Volume 1
- Early In The Morning - The Rinky Dinks 2:18
- Splish Splash 2:13
- Queen Of The Hop 2:09
- Don't Call My Name 2:03
- All The Way Home 1:53
- Lost Love 2:26
- Plain Jane 1:58
- Dream Lover (Demo Version) 2:58
- Dream Lover 2:32
- Bullmoose 2:30
- Somebody To Love 2:15
- I Got A Woman (Live) 3:32
- You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby 2:15
- Irresistible You 2:35
- Multiplication 2:16
- What'd I Say 4:06
- The Right Time 3:27
- If A Man Answers 2:24
- Treat My Baby Good 1:57
- When I Get Home 2:29
- We Didn't Ask To Be Brought Here 2:21
- Funny What Love Can Do 2:52
- She Knows 2:21
- Easy Rider 2:22
- Everywhere I Go 2:59
- Sail Away 3:56
Volume 3
- As Long As I'm Singing 1:35
- Oh! Look At Me Now 2:45
- A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square 3:02
- The Party's Over 2:28
- This Isn't Heaven 2:16
- My Funny Valentine (Live) 3:39
- You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You (Live) 3:09
- Hello, Dolly! 3:16
- Once In A Lifetime (Only Once) 2:09
- Look At Me 1:53
- Charade 1:49
- Sunday In New York 2:32
- Somewhere 2:34
- There Ain't No Sweet Gal That's Worth The Salt Of My Tears 3:04
- Silver Dollar 2:03
- Lover Come Back To Me 2:23
- Rainin' 2:50
- The Shadow Of Your Smile 2:15
- Mame 2:16
- Don't Rain On My Parade 2:57
- Beautiful Things 2:27
- The Curtain Falls (Live) 3:39
Volume 4
- Things 2:35
- You're The Reason I'm Living 2:29
- (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle 2:44
- Sally Was A Good Old Girl 2:35
- 18 Yellow Roses 2:19
- Walking In The Shadow Of Love 2:49
- Work Song 3:30
- I'm On My Way, Great God (Live) 5:09
- Blowin' In The Wind 3:15
- If I Were A Carpenter 2:23
- The Girl That Stood Beside Me 2:29
- Reason To Believe 2:07
- Lovin' You 2:14
- The Lady Came From Baltimore 1:56
- I Am 1:56
- Darling Be Home Soon 3:02
- Back Street Girl 3:41
- I'm Going To Love You 2:30
- Long Time Movin' 2:54
- Long Line Rider 2:59
- In Memoriam 4:15
- Me & Mr. Hohner 3:18
- Song For A Dollar 1:50
- Sweet Reasons 1:48
- I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (Live) 3:33
- Simple Song Of Freedom (Demo) 4:16
- Simple Song Of Freedom (Live) 4:07
Notes
Aug 21, 1957 - Feb 6, 1971
'The Rock'N' Roll Years ' (Disc 1)
'The Pop Years-Part One' (Disc 2)
'The Pop Years-Part Two' (Disc 3)
'The Folk & Country Years ' (Disc 4)
A four-CD box set spanning several styles, labels, and eras, this will stand as the most thorough retrospective of Darin's eclectic career, though not necessarily the best. There's a lot of material here -- 96 songs, including not only the hits, but obscure flops, B-sides, album cuts, and 11 previously unreleased tracks. Because Darin covered a lot of different genres, it's not programmed chronologically, but by style -- one disc for "The Rock'n'Roll Years" (which, truth be told, were often closer to pop than rock), two to his pop sides, and one to his folk and country outings. In hindsight (and in the enclosed 64-page book), much has been made of Darin's versatility. But while it's true he could handle a range of genres competently, versatility does not automatically equate with quality. Just as a baseball player who can play all the positions is not necessarily a great player, Darin's unusual eclecticism did not mean that he was as great a singer as some legends who concentrated only on rock, or only on pop, or only on folk. There are some neat surprises here -- the mid-'60s protest folk-rock of "We Didn't Ask to Be Brought Here," the full-bodied pop of "When I Get Home," the fine rendition of "Nature Boy," and the reasonably cogent and sincere late-'60s folk-rock. But a lot of it is not more than competent, and some of it (especially the slighter rock efforts) are less than that. And the almost diametrically opposed range of sounds (it's a long way from "Splish Splash" to "Mame" and "If I Were a Carpenter," after all) means that not many listeners except Darin fanatics will be able to get through the whole set without skipping over a lot of the tracks.