Dean Martin was about as famous as is humanly possible.

Hey pallies, likes today ilovedinomartin shares with you 'nother blogger who has deep, pure, and true appreciato for our great man's great country sound.  Prosed by Mr. Paul W. Dennis at the country music blog he shares with a few other pallies, "Fellow Travelers: Dean Martin" is part of a series of scribin's 'bout musical artistes, "who, although not country artists, were of some importance to country music."

Mr. Dennis speaks in general 'bout our most beloved Dino's career, likes showin' such depth of Dino-devotion when he sez, "Dean Martin was about as famous as is humanly possible."  Likes nobody and likes ilovedinomartin means nobody was or ever will have the depth of famehood as our Dino!  And, then Paul goes on to share the depth of our Dino's country music connects 'specially durin' our great man's recordin's for the great Reprise label.

And, likes gotta 'fess up dudes that ilovedinomartin was most surprised and of course hugely hugely flattered that Mr. Dennis at the end of his Dino-reflections gave generous words of affirmation to our humble little Dino-blog by sayin',  "There is an official website but for more than anybody would likely ever want to know about Dean check out ilovedinomartin."

ilovedinomartin shared our most Dino-hearted appreciato to Mr. Paul W. Dennis for his well crafted prose on our most beloved Dino's gift for croonin' country and for givin' a noble nod to ilovedinomartin.  To checks this out in it's original format, simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-report.  Dinopsyched, DMP





My Kind Of CountryCountry music from a fan's point of view.

Fellow Travelers: Dean Martin

 Posted by Paul W. Dennis on June 25, 2013

This is the fourth in a series of short articles about artists who, although not country artists, were of some importance to country music.



WHO WAS HE?
If Michael Jackson was the King of Pop (which I doubt) then Dean Martin was the King of Cool, a suave urbane singer and actor, one of the two leaders (Frank Sinatra was the other) of the “Rat Pack” . Born in Steubenville, Ohio in 1917 as Dino Crocetti, Dean Martin was about as famous as is humanly possible.

Dean’s career in show business was delayed by a stint in the US Army during WW2. After being released from the US Army (he was drafted in 1944), Dean became a lounge singer on the east coast. At some point he met up with Jerry Lewis and the pair became a duo singing (mostly Dean) and comedy (mostly Jerry) for sellout crowds across the nation. The Martin-Lewis duo also made several successful motion pictures. During this period Dean had a number of hit records as a solo performer including “That’s Amore” (#2 – 1953) and “Memories Are Made of This (#1 – 1955)

Going solo in 1956, Dean recorded a number of successful records. Although rock and roll had largely wiped out the market for classic pop, Martin persevered. “Volare” went to #12 in 1958; then after a dry spell, Dean signed with his pal Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label in 1961. A few singles had minor success; then someone had the notion to recast a song on the acoustic Dream With Dean album using a big band arrangement. To the surprise of everyone, “Everybody Loves Somebody“ nudged The Beatles out of the #1 slot on August 15, 1964. The song stayed at #1 for one week on the pop chart and eight weeks on the adult contemporary chart. While Dean never again had another #1 pop hit, his songs continued to chart on the pop charts and five more reached #1 on the adult contemporary charts (“The Door Is Still Open To My Heart”, “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You”, “In The Chapel In The Moonlight” and “In The Misty Moonlight”). Another fifteen songs reached the top ten on the adult contemporary charts after 1964, including his 1969 recording of “Gentle On My Mind” which reached #2 on the British pop charts and stayed in the top ten there for many weeks.

In 1965 NBC TV launched The Dean Martin Show, a musical variety show which ran for nine seasons and 264 episodes. Although the genre was already largely dead, Dean’s show was in the top twenty-five shows for five of its nine seasons and in the top ten for two of those seasons. After this show was off the air, NBC ran occasional celebrity roasts under the title The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast for another ten years, approximately three times per year.

Dean also had great success in motion pictures appearing in a number of successful westerns and starring in the Matt Helms series of spy movie spoofs.

WHAT WAS HIS CONNECTION TO COUNTRY MUSIC?
Although Dean only had one recording chart on Billboard’s country charts, a 1983 recording of “My First Country Song” which was written by Conway Twitty and featured a guest vocal by Twitty on the last chorus, Dean Martin recorded many country songs, introducing them to audiences which would otherwise been unaware of them. Reprise albums such as Dean “Tex” Martin: Country Style, and Dean “Tex” Martin Rides Again were at least 50% country songs, and most subsequent albums prominently featured country songs, with six straight albums being named for a country song contained within the album. Many of Dean’s recordings were covered by country singers, Charlie Walker enjoying a big hit with “Little Ole Wine Drinker Me”.

Dean’s son Dino (of Dino, Desi & Billy fame) died in a plane crash in 1987, completely killing off Dean’s interest in performing, and life in general. Dean died in 1995. All of his Capitol and Reprise recordings have been in print at some time during the last fifteen years. Nearly eighteen years after his death, he is still the King of Cool.

There is an official website but for more than anybody would likely ever want to know about Dean check out ilovedinomartin.