LAS VEGAS – What would have been Bobby Darin’s 71st birthday was marked on Monday by the dedication of a sidewalk star on the Las Vegas strip.
“Bobby never left us,” Vegas entertainment icon Wayne Newton said of the “Mack the Knife” crooner, whose 15-year singing career crossed into pop, folk, rock and country music. Darin, whose career also included stints in television and movies, died in December 1973 at age 37 after heart surgery.
“Bobby will never be gone,” Newton said.
Darin is the 19th person to be honored with a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars, a group that includes Liberace, Rich Little, Siegfried &Roy, Sammy Davis Jr. and Newton, who received the first star.
Darin, whose early hits included “Dream Lover” and “Splish Splash,” became a nightclub fixture in the 1960s in his hometown of New York with songs like “Beyond the Sea” and the theme from “The Threepenny Opera,” “Mack the Knife.”
His sidewalk star is outside the Flamingo hotel-casino, where Monday’s ceremony reunited old friends, family and fans. Darin played the Flamingo more often than any other Las Vegas venue, ceremony organizers said, but he also played at the Sands, the Sahara and the Hilton.
Darin was previously inducted into the Rock and Roll and the Songwriters halls of fame, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His work has drawn new interest following a 2004 filmography starring Kevin Spacey.
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