story about that show. It was an accident the final show, with Bobby and Peggy Lee, but they (the producers) forgot to give him time to rehearse so he went out cold and one hour and and ten minutes later he came off stage. He was very sick at the time. You'll notice a couple of times he shakes his arm trying to get the circulation into his fingers.
Steve: Right on. Mine too. Cathy: Any more live concert videos to be released? Steve: I dont know about TV, but maybe audio. Vinnie: How did BD choose a style to approach a song? Steve: In the gut. Cathy: Are you going to write a book someday, Steve? Steve: I don't think so. Lorraine: Would you ever consider showcasing the NBC shows at the Museum of TV in either LA or NY or both, the way the Sinatra programs have been presented? Steve: I am in the process right now of doing that. Vinnie: How can we help you and Dodd promote BD? Steve: By being the fans you are and spreading the word. This web site is the greatest thing that has ever happened to him since his death 25 yrs ago. Patricia: With Bobby's recent induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, do you think he's got a good chance of getting the Lifetime Grammy next? Karen: Steve, in Dream Lovers you had an experience with the radio on the empty stage .. If yes has it ever happened again? Steve: Not that I know of. By the way, the song that was playing the radio that day was "Christmas Auld Lang Syne" and we now own it. Pat: Steve, did you attend the Coconut Grove concert? Steve: No, I did not. Tony: Is it true that the duet section with Peggy Lee on the last show was taped not long after he came off the stage feeling sick? Steve: Yes and she was mad as hell because she had been standing the whole time waiting to go on. Cathy: Bobby had such amazing energy. If you didn't know he was sick on that show, you'd never know it. Steve: He was 70 percent, but only I knew it. Andy: Who are your favorite Darin arrangers? I love the Billy May sessions! Steve: Billy May was the greatest but Richard Wess was his Nelson Riddle. Vinnie: We heard Jack Nicholson thank you in his acceptance speech for As Good As it Gets. Steve: I had a movie company called BBS that gave Jack the part in 5 Easy Pieces and Easy Rider. Vinnie: We're bowing down again, Steve! Steve: Stop bowing I'm the one who should be doing the bowing to you great fans! Mitch: Was Nicholson a friend of Bobby's? I guess he (Jack) wasn't famous enough early on. Steve: Jack loved Bobby. Tony: Did some of the mistakes make the final TWO OF A KIND album, as you had requested? Steve: Yes, you can hear Bobby and Johnny Mercer breaking each other up. Cathy: How did you hear Bobby died? Steve: I got a call late at night. I went to the radio at once and was pissed that they weren't playing Bobby yet. Mitch: Will you tell us a "Bobby Secret?" I don't even know what it could be--but there must be one that only you know about that we might enjoy and respect at the same time. Steve: There were no secrets with Bobby, he was the most honest person I've ever known. Karen: On DARIN AT THE COPA, Bobby sounds incredibly self-assured for such a young guy ... was he really like that or did he hide his nervousness? Steve: Bobby was like all of us, scared in the beginning. Whenever he'd release a single he'd break out with a rash on his hands for fear of a bomb. Also, let me tell you about him, if you came to him with a story about someone else he would say if it's not good he didn't want to hear it. Mitch: Did Bobby feel closer to any genre of his music than the others--or were they all (Rock, Pop, Vegas, Country, Folk, etc.) equally close to his heart? Steve: I know that he loved all music and even though I would fight with him to stay in one bag, he wouldn't. Vinnie: Besides Sinatra and Charles, who did BD listen to? Steve: Jolson. Tony: Steve, were you at any of the last shows in Vegas in July and August, 1973? Sad memories? Steve: All of them. Cathy: How do you think Bobby would have liked being a Grandpa? Steve: Exceptional. I know how he was with my first child. Patricia: What do you think was Bobby's best quality? Steve: Honesty. Vinnie: Steve, any secret celebrity Darin fans? Steve: Sammy Davis, Andy Williams, Julius Larosa, Elizabeth Taylor, Bobby Kennedy, Bob Dylan ... Patricia: This may be a loaded question Steve, but what was it about Bobby that made it easy (or difficult) to manage him? Steve: He was as smart as anyone I've ever met in the business.
Steve: Yes. He wouldn't leave the grave site until they covered it, so he slept at the grave site. He had a vision of a flaming ball that left his body and took away all his anxieties. Vinnie: Other than the songs cited in his monologue (on the last show and The Darin Invasion)what hit records did BD turn down? I heard that Neil Diamond wrote "Solitary Man" for BD. Steve: I'm not sure but in the business I'm sure there were many. He took me to see Diamond at a club in LA when he was an unknown and told me he would be a star. Bobby had the greatest eye and ear for talent of anyone I have known. Vinnie: Were there any songs that BD recorded that he didn't like? Steve: A lot. Most of the ones on the Motown album and many on the CAPITOL UNRELEASED. I think Motown over produced. Mitch: Steve, is there anyone young today who's trying to do what Bobby did with pop-swing who has approached you for guidance--or do you think that kind of music will die? Steve: No, most people if they were interested can't find me. Tony: Steve, on some of Bobby's last recordings (i.e. "I Won't Last A Day Without You") I think I hear a maturity in his voice. Do you think he became wiser as he aged? Steve: As he got older he got better. Tony: Do you know of any jams with other singers? Steve: I have pictures of Bobby in the Copa lounge singing and playing with Sammy Davis, wish I'd been there. Lorraine: Does the estate have any say regarding the packaging or the sound quality of Bobby's CDs? A lovely person sent me BOBBY DARIN BORN WALDEN ROBERT CASSOTTO yesterday and it sounds like a direct transfer from a scratchy record to CD and the cover is honestly made with cardboard from another album! Steve: There are a lot of bootlegs that I'm trying to stop. It's not easy. Vinnie: I think BD is on his way back. Steve, are you picking up on the many TV shows that have mentioned BD? Frasier, Seinfeld, Chicago Hope,etc? Steve: Yes, and I love it. Tony: His popularity is definitely on the upswing and it's a great time for the movie. Steve: Before everyone leaves let me just say that I can't thank Linda enough for keeping Bobby alive. Bravo to Linda and Jimmy. Linda: Steve, I love you, man! Jimmy: Thanks Steve, you are top shelf. Vinnie: Ok gang, get ready to bow! Steve: Stop bowing, too many asses! Lorraine: Steve, you are fantastic and I know Bobby's smiling right now. Steve: And I'm crying. I just want you all to know that I've been in TV and made some movies but the greatest part of my work life was the time I spent with Bobby.
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