Duets with Dino....'nother review of Dean Martin Forever Cool

Hey pallies, found 'nother great review of Dean Martin Forever Cool from our pallies from the north. Some great Dinoinsights here from our Dino's girlpallie Gail. If you would like to read the review in it's original format, just click on the title of this blog post.

Duets with Dino
Martin banters with Spacey, Williams, Stone on latest CD
By CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI The Canadian Press | 6:19 AM

TORONTO — There’s no denying that legendary crooner Dean Martin was the king of cool.

But for his children, the smooth performer with the Vegas persona was just a laid-back golfer who cherished family life, his daughter says as a modern twist on Dean Martin standards hits stores this week.

"Sometimes Uncle Frank (Sinatra) would walk in the door, but mostly dad was just a golfer," Gail Martin, 62, says by phone from Chicago, where her husband is a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

"Dad was really ordinary. For the movie-star type, he was not a movie-star type."

Gail Martin, whose childhood buddies at Beverly Hills High School included Liza Minnelli and Mia Farrow, says her father’s reputation as a boozer was unfounded.

The Rat Pack days of Martin’s

lengthy career tend to dominate many people’s image of him even though it represented a relatively small period of time, says the younger Martin, one of the singer’s eight children.

She says her father would often beg off a night of carousing with Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. in order to make an early tee time.

"He would drink apple juice onstage when they would do that whole (drunk) bit," she says of his reputation for drinking during performances.

"He didn’t stay up late and carouse. When dad was there with Frank and Sammy and they did the whole Rat Pack (thing) . . . he’d hang out with them a little bit but other than that, normally it was no way. He just didn’t want to."

A typical Dean Martin day involved an early round of golf, an afternoon of gin — the card game — and then dinner with the family, she says. Afterwards, they’d just sit around and watch television.

Gail Martin says her father didn’t have to do much to be cool, adding that it was his effortless charm that keeps him popular today.

Joss Stone, Robbie Williams, Martina McBride and actor Kevin Spacey are among the contemporary artists who cite Martin as an influence and an idol on Martin’s latest collection, Forever Cool.

The duets disc features Martin’s classic delivery mixed in with the voices of newer acts, a technological feat previously seen with posthumous releases involving Sinatra and Nat King Cole.

Williams takes on Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone, McBride is on Baby It’s Cold Outside while Stone sings I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me.

Spacey delivers a straight-ahead take on Ain’t That a Kick in the Head and King of the Road, while staging a little faux banter with clips of Martin’s old studio chatter.

"Shut your mouth," Martin is heard saying after Spacey interjects with a comment during their duet on Ain’t That a Kick in the Head.

Other guests include saxophonist Dave Koz, singer Shelby Lynne, trumpeter Chris Botti, and Charles Aznavour, often described as "the Frank

Sinatra of France."

The disc also includes an unreleased a cappella version of Brahms’ Lullaby.

Gail Martin, who was the third of four children Martin had with his first wife, Betty McDonald, says she’s thrilled with how the songs turned out, insisting the project treats the material with reverence.

But Martin, a singer in her own right who appeared on the Dean Martin Show several times in the late ’60s and ’70s and was her father’s opening act in Vegas for a time, admits that one of her favourite renditions of a Martin classic is not on the latest disc.

She says she has a penchant for Canadian crooner Michael Buble’s take on Sway.

Dean Martin, who died Christmas Day 1995, has become such a cultural icon that it’s hard to not be reminded of him constantly, says his daughter.

"He’s never not around," she says.

"I walk down into two or three restaurants and there’s dad’s picture on the wall. Anywhere. I took my daughter to visit colleges and we were in Boston and she said, ‘Look! There’s (a picture of) grandpa.’ I said, ‘Honey, he’s everywhere.’ "

Forever Cool was released on Tuesday.



On the Net:

www.deanmartin.com

www.myspace.com/deanmartinmusic

’Dad was really ordinary. For the movie-star type, he was not a movie-star type.’

GaIL MARTINDean Martin’s daughter