MIKE WEATHERFORD: James Darren sticks to the standards for his Suncoast show
Having Brian Wilson and James Darren in town the same weekend isn't going to be the beach party you might think.
Wilson resurrects his legendary "Smile" album at Boulder Station on Saturday, but Darren -- who first came to fame as dreamy surfer "Moondoggie" in the "Gidget" movies -- says fans don't really expect to hear his 1961 hit "Goodbye, Cruel World."
"Even though it was No. 1 in the country, I never wanted to (record) it," he says. "Thank God that I had it, but it's a novelty tune," he says of the calliope-flavored single that, he would learn just last year, was in the record collection of a young Bruce Springsteen.
Those who see Darren at the Suncoast on Friday through Sunday will find him onstage with a 17-piece big band, doing standards from his two albums on the Concord Jazz label.
Those stem from his TV stint as Vic Fontaine, a holographic lounge singer on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." The label president "happened to be a 'Star Trek' fan," he says.
"A lot of my fans are 'Star Trek' people," he adds. "They do come out and they do spend money and go to the clubs and things."
Darren had a long head start on the standards niche now crowded with everyone from young breakthroughs such as Michael Bublé to old rockers like Rod Stewart. His first album in 1959 featured big-band arrangements by Billy May, George Durning and John Williams.
Darren first played Las Vegas in 1966, and worked the Sahara with Buddy Hackett from 1970 to 1982, when he was cast in the TV cop show "T.J. Hooker." Directing an episode of the show led to a career as a TV director that almost made him and others in Hollywood forget he ever was a singer.
Now that he's rediscovered his roots, he doesn't miss the pressure and long hours of TV work. And Moondoggie fans needn't fret: He does include "Gidget" and "There's No Such Thing" in his shows.
"Those are the only ones that really fit into what I do now," he says. ...
"Welcome to my second show of the evening," Elton John told a cozy gathering in a temporary structure out in front of Caesars Palace last Sunday.
The pop legend followed his usual Colosseum show with a half-hour solo turn at the piano in a bash thrown by Best Buy. The party launched a three-concert DVD box set, "Dream Ticket," which will be sold exclusively through the electronics chain.
John's few comments to the gathering hinted at the trouble many veteran acts have sustaining interest in their new work from record labels and radio programmers (who also were in town and invited to the party before Monday's Radio Music Awards).
"An artist of my advanced years sometimes doesn't get a great relationship with their record company," the 57-year-old star told them before thanking Best Buy for "actually car(ing) about what they're putting out." ...
Sunday brings the latest round of inductions into the Casino Legends Hall of Fame in at the Tropicana. Clint Holmes hosts the private ceremony honoring Debbie Reynolds, Ben Vereen, Patti Page, Jack Jones, Sheena Easton and Tempest Storm.
The last name might raise eyebrows amid all the singers. But who better to honor amid Las Vegas' renewed interest in burlesque?
Burlesque queen Storm first played the Embassy Club downtown in 1951, and was an occasional Las Vegas performer as late as the 1980s. ...
The impersonator revue ³Hail Hail Rock 'n' Roll² returns to the Riviera Hotel, where it debuted late last year before moving to Whiskey Pete's in Primm in April. It opens on Tuesday, and locals with a Nevada license can get in for $10. ...
Bally's afternoon stars Society of Seven and Lani Misalucha aren't exclusively a matinee anymore. Starting today, the veteran variety act moves into the 8 p.m. slot on Fridays, when the "Jubilee" revue has the day off. They will take Mondays and Tuesdays off, dropping from six weekly shows to five. ...
Halloween is almost here, so it must be time for magician Dixie Dooley's annual Houdini seance. In fact, it's his 20th attempt to phone home to his idol, Harry Houdini, a skeptic who nonetheless famously vowed if there was a way to make contact from the great beyond, he would find it.
The free event will be at 1 p.m. tomorrow in the Riviera's Le Bistro, where Dooley performs his regular show three nights per week. Dooley started doing the seances himself in 1984, when the psychic who was supposed to help him wasn't psychic enough to find the Bourbon Street hotel.
Saturday brings the auction of Sid Radner's Houdini memorabilia collection at the Liberace Museum. Dooley, a collector himself, hopes to pick up some of the items but says "It's a shame the collection is going to be broken up."
Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays.
