Dean Martin

Dean Martin was one of those 60s icons who lived in the world of your parents’ music, and he did movies and TV. He had a TV variety show for a while, that was in the late 60s and I remember watching it sometimes.

I remember watching him in a dumb spy movie on late night TV, possibly it was The Silencers. He kicked around Top 40 radio on and off.

He recorded for Capital during the 1950s, and some of those songs made up The Best Of Dean Martin. Then he switched over to Reprise, along with Sinatra and Sammy Davis, and his Reprise hits are on Dean Martin’s Greatest Hits Vol 1 and Dean Martin’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2. Innamorata comes from somewhere else, a cassette of some sort I think, and Too Many Indians comes from the Gentle On My Mind album that I borrowed from some library, and Gentle On My Mind actually comes from the single. Makes no sense? I know. Thank you.

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Dean Martin:

• That’s Amore – This is crazy. When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie… Now that would be a mess. Love as some kind psychotic condition.
• You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You – A hit for composer Russ Morgan. It was the rerecording on Reprise that became the hit. Recorded by The Mills Brothers also.
• Volare (Nel Blu Di Pinto Di Blu) – An English cover of the hit by Domenico Modugno. Dino’s version was also a hit, in the fall of ’58. Bobby Rydell put it back on the chart in 1960.
• It’s Easy To Remember
• Sway – Not the Rolling Stones song. This is a great dancing song, about dancing. Bobby Rydell covered this one too.
• Return To Me – Do people ever really come back? Sometimes, I’m sure, but not as often as the songs would have us believe. From the spring of 1958.
• Memories Are Made Of This – A number 1 hit in January, 1965. Covered by Gale Storm, and by Dino Desi & Billy, presumably with lead vocals by Dino, who happened to be Dean Martin’s own son. This has a stripped down arrangements, guitar, bass, vocal group, which doesn’t seem to go with Dino’s fancy shmancy baritone voice.
• June In January – Is spring better than winter? Yes, I guess, unless this song was recorded in Australia. Love as a manifestation of springtime, whenever it happens.
• Come Back To Sorrento – Sung half in English, half in Italian.
• Just In Time – I wonder what would have happened had she found him a day later…
• I’m Yours – Not the Elvis song. Same idea though.
• Hey Brother Pour The Wine – Let’s drink to celebrate, until everything goes south, then we drink to forget. Could have been a signature song, considering his reputation as a lush, but it wasn’t anyway.
• Innamorata – From the winter of ’56, a really lush ballad. A hit also for Jerry Vale.
• Everybody Loves Somebody – This song kicked off his second career, and became his signature song. It was number 1 in the summer of ’64, the year of The Beatles. It’s not country, but it borrows a heck of a lot from Nashville.
• You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You – This Reprise reprise of the song originally recorded on Capital was a hit in the winter of 1965.
• In The Chapel In The Moonlight – From the summer of ’67. I remember this one, though I couldn’t have put a date on it. A wedding song, also done by The Four Aces and The Bachelors.
• Houston – The first Dean Martin song I ever heard, and so it occupies a special place in my heart. It confused me I remember; the voice seemed out of place on the top 50. From the summer of ’65. And I have never been to Texas
• (Remember Me) I’m The One Who Loves You – I love you and every knows it but you. The singing is jaunty, but there is a sad aspect to this. That he has to remind her, well… Also from ’65, the earlier part of the summer.
• I Can’t Help Remembering You – It’s hard to get over a serious romance I guess.
• Nobody’s Baby Again – It’s not a good thing when a relationship defines who you are. From the fall of ’66.
• Every Minute Every Hour – The title built from the lyrics of Everybody Loves Somebody
• Bumming Around – A rather polite variation of King Of The Road.
• You’ll Always Be The One I Love – A declaration of undying love, an Everybody Loves Somebody redux, again. From the winter of 1966, the flip side of You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You.
• Come Running Back – Return To Me redux, but only lyrically. The music is more in that 60s Reprise groove that all his stuff seemed to be in. From the summer of ’66.
• The Birds And The Bees – This is really a silly pop song, and Dino’s voice is too big. It was a hit for Jewel Akens in early 1965, and a cover version by Rufus And Carla Thomas was what put it up there in the ranks.
• The Door Is Still Open To My Heart – Dino can’t get over his failed romance. He cries even, still hopes to get her back. Not likely I’d say. This was a top 10 hit in the fall of ’64.
• I Will – From late ’65, funny I don’t remember this one. Poor Dino’s been dumped for another dude this time.
• Send Me The Pillow You Dream On – A hit for Johnny Tillotson. Dino put it back on the charts in the spring of ’65. Another song of heartbreak and loss.
• Little Ole Wine Drinker, Me – Now this one I remember; it was from the fall of 1967. Another “character” song for Dino.
• You’ve Still Got A Place In My Heart – Yet another heartbreak song.
• In The Misty Moonlight – This love song from the tail end of 1967 was a hit originally for Jerry Wallace in 1964.
• Lay Some Happiness On Me – I’ll second that… From the spring of 1967.
• (Open Up The Door) Let The Good Times In – A song about attitude, and how to have a good one. From the end of 1966.
• Somewhere There’s A Someone – Yet another rewrite of Everybody Loves Somebody. From the winter of 1966.
• The Glory Of Love – A remake of The Five Keys’ hit from 1954.
• King Of The Road – Dino doesn’t quite pull off this Roger Miller classic; he doesn’t sound much like a tramp…
• Ole Yellow Line – Life on the road, picks up where King Of The Road leaves off, except he’s running away from heartache.
• A Million And One – The number represents teardrops. I’ll take ? & The Mysterians’ 96 Tears.
• Shades – As in sunglasses. They hide the crying eyes, but not the hurt left by the lies.
• Gentle On My Mind – The John Hartford classic, a sort-of hit by Glen Campbell. A UK hit in early 1969. Glen Campbell sound believable, Dino doesn't so much.
• Not Enough Indians – The song uses “Indian” imagery to describe a troubled marriage – “wampum, teepee, squaw.” Totally not PC. And chauvinistic. From the fall of ’68. I actually remember hearing this one on the radio.