Hey pallies, a dude named Jaime J. Weinman (some of you may recall he is the guy who recently dissed the Dinoblog in a post tagged "Don't Call Me Pallie....." (see our June archives) has recently written a scathin' Dinoreview of the new Dinotrib Dinoalbum, Dean Martin: Forever Cool. I'm callin' on Dinolovers everywhere to write this guy and share your Dinothoughts of what you think of such uncalled for dissin' of our beloved Dino. We can write this guy at jaime.weinman@macleans.rogers.com and give him like a piece of our Dinominds. Below is the post tagged "Why We Love The Slacker Rat Packer." You can also click on the title of this post to go to the orignal article. Thanks for all your support in this Dinocause!!!!!
Why we love the slacker Rat Packer
A new album praises Dean Martin for the very qualities that once held back his career
JAIME J. WEINMAN | August 6, 2007 |
Yes, Dean Martin has a new album out. No, he isn't still alive. The actor / singer / comedian, who died in 1995, is being celebrated with a tribute album called Dean Martin: Forever Cool, in which various singers add their voices to old recordings. You don't even have to be an actual singer to participate, as long as you're willing to say nice things about "Dino"; Kevin Spacey gets two tracks on the album, commenting for a press release that Martin's spirit haunted the recording studio. The Rat Pack nostalgia of a few years ago is starting to wear off, as the producers of Ocean's 13 found out when the box-office returns came in. But it's been replaced by Dean Martin nostalgia. Suddenly we all want to be a crooner who drinks too much and forgets his lines.
It's not just the availability of this album that suggests there's a Dean Martin boom going on. Martin's recording of Ain't That a Kick In the Head, a song that flopped on its initial release, became the centrepiece of a widely seen beer commercial this year. The California city of Rancho Mirage, where Martin once owned a home, renamed a street "Dean Martin Drive" last month in honour of the 90th anniversary of his birth, leaving open the question of what they'll do for the centenary. And Capitol/EMI's 2004 collection, The Essential Dean Martin, scored chart-topping sales for two discs of recycled material. Martin is so popular with today's entertainers that people who never saw him live can easily imitate him; Patrick Williams, the veteran composer-arranger who handled the musical arrangements for Forever Cool, says the artists can "simply imagine they're singing with Dean. With contemporary technology, it feels like he's in the room anyway, so they just go for it."
Continued Below
The irony here is that when the new album celebrates Martin as the "King of Cool," it's praising him for the very qualities that, in his own time, were seen as keeping him out of the front ranks as a singer or actor. Unlike workaholics like his comedy partner Jerry Lewis, Martin had a famously casual attitude to the art of acting and comedy. When he wasn't engaged with the material he got, his performances could be disappointingly sloppy. His singing was known for a lack of commitment: Frank Sinatra could make the audience feel his pain; Martin often didn't convey any emotion except a sort of generic good humour. This view of Martin -- as a guy who had great talent but couldn't exploit it to the fullest -- was summed up on an episode of The Simpsons where Homer dreams he meets Dean Martin in heaven: "Screw you, Dino!" he cries. "You squandered your gifts!"
It was often thought that the reason Martin didn't show a lot of emotion onstage was that he was holding back: Jerry Lewis told film director Peter Bogdanovich (quoted in the book Who the Hell's In It) that Martin's lack of effort came from his lack of confidence about his talent: "Dean could never ever sing and do it with a full heart because he wasn't clear about his worth. He didn't have self-esteem of any kind. So he would kid the singing and he would never allow it ever to get serious so that people would compare him to anybody." Williams doesn't necessarily agree, but he does say that Martin was less intense a singer than the one to whom he's often compared: "I think you could probably name any popular singer of the period and they would be more reticent than Frank Sinatra."
Reticence is the very opposite of what most entertainers convey. But that lack of engagement has caused a new generation to view Martin as a bit more special than other entertainers. John McElwee at greenbriarpictures.blogspot.com wrote that he, and others, love Dean Martin because "the guy didn't do needy. Never. Not with anybody. And most of us think that's cool. Because we don't want to be needy either." Most entertainers crave the love of the audience; Dean Martin didn't seem like he cared as much, and because of that, he became an ancestor of modern entertainers who portray themselves as too cool to care what you think.
Of course, when today's entertainers act like they don't care, it's just an act -- but it might have been an act for Martin, too, just like he famously pretended to drink more than he really did. An album like Forever Cool celebrates the idea that the public likes an entertainer who plays hard to get: the Rat Pack craze may be over, but slightly lazy performers everywhere can still turn to Dean Martin for inspiration.
Print Article Send to a Friend Write a letter to the editor
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Dean Martin: Forever Cool Dinosamples at Amazon
Hey pallies, like click on the title of this post to go to Amazon where you can hear samples of all the songs from the great new Dinotrib Dinoalbum, Dean Martin: Forever Cool. Remember that release day is Tuesday, August 14....this is one dude who can hardly wait to get the Dinoalbum with the DVD!!!! And, pallies, you can now also view the great Dinoteaser Dinovid at Amazon as Dinowell!
Friday, August 03, 2007
Dean Martin -- Forever Cool Tease
Hey pallies, I noticed that the last copy of this clip was not workin' Dinoproperly, so thought I'd post the youtube version!
Video Teaser: Making of "Dean Martin" Forever Cool
Hey pallies, here it is a short video teaser of the makin' of the new Dinotrib Dinoalbum, "Dean Martin: Forever Cool." Dude's this is coolness at it's Dinoperfection!!!! Enjoy all my Dinoholic pallies!
Thursday, August 02, 2007
History of Dean Martin's Song "That's Amore"
When the moon hits your eye like a bigga pizza pie...
That's Amore! Joe Queenan investigates the origins of Dean Martin's cheesy hit
Thursday July 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Rare is the music buff who feels a need to question the genesis of a song containing the lyrics: "When the stars make you drool, just like pasta fazool." Like dental floss, Belgium or, for that matter, pasta, such songs are viewed as frothy confections that slip into existence, amoeba-style, at some juncture and hang around forever - in gangster movies, in commercials, in films starring Cher - without anyone ever devoting much time to a comprehensive investigation of their origins.
Unlike Pachelbel's Canon or Hot Legs, works intimately identified with those who wrote them, a tune like That's Amore or How Much Is That Doggie in the Window? usually has very little stature independent of the artist who made it famous. Much like oxygen, leotards or vodka, songs such as That's Amore! are viewed with great affection, but nobody really cares where they come from. It is enough that they are here. Perhaps, more than enough.
Be that as it may, That's Amore has a fascinating back story. Cooked up by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Jack Brooks in 1952, the song was written for the film The Caddy, starring Dean Martin (né Dino Crocetti). Martin at the time was the straight man in an enormously popular comedy team, partnering with the infantile, almost cretinous Jerry Lewis, his co-star in The Caddy. Martin and Lewis would later split up in, launching the longest-running, least-explicable feud in American show biz history.
At the time of the rupture, it was generally assumed that Lewis would become a huge star all on his own (which he did, after a fashion) and that Martin would gradually fade away into the woodwork. Martin flummoxed the naysayers by developing a winning alter-ego as the affable, slightly pickled playboy who forever played sidekick to Frank Sinatra in the Rat Pack. He went on to a remarkable career as a singer, actor and TV variety show host, though his songs have outlived his films. Taller, better-looking and far more likable than Sinatra, Martin radiated a tipsy urban suaveness that failed lushes of all ages envied, in part because, unlike calculating postmodern hipsters, Martin did not seem to be faking it. It is not going too far to say that to this day Martin is viewed by his countrymen as one of the most beloved Americans to ever draw breath.
That's Amore was recorded in Martin's pre-suave era. A charming, if goofy, parody of popular Neapolitan organ-grinder music, That's Amore was one of many songs from the early Fifties that helped rehabilitate Italy's image as a land of magic and romance that had somehow been lured from its festive moorings by the glum fascist Benito Mussolini. No one ever tried to do this with Germany. There is no evidence that the man who wrote the music for That's Amore went out of his way to let people know that this was the fruit of his labours. This is hardly surprising, since the brilliant but somewhat overlooked Warren had spent most of his career co-writing sophisticated material with titans ranging from Ira Gershwin to Johnny Mercer. The fact that he was now churning out cheesy novelty songs like That's Amore was a pretty good indication that his glory days were behind him
Warren, over a career that spanned three decades, composed more than 700 songs, including the music for 42nd Street, Lullaby of Broadway, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, You'll Never Know and September in the Rain. A regular collaborator with the legendary producer Busby Berkeley, Warren won the Oscar for best original tune three times in the 1930s. It is worth noting, however, that since Warren had also supplied the tune for such hits as Chattanooga Choo-Choo and Jeepers-Creepers, he was not entirely a stranger to mundus schmaltzibus. Nor was his name reallyHarry Warren; it was Salvatore Antonio Guaranga.
Jack Brooks, who wrote the words for That's Amore, had a less illustrious career. His second-most-famous song is Ole Buttermilk Sky, which he wrote with Hoagy Carmichael (Georgia on My Mind, Stardust). It is no longer clear what an ole buttermilk sky is. For the longest time, it was assumed that Warren and Brooks simply went about their business and wrote their song for the movie, and that was that. But in his 2005 tell-all Dean & Me (A Love Story) published 10 years after Martin's death, Jerry Lewis reported that he secretly took $30,000 - a Croesian sum today - out of his own pocket and paid Warren and Brooks to write the song because he felt sorry for his partner. The way Lewis recalls it, Martin had recorded a few small hits in the early Fifties, but desperately craved a breakthrough chartbuster. Lewis thereupon made a clandestine visit to the songwriting team and said, "I need a hit for Dean." At which point, they obligingly wrote That's Amore. And just like that, Dean Martin had his monster hit.
In the book, Lewis asserted that although he felt like a "martyr" for suppressing the truth about the song's origins, he never told his partner that he had personally assured his mammoth success by going to two songwriters and declaring, "I need a hit for Dean," apparently because he was afraid it would hurt Martin's feelings. Nor does he ever explain why he did not subsequently go back to the songwriting team and say, "That was great, fellas. Now, since songwriting seems to be such a snap, I need another hit for Dean."
Despite its renown, That's Amore never reached No 1 on the US charts. The song it could not dislodge was Vaya Con Dios, performed by Les Paul and Mary Ford. The Gibson Les Paul model, the most famous guitar in the world, was designed, unsurprisingly, by Les Paul. Mr Paul is still performing in Manhattan clubs at the age of 92. Ironically, it was Dean Martin's Everybody Loves Somebody that knocked the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night out of the No 1 slot on the US charts in 1964. A Hard Day's Night was written by two natives of Liverpool, one named Paul. Scant weeks before the Titanic sank, Jack Brooks was born in Liverpool.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
That's Amore! Joe Queenan investigates the origins of Dean Martin's cheesy hit
Thursday July 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Rare is the music buff who feels a need to question the genesis of a song containing the lyrics: "When the stars make you drool, just like pasta fazool." Like dental floss, Belgium or, for that matter, pasta, such songs are viewed as frothy confections that slip into existence, amoeba-style, at some juncture and hang around forever - in gangster movies, in commercials, in films starring Cher - without anyone ever devoting much time to a comprehensive investigation of their origins.
Unlike Pachelbel's Canon or Hot Legs, works intimately identified with those who wrote them, a tune like That's Amore or How Much Is That Doggie in the Window? usually has very little stature independent of the artist who made it famous. Much like oxygen, leotards or vodka, songs such as That's Amore! are viewed with great affection, but nobody really cares where they come from. It is enough that they are here. Perhaps, more than enough.
Be that as it may, That's Amore has a fascinating back story. Cooked up by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Jack Brooks in 1952, the song was written for the film The Caddy, starring Dean Martin (né Dino Crocetti). Martin at the time was the straight man in an enormously popular comedy team, partnering with the infantile, almost cretinous Jerry Lewis, his co-star in The Caddy. Martin and Lewis would later split up in, launching the longest-running, least-explicable feud in American show biz history.
At the time of the rupture, it was generally assumed that Lewis would become a huge star all on his own (which he did, after a fashion) and that Martin would gradually fade away into the woodwork. Martin flummoxed the naysayers by developing a winning alter-ego as the affable, slightly pickled playboy who forever played sidekick to Frank Sinatra in the Rat Pack. He went on to a remarkable career as a singer, actor and TV variety show host, though his songs have outlived his films. Taller, better-looking and far more likable than Sinatra, Martin radiated a tipsy urban suaveness that failed lushes of all ages envied, in part because, unlike calculating postmodern hipsters, Martin did not seem to be faking it. It is not going too far to say that to this day Martin is viewed by his countrymen as one of the most beloved Americans to ever draw breath.
That's Amore was recorded in Martin's pre-suave era. A charming, if goofy, parody of popular Neapolitan organ-grinder music, That's Amore was one of many songs from the early Fifties that helped rehabilitate Italy's image as a land of magic and romance that had somehow been lured from its festive moorings by the glum fascist Benito Mussolini. No one ever tried to do this with Germany. There is no evidence that the man who wrote the music for That's Amore went out of his way to let people know that this was the fruit of his labours. This is hardly surprising, since the brilliant but somewhat overlooked Warren had spent most of his career co-writing sophisticated material with titans ranging from Ira Gershwin to Johnny Mercer. The fact that he was now churning out cheesy novelty songs like That's Amore was a pretty good indication that his glory days were behind him
Warren, over a career that spanned three decades, composed more than 700 songs, including the music for 42nd Street, Lullaby of Broadway, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, You'll Never Know and September in the Rain. A regular collaborator with the legendary producer Busby Berkeley, Warren won the Oscar for best original tune three times in the 1930s. It is worth noting, however, that since Warren had also supplied the tune for such hits as Chattanooga Choo-Choo and Jeepers-Creepers, he was not entirely a stranger to mundus schmaltzibus. Nor was his name reallyHarry Warren; it was Salvatore Antonio Guaranga.
Jack Brooks, who wrote the words for That's Amore, had a less illustrious career. His second-most-famous song is Ole Buttermilk Sky, which he wrote with Hoagy Carmichael (Georgia on My Mind, Stardust). It is no longer clear what an ole buttermilk sky is. For the longest time, it was assumed that Warren and Brooks simply went about their business and wrote their song for the movie, and that was that. But in his 2005 tell-all Dean & Me (A Love Story) published 10 years after Martin's death, Jerry Lewis reported that he secretly took $30,000 - a Croesian sum today - out of his own pocket and paid Warren and Brooks to write the song because he felt sorry for his partner. The way Lewis recalls it, Martin had recorded a few small hits in the early Fifties, but desperately craved a breakthrough chartbuster. Lewis thereupon made a clandestine visit to the songwriting team and said, "I need a hit for Dean." At which point, they obligingly wrote That's Amore. And just like that, Dean Martin had his monster hit.
In the book, Lewis asserted that although he felt like a "martyr" for suppressing the truth about the song's origins, he never told his partner that he had personally assured his mammoth success by going to two songwriters and declaring, "I need a hit for Dean," apparently because he was afraid it would hurt Martin's feelings. Nor does he ever explain why he did not subsequently go back to the songwriting team and say, "That was great, fellas. Now, since songwriting seems to be such a snap, I need another hit for Dean."
Despite its renown, That's Amore never reached No 1 on the US charts. The song it could not dislodge was Vaya Con Dios, performed by Les Paul and Mary Ford. The Gibson Les Paul model, the most famous guitar in the world, was designed, unsurprisingly, by Les Paul. Mr Paul is still performing in Manhattan clubs at the age of 92. Ironically, it was Dean Martin's Everybody Loves Somebody that knocked the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night out of the No 1 slot on the US charts in 1964. A Hard Day's Night was written by two natives of Liverpool, one named Paul. Scant weeks before the Titanic sank, Jack Brooks was born in Liverpool.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Dean Martin: Forever Cool Previews Now Available!
Hey pallies, just wanted to let all you Dinoholics know that 4 tracks from the stellar new Dinotrib Dinoalbum bein' released on August 14 are now available for your Dinolistenin' pleasure at the offical Dino myspace music site. Just click on the title of this post and start groovin' to the sounds of Dino and company. The four songs are "Ain't That A Kick In The Head," with Kevin Spacey, "Arriverderci Roma," featurin' Tiziano Ferro,, "Who's Got The Action," with Big Voodoo Daddy, and "Baby O," featurin' Paris Bennett.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Golddiggers Supersite
Hey pallies, like dudes there is a great new site on the web that is devoted to our Dino and the girls that surrounded him on the Dinoshow, variously called "Dean's Girls, The Golddiggers, and The Ding-aling Sisters. Click on the title of this Dinopost and you will enter a Dinowonderland of Dinopixs and Dinocommentary on the cuties that sang and played with our King of Cool during the nine year run of the Dinoshow, plus the Golddiggers were also a Summer replacement series for several of those years as well. Hope you enjoy minin' the Dinogold at this great new Dinolocation!
Friday, July 27, 2007
DEAN MARTIN POLL FOR YOUR DINO-OPINION
Hey pallies, just click on the title of this Dinopost to go to the offical Dino myspace music site where you will find a Dinopoll inquirin' which Dinoproduct you would most Dinodesire to acquire. Looks like the pallies at EMI on gettin' on the Dinoball and preparin' to launch a series of Dinotrib Dinoitems so that we can make our Dinodevotion much more Dinopublic....now how cool is that. So wander on over to the Dino myspace music site and make your Dinointerests known!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
martin_lewis_tape_1952
Hey pallies, like what a great pix of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in quite a tangle of tape......never was, never will be any comedy duo as great as Dino and the jer!
The Filthy "Caddy" Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Outtake
Hey pallies, here's the real Dino and the jer in outtakes from "The Caddy" promo....for mature audiences only.
Rememberin' Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Crooner Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis staged their first show as a team this day in 1946 at Club 500 in Atlantic City, NJ. Actually, the two had met while performing -- separately -- at the Glass Hat in New York City and decided to try an ad-lib act together. The rest is entertainment history.
The duo went from earning $350 a week to $5,000 a week in under eight months, with Martin playing the romantic straight man opposite Lewis as his goofy, unpredictable partner. Ten years later, the curtain came down on their final team performance at the Copacabana in New York. Over that decade, the zany two made seventeen movies including My Friend Irma, That’s My Boy, The Caddy, Pardners, Jumping Jacks and The Stooge.
Dean Martin went on to become a recording star (Memories are Made of This, Return to Me, Everybody Loves Somebody), movie star (The Young Lions, Rio Bravo, Sons of Katie Elder, the Matt Helm series) and host of his own TV variety show, The Dean Martin Show. Lewis pursued a solo career in Hollywood as comic lead (The Sad Sack, Cinderfella, The Nutty Professor); director (The Bellboy, The Errand Boy, The Patsy, Family Jewels, Which Way to the Front); producer; teacher (USC); and consummate entertainer. It would take 20 years for the two to speak publicly with each other again.
Martin died December 25, 1995. Lewis continues to set records in fund-raising during his annual Stars Across America! Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (he has been chairman of the MDA since 1950). The Las Vegas resident continues to make nightclub appearances and returned to the stage in the Broadway revival production of Damn Yankees in 1996. Critics called his performance as the Devil, a rip-roaring success. This commentary courtesy of the web site Capitol Hill Blue.
The duo went from earning $350 a week to $5,000 a week in under eight months, with Martin playing the romantic straight man opposite Lewis as his goofy, unpredictable partner. Ten years later, the curtain came down on their final team performance at the Copacabana in New York. Over that decade, the zany two made seventeen movies including My Friend Irma, That’s My Boy, The Caddy, Pardners, Jumping Jacks and The Stooge.
Dean Martin went on to become a recording star (Memories are Made of This, Return to Me, Everybody Loves Somebody), movie star (The Young Lions, Rio Bravo, Sons of Katie Elder, the Matt Helm series) and host of his own TV variety show, The Dean Martin Show. Lewis pursued a solo career in Hollywood as comic lead (The Sad Sack, Cinderfella, The Nutty Professor); director (The Bellboy, The Errand Boy, The Patsy, Family Jewels, Which Way to the Front); producer; teacher (USC); and consummate entertainer. It would take 20 years for the two to speak publicly with each other again.
Martin died December 25, 1995. Lewis continues to set records in fund-raising during his annual Stars Across America! Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (he has been chairman of the MDA since 1950). The Las Vegas resident continues to make nightclub appearances and returned to the stage in the Broadway revival production of Damn Yankees in 1996. Critics called his performance as the Devil, a rip-roaring success. This commentary courtesy of the web site Capitol Hill Blue.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
195x.xx.xx Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, Unknown City, USA
Hey pallies, don't Dino and the jer look like they're havin' fun? Rememberin' the greatest comic team that ever was!
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Hey pallies, here's a fun Dino and the jer pix in rembrance of their joinin' and splittin' up....July 25, 1946 through July 24, 1956.
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Tribute Video
Hey pallies, like for some crazy Dinoreason, I just can't get this Dinovid to transfer from youtube to the ol' Dinoblog, so just click on the title of this blog post to see a great clip of our Dino and the jer singin' "Side By Side" with wonderful footage from their 10 years together. It was on this date in 1956 that Dino ended his partnership with the jer, which began on July 25, 1946. The Dino and jer team lasted exactly 10 years....now how cool is that, but then our Dino does everythin' so Dinoperfectly!
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Reel #1
Hey pallies, here's some more great footage of our Dino and the jer in honor of their beginnin' and endin'.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Dean Martin Dinoproofs
Hey pallies, this looks like proofs for the Dinotrib....Dean Martin: Forever Cool......they may reject the proofs for their poor quality, but they will never reject our Dino.....truly Dinoperfect in every Dinoway!!!! So lookin' forward to the August 14 release of this great new Dinoproject!
Dean Martin: I'm Not The Marrying Kind"
Hey pallies, here's that charmin' Dinosong that our King of Cool sang in the great Matt Helm caper "Murder's Row."
Thursday, July 12, 2007
YOU THINK YOU HAVE DEAN MARTIN COOL?
Hey pallies, found this posted at myspace from the official Dean Martin web site. Pallies, like just click on the title to take the quiz....I'm off to do it now! Let's find out how Dinocool we each are!!!!!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Mr. Helm Goes To Hollywood
Hey pallies a dude named Matthew R. Bradley has written a way cool article 'bout our Dino's Matt Helm flicks for a mag tagged "Cinema Retro". Do hope you will enjoy this very Dinoinformative and Dinoenlightin' piece of Dinoliterature....and pallies check out all the great Matt Helm pixs that are included is this groovy Dinoprose. All ya need to do pallies is just click on the title of this blog post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)