James Darren: Goodbye Cruel World (1961)

 |   |  1 min read

James Darren: Goodbye Cruel World (1961)

One of the most popular shows on American television in the late Fifites/early Sixties was the Donna Reed Show, a middle-class family of mum (attractive and smart Donna Reed) the doctor dad (handsome and jut-jawed Carl Betz) and the teenage kids Mary (attractive and girly Shelley Fabares who went on to appear in three Elvis movies) and Jeff (geeky-then-handsome young Paul Petersen who, like Fabares had a minor career in music).

Not much really happened that couldn't be resolved within the black'n'white running time, but there were always interesting guests, sometimes playing themselves or a version thereof.

One guest who popped up a couple of times was pop singer James Darren (the most handsome man on the planet perhaps, little wonder Mary was drawn to him).

Darren had a career as a singer and Goodbye Cruel World was his big hit, but he also went on to a more than decent television and film career, notably starring in The Guns of Navarone and Venus in Furs (and a few Gidget flicks) as well as the popular television serials The Time Tunnel and TJ Hooker.

But in his last appearance on The Donna Reed Show in '61 he played pop singer Kip Dennis and sang this song. It is as catchy as a flu virus, so little wonder Hello Sailor's Dave McArtney remembered it as he notes here

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory use the RSS feed for daily updates, and check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Wattie Watson and Friends: Ye Cannae Shove Yur Grannie Aff a Bus (date unknown)

Wattie Watson and Friends: Ye Cannae Shove Yur Grannie Aff a Bus (date unknown)

When I was a little boy growing up in Edinburgh I was doubtless surrounded by Scottish songs (I certainly heard the pipes) but it wasn't until I came to New Zealand that I can clearly remember... > Read more

Dion: Sisters of Mercy (1968)

Dion: Sisters of Mercy (1968)

Two parallel stories of birth here. Sisters of Mercy was on Leonard Cohen's debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen and thus was his birth – at 33 – as a recording artist. For... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

HENNING MANKELL'S WALLANDER: A man out of time and place

HENNING MANKELL'S WALLANDER: A man out of time and place

So this is where the killings took place. All around here the bloody brutalities were acted out under this vast sky hanging like an ever-changing canopy over these golden fields of rape plants... > Read more

Elsewhere Art . . . Charles Lloyd

Elsewhere Art . . . Charles Lloyd

Given that the Charles Lloyd album this was created for is a quiet affair, some explanation is needed of this chaotic looking collage. The album was Lift Every Voice and it has been a longtime... > Read more