I’m not even sure how to explain my love of Dean Martin.

Hey pallies, likes ilovedinomartin loves to feature every type and stripe of Dino-devotion found on the ol' 'net, but faithful readers of this blog know that our most fav of fav Dino-sharin's are the coolest of cool combo of Dino-adulation accentin' the terrific tons of today's youth bein' drawn into the Dino-fold as well as the incredibly international nature of devoted  Dino-adulation.

Likes, once 'gain this very Dino-day we gets to shares with you yet 'nother touchin' 'n tender testimonal of awesome amore of our Dino from the blog tagged "JUSTSTORIESINTHEENDBLOG," where Miss Chelsea O'Connell holds forth.  Miss Chelsea describes herself as  "A 20 something nerd just trying to find her way in life and figure everything out."   By lookin' at the image of Miss O'Connell standin' outside a "Police Public Call Box," we woulda venture a guess that she hails somewhere from the British Isles.  Sorry that we couldn't get a better copy of her pix, but you can see a clear version  HERE.

Miss Chelsea's potent post, "Musical March: Everybody loves somebody," is a marvelous mixture of powerful prose and greast gif pixs 'long with a youtube vid of our most beloved Dino croonin'   "Volare"  and  "An Evening in Roma."  We loves readin' how she came to first know our Dino and how she has grown through the years in her Dino-delight....just the sort of wonderfully wise words that always always warms our Dino-hearts.

We solemnly salutes Miss Chelsea O'Connell and thank her ever so much for proudly proclaimin' "my love of Dean Martin.  We are sure her efforts will bring many more of today's youth into knowin', lovin' and honorin' our one and only Dino.  To checks this out in it's original source, likes simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-gram.

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters

MARCH 7, 2017 BY JUSTSTORIESINTHEENDBLOG

Musical March: Everybody loves somebody

I mentioned last post that the music of the sixties was pretty great. Well I really meant that it’s kind of my favorite decade music wise and a little know secret of mine is my love for this man.

I’m not even sure how to explain my love of Dean Martin. I guess it kind of started with my mom’s love of Frank Sinatra and the amount of my childhood that was spent begrudgingly listening to him. (If it was her intention to brainwash me into liking him as well it worked, because I love him as well.) Then when she got this live album of the Rat Pack and I heard Dean the first time, I guess I was just so intrigued I got hooked.

I may have started this off talking about the sixties, but Dino’s been big since the 40’s and stayed on his smokey high until the very end. Yet, when one thinks of him they think most likely think of the late 50’s to early 60’s.

So compared to other crooners and more specifically the other members of the Rat Pack, why Dean? Is it because of his roguish good looks, his charismatic stage presence or his hilarious antics? Yes, yes it is all of that. Yet it may be more so that he is Italian. Now you say, but so was Frank. Yes but Dean sang in Italian! (As I’m just now aware because I looked it up to make sure I wasn’t lying, Frank has sang songs with Italian in them, but they are no where near as popular as Dean’s songs)

Dean Martin was the first experience I’d had with bilingual music. I’d heard some older songs that had Spanish (namely La Bamba and Feliz Navidad) but they were just in Spanish and honestly I to this day have no idea what La Bamba is actually about. But what Dean did was mix Italian with English so that you had that exotic flare but still knew what the song was about. Honestly I believe that it may have contributed to my love of languages and my desire to learn as many as I possibly can before I kick the bucket.

One of my other favorite things about Dean is his relationship with the rest of the Rat Pack. It kind of reminds me of my relationship with my two best friends in which I’m definitely the Dean of the group. (Which is ironic because I’m the only one who doesn’t drink (Can one really be a sober Dean Martin) he’s the funny one, the one that always tries to make you laugh and feel better. ( I honestly can’t tell you who’s who with the other two but I’m sure it works out some way)

I love this smooth voiced, drunken Italian man for all of this and much more. To continue would take a lifetime and I only have a month. But whenever I’m feeling blue, Dean Martin will always be there to put a smile on my face.

Á bientôt 

THAT DEAN MARTIN MAGIC

Hey pallies, likes recently while tryin' to play catch up with a month or so of blog posts accentin' our most beloved Dino after bein' away for some time here at ilovedinomartin, we discovered  a fantastically fun potent post from the blog "Blue Sky Prose, And Stuff!," usin' the beautiful blog search engine, "Twingly Advanced Blog Search."  Likes the post "THAT DEAN MARTIN MAGIC" rang a bell with us and we discovered that we had shared it here before on July 21, 2015 and that it can be found  HERE in our ilovedinomartin archives.

That that time we musta thought that the scriber tagged "nigel-a was a she, but by the potent pose 'bove it is a he, and so right off the bat, ilovedinomartin expresses it regret for such an error.  We ain't sure how the error occured, but, of course, we accept full responsibility for the mistake and are pleased to be able to repost nigel-a's Dino-adulation in the from of "an interview ( which might have taken place in my dreams ) at the Sands, Las Vegas, in 1969."

Likes, likes what fun it is to read his marvelously magical "interview" with our main man.  We gotta 'fess up that he is likes better then us in doin' the Dino-lingo and we are gonna have to keeps tryin' to learn from nigel-a's effortless way of speakin' the Dino-language.   And, likes this repost returns   a fine variety of Dino-poses to awesomely accent his Dino-prose.

We always always  absolutely loves findin' and sharin' Dino-devotion that continues to show the internationale nature of Dino-passion, and as nigel-a hails from the United Kingdom this powerful post qualifies as bein' internationale!   Nigel-a's extraordinary efforts are so so coolly creative, makin for a real Dino-treat for Dino-philes everywhere!  We sez our deepest of deep Dino-thanks to Mr. nigel-a for boldly and beautifully professin' his awesome appreciato of our Dino with their readership.  To checks this out in it's original source, simply, as usual, clicks on the tag of this here Dino-gram.

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters


THAT DEAN MARTIN MAGIC

Notes from an interview that I seem to remember having with Mr Dean Martin ( possibly only in my dreams ) at the Sands, Las Vegas, in 1969.


Tell me, Dean, may I call you Dean ? ...

 Sure yuh can, kid, waddaya wanna know ?

... when you ran with the Pack why did you allow Sinatra to dominate the group when everyone could tell you had by far the strongest personality ?  

Oh, don't yuh lissen to gossip, kid.  Frank was the King in them days.  I just hung around for the girls.  Gee, those gals ... legs goin' on for ever.  And, boy, could they drink !

But you fell out with him.  I read you refused to perform in a Chicago club where he had Mob connections.  Didn't Sinatra cut you dead for a long time afterwards ?

Now yuh shouldn't lissen to those stories, they ain't true.  But supposin' they were ... so what if Frank didn't ring me for six years, so what if the old bastard cut me dead in public.  Frank was the King, an we all wanned it that way.

One last question, Dean.  Do you believe Sinatra envied your considerable stage presence and that's why he favoured Sammy Davis ... that he felt more comfortable with Sammy paying him court than with you who wouldn't ?

Now that's an interesting thought. Wud yuh like a drink, kid ?  I think this could be a long evenin'.

  Psst.....Seamus, d'ye tink this story's true ?  

Jaysus, Michael, how'd I  know.   

But, Seamus, it could be true, couldn't it ?  

Yes, an' I might be the King o' the Fairies !  

[  Written originally on 2/12/2012, now with pictures restored ]

 Hey pallies, likes our Dino-bro of Dino-bros is at it 'gain dudes!  On this first day of a new Dino-week, March 6,  2017 to be precise, as we move ever coolly closer 'n closer to the hundredth anniversary of our Dino's blessed birth, we shares with you our Danny-o's discovery of what he sez is a "Cool pic I never seen," indeed is is a incredible image that we ain't set our eyes on before either.

Posted by Mr. Liam Carter at his blog tagged  "Making Histolines," the "cool pic" is a candid of our most beloved Dino havin' his pallie of pallies, Mr. Frank Sinatra sittin' on his lap durin' the filmin' of one of our Dino's swank sex farces, "Marriage On The Rocks."  Likes wouldn't it be so so amazin'ly awesome to have been on the set of this fab flick to see our Dino and Mr. Sinatra horse playin' 'round?!?!?!?!

We thanks our Dino-devoted pallie Danny-o for findin' and sharin' this evocatively provocative Dino-pose with all us Dino-holics here at ilovedinomartin.  To checks this out in it's original source, likes simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-report.

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters

Frank Sinatra sitting on Dean Martin’s lap while on the set of 1965’s “Marriage on the Rocks”

Posted by Liam Carter

Danny G's Sunday Serenade with Dino: "Cha Cha Cha D'Amour"

Hey there, pallies!

What's shakin', on this CHILLY March day?

Hopefully not youse! Haha!!

Wee bit cold 'round here.

No problemo though, pallies. It's almost SPRING!!!

Don't even matter if it's warm 'nough.

Don't even matter if it's rainin'!

 For me...it's a state of mind, mi amici. 

Now I don't know 'bout youse guys & gals...but...to me...there simply ain't NO better time of year than Spring! 

It's a time of new beginnin's!

A chance to start fresh!

Hey, pals...I can ALWAYS use a fresh start! Haha!!

Snow is gone...for now anyway.

Birds are slowly startin' to sing!

Man o man , my friends...I cants' help but get SO SO excited!!!

We needs a jumpy little Dino-jam to shake off these wintery chills & gets our pre-Spring blood flowin'!

I'm thinkin' all this Cha cha cha-in' we's been doin'...will be PERFECTO for this week's Serenade!

Let's keep those dancey latin beats thumpin' & get our sleepy wintery hearts back to pumpin'! Ha!

A BIG...JUICY...EXTRA SPICY dose of "Cha Cha Cha D'Amour" should wake youse up! Haha!!

Turn this one WAAAYYY up, pallies!

It's time to cha cha with Dino! Hahaha!!!

I Found a COOL COOL vid, too. VERY nice pics.

This should get thins' shakin'.

Hey, baby...that's how we like it, ol' pals o' mine...shaken, not stirred!

Let's go!!! 

Cha cha cha d'amour
Take this song to my lover
Shoo shoo little bird
Go and find my love

Cha cha cha d'amour
Serenade at her window
Shoo shoo little bird
Sing my song of love

Tell her I will wait
But if she names the date
Tell her that I care
More than I can bear

When we are apart
How it hurts my heart
So fly away oh fly away
And say I hope and pray
This lover's melody will bring her back to me

Cha cha cha d'amour
Take this song to my lover
Shoo shoo little bird
Go and find my love

Cha cha cha d'amour
Serenade at her window
Shoo shoo little bird
Sing my song of love
Shoo shoo little bird
Tell her of my love

"DEAN MARTIN: A REFLECTION" Now Available For Purchase

Hey pallies, likes a few 'go we went on over to Amazon to see what has been recently released  in the way of Dino-treasure and we were totally total thrilled that one of the most most marvelously fantastically fantastic Dino-documentaries previously unreleased on dvd,  that we have been completely cravin' havin' for our very own for so so long,  has finally been released for sale to the masses of Dino-holics everywhere.

On February 10th, the delightful documentary "Dean Martin A Reflection," which we have shared the youtube vid of on a couple of occasions,  HERE and  HERE, is now available to own personal copies of, and at a fair price as well.   Originally created for the Brit small screen in 2006, it's a fantastic feast of our Dino's performances with tons of patter on the facts and figures of Dino-history.

Likes this is one deeply devoted  documentary for Dino-philes everwhere who are  hungry for growin' deeper, purer, and truer in their passion for our Dino.  We so so love how the folks that put together this wonderful package have worded their devotion......"The  Story  of the Man they simply called "Dino..." His Life, His Way, His Performance."

Likes this is a purely powerful primer for those new to our most beloved Dino as well as seasons Dino-philes, and likes everyone else in between!   Narrated by Mr. Duncan Wells, edited by Mr. James Wotson,and produced by the pallies at  CRASE, this powerful production is over 70 minutes in length and includes parts of recorded interviews with our one and only Dino.

Below is the youtube vid of "DEAN MARTIN: A REFLECTION," which we are most grateful is still up on youtube 'long with a listin' of the Dino-croons included in this production.  We trust that many of Dino-devotees likes us are goin' to want to put their orders in to make this part of their personal Dino-collections.  A couple of days 'go we put our own order into a local store and can't wait to get our hot little Dino-hands on it.  To checks out the details that we found at Amazon, simply clicks on the tag of this Dino-gram.

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters







An informative documentary of Dean Martin, one of the most talented performers of his time. He grew up in Ohio and became a star performer, became a member of the infamous Rat Pack, was part of the successful comedy duo with Jerry Lewis and was a charismatic performer. This documentary features some of his best live performances.
Narrated by Duncan Wells, edited by James Wotson and produced by CRACE.

1. Everybody Loves Somebody
2. You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby
3. King of the Road
4. Mambo Italiano
5. Paper Doll - The Mills Brothers
6. That's Amore
7. Carolina in the Morning
8. Almost Like Being in Love
9. You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
10. You Made Me Love You
11. Volare / Evening in Roma
12. Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On
13. Birth Of The Blues - The Rat Pack
14. The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else) - with Frank Sinatra
15. One For My Baby And One More For The Road
16. You Do Something to Me - With Frank Sinatra & Judy Garland
17. Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes
18. Pennies From Heaven
19. Let There Be Love / You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You - With Frank & Judy
20. There Goes My Heart
21. Memories Are Made Of This

..... invited to write a guest post by the ilovedinomartin blog!

Hey pallies, likes as we coolly continue Dino-admiration at ilovedinomartin, we one more time return to our newest pallie of pallies, Miss Tejaswini Apte-Rahm‏  and her instagram account postin' awesomely announcin' her special swank scribin's for ilovedinomartin in stellar support of her short story tagged "The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin, " included in her new tome of short stories, "These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape."

Likes once 'gain Miss Tejaswini is wisely usin' social media to get word out 'bout her creative efforts hopin' to make more and more folks aware of her written efforts, but also surely drawin' many many more pallie from 'round the globe into the Dino-fold, and helpin' ilovedinomartin get discovered by a ton more of pallies as well.  Likes, there's an old old sayin' that one good turn deserves 'nother, and we are proudly pleased that our invitation to Miss Tejaswini is bearin' such good fruit for raisin' Dino-awareness 'round the universe and helpin' ilovedinomartin more freely and fully live it's mission of liftin' up the name of our most beloved Dino!

Miss Tejaswini, you are simply the best and know our awesome appreciato for all your efforts on behalf of the Dino that we all love in the deepest depths of our Dino-hearts.  To checks this out at Miss Tejaswini's instagram account, simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-gram.

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters



tejaswini_apte_rahmWhy I wrote my short story "The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin" - invited to write a guest post by the ilovedinomartin blog! Great to know that These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape is reaching distant shores!

http://ilovedinomartin.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/the-girl-who-loved-dean-martin-by_27.html
#shortstories #fiction#tejaswini_apte_rahm#thesecircusesthatsweepthroughthelandscape #thesecircuses #alephbookco#bookstagramindia #indianauthor#indianauthors #deanmartin

Why I wrote the short story "The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin" - Ilovedinomartin blog.

Hey pallies, likes this marvelous marathon of postin's from Dino-devotee Miss Tejaswini Apte-Rahm‏ continues today as we share her recent twitter home page postin' of her special scribin's for ilovedinomartin on her short story, "The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin" which is one of a number of short stories in her recently published tome, "These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape."

Likes, once 'gain Miss Tejaswini, while publicizing her new work of fiction to the largest audience possible, she is most importantly spreadin' her devotion to Dino far and wide 'round the ol' world wide web, while also makin' more and more pallies aware of our delight in Dino here at ilovedinomartin.  It's a win-win-win situation, and once 'gain we are truly pleased by gettin' this awesome op to help spread Dino-adulation farther and farther then ever before.

Thanks ever so much Miss Tejaswini for your wonderful work in your original prose for our humble little Dino-blog and for goin' above and beyond the call of  Dino-duty to get it known all over the 'net!  To checks this out in it's original source at Miss Tejaswini's pad at twitter, simply clicks on the tag of this Dino-message.

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters

Tejaswini Apte-Rahm‏ @Tejaswini_Apte  11h11 hours ago

Why I wrote the short story "The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin" - Ilovedinomartin blog. @AlephBookCo @PujKrishnan http://ilovedinomartin.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/the-girl-who-loved-dean-martin-by_27.html …

I was thrilled that a Dean Martin fan club in the USA had discovered my short story “The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin”

Hey pallies, likes it's a new month of deeply delightful devotion to our Dino right here at ilovedinomartin, but we will be continuin' to bring you Dino-accented postin's from Miss Tejaswini Apte-Rahm as we have discovered a trio of postin's by Miss Tejaswini on her facebook, twitter, and
instagram accounts all totally totally  terrifically tied to her recent special edition here at ilovedinomartin.

While lettin' her readers know of her stellar scribin's on the short story, “The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin” found in her new tome, "These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape," Miss Tejaswini is spreadin' her devotion to our Dino farther and wider then ever, and while doin' this marvelous mission, she is also helpin' more and more pallies 'round the globe to discover our humble little ilovedinomartin blog as well.

Today we shares with youse Miss Tejaswini's facebook postin' that sends her remarkable readership to the original postin' right here at ilovedinomartin and we couldn't be more powerfully pleased by her great gestures of true palliedom....helpin' work get out 'bout her wonderful work, helpin' more pallies find their way to ilovedinomartin, and most most importantly helpin' many more folks grow in knowin', lovin', and homagin' our most beloved Dino!

Hats off to Miss Tejaswini for her many extraordinary efforts in servin' the cause of our King of Cool!  To checks this out in it's original source at facebook, simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-gram.

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters

Tejaswini Apte-Rahm

1 hr · 

As I posted a while ago, I was thrilled that a Dean Martin fan club in the USA had discovered my short story “The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin” – a story that holds a special place in my heart. They invited me to write a guest post on their ilovedinomartin blog, and here it is – a piece on the inspiration behind the story and the process of writing it! And it feels great to know that These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape is reaching out to distant shores!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2giUwjH
http://ilovedinomartin.blogspot.co.uk/…/the-girl-who-loved-…

The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin by: Tejaswini Apte-Rahm“

Hey pallies, likes all us Dino-holics are gonna be bountifully, beautifully blessed this very Dino-day with a swankest of swank special e...

ILOVEDINOMARTIN.BLOGSPOT.COM

Well this is unexpected - my short story "The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin" has been discovered by a Dean Martin fan club in the USA!

Hey pallies, likes once 'gain, on this last day of Dino-amore month 2017, we shares some patter from the youthful scriber Miss Tejaswini Apte-Rahm whose wonderful writin' was shared her yesterday at ilovedinomartin.  When we decided to checks out the varies personal  links that Miss Tejaswini shared at the end of her powerful post on her short story, ""The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin," we discovered back in mid January, she had shared a facebook post accentin' our efforts on her behalf back then that can be viewed  HERE.

We are most appreciative of Miss Tejaswini liftin' up the work of our humble little ilovedinomartin blog with such kind words, as it helps others to find their way to our Dino-conclave of deep devotion to our most beloved Dino.  We truly hope that our small efforts on sharin' Miss Apte-Rahm's huge efforts on behalf of spreadin' Dino-devotion far and wide through her sweetly swank short story of Dino-aduation, will help more pallies to gets a copy of her scribin's and encourage  her to consider writin' more prose in huge homage of our Dino!

Thanks once 'gain Miss Tejaswini for your kind words toward ilovedinomartin at your facebook page!!!!!  To checks this out in it's original format, simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-report.

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters

Tejaswini Apte-Rahm

January 14 · 

Well this is unexpected - my short story "The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin" has been discovered by a Dean Martin fan club in the USA! And they love the fact that the story "puts the King of Cool front and center". It's one of the stories in These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape. Nice to know it's striking a chord on distant shores!
See: https://ilovedinomartin.blogspot.in/…/a-young-girl-recoveri…
Buy on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2giUwjH
Buy on Flipkart: http://bit.ly/2gENt5u

The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin by: Tejaswini Apte-Rahm“

Hey pallies, likes all us Dino-holics are gonna be bountifully, beautifully blessed this very Dino-day with a swankest of swank special edition of ilovedinomartin that is potently perfecto in absolutely awesome admiration of our Dino in these closin' hours of Dino-amore month 2017.

Likes back on January 9, 2017 we shared with youse deep deep Dino-devotion that awesomely accented both youthful and international devotion to our most beloved Dino in the form of a magazine interview with Miss Tejaswini Apte-Rahm whose new short story  tomb tagged "These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape." Miss Tejaswini hails originallyh  from India, is a youngish scriber, and a deep devotee of our Dino.  Her beautiful book accents our Dino with one of her short stories puttin' Dino front and center: "The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin."  Youse can read our original postin'   HERE.

Well, likes through the magic of the internet Miss Apte-Rahm discovered our blog post on her work and sent us a most appreciate comment and as we communicated back and forth, Tejaswini agreed to write an exclusive post to be shared only here at ilovedinomartin.  That post follows below.  We do want to express our absolute appreciato for her not only for all the time and energy that she put into this special edition of ilovedinomartin, but also for her patience with us gettin' it into print as it arrived on our desk durin' the time we have been away from the Dino-action here.

We could go on and on with our deepest of deep delight in her efforts, but that woulda detain youse all from deeply diggin' her wise, wonderful words for your Dino-selves!  We would likes to pause a moment to  sez our THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Miss Tejaswini for her kindest of kind nod to ilovedinomartin:

"Reading that blog post by Dino Martin Peters was, for me, one of the happiest moments in my book’s journey, because this particular story is very special to me. One of the lines in that blog post really stuck in my mind – it was about ‘the international nature of Dino admiration’ – I hadn’t really thought of it that way – and then there was Danny G’s comment which observed that ‘Dino hits different chords in all of us’."

Without further adieu, we brings youse Miss Tejaswini Apte-Rahm special edition of ilovedinomartin.  Likes, btw pallies be sure to note the links found at the end of this post to be personally in communicato with her!  We for one can't wait to gets our Dino-hands on this most excellent volume amazin'ly accentin' awesome amore of our most most beloved Dino!

We remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters
  

The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin by: Tejaswini Apte-Rahm“




The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin” is one of the stories in my short story collection, These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape (published by Aleph Book Company, India, December 2016). In the short time since the book was published, it has gotten some very good reviews – and many people have mentioned to me that of the ten stories they really liked the Dean Martin story in particular. 

I also spoke about the story in an interview with the Hindustan Times – and the next thing I knew, the Ilovedinomartin blog had discovered the interview online, and blogged about the writer in far off India who had written a short story on their favourite topic! Reading that blog post by Dino Martin Peters was, for me, one of the happiest moments in my book’s journey, because this particular story is very special to me. One of the lines in that blog post really stuck in my mind – it was about ‘the international nature of Dino admiration’ – I hadn’t really thought of it that way – and then there was Danny G’s comment which observed that ‘Dino hits different chords in all of us’.

Well, I thought I would write about the chord that Dino has struck with me, and why I wrote a story called The Girl Who Loved Dean Martin.   

The story

The story is set in London, and it’s about a girl who falls in love – true love - with Dean Martin. And she has a huge problem on her hands because when she discovers him, he has already been dead for many years. The story begins when, after her father has passed away, she is clearing out the attic. Late at night, in the clutter and dust of the attic, she discovers some old fashioned LP records and a record player. 

She plays one of the records – it happens to be a Dean Martin one. She is completely overcome by his voice and finds that the more she listens, the more hopelessly she falls in love with him. What happens next? How does she cope with this impossible love? That’s what my story sets out to explore.

The inspiration

The inspiration for the story came from a very personal experience. Often when I listened to one of my favourite singers – in particular Dean Martin – there were moments when I felt such an overwhelming admiration, that I felt I did not have the vocabulary to describe that intense emotion; I could only call it ‘love’. 

Now this intense feeling lasts only for a second or two, and then the moment passes. I got very interested in that intense, momentary experience – what should I call it, what words should I use to describe it?   And what if that experience wasn’t momentary, but sustained over a long period of time? What if it was not fan love, but real love?And so was born this story – it’s a ‘What If’ story that explores the difference between fan love and real love – and asks the question: ‘Who’s to say what the difference is?’ I leave it upto the reader to reach his or her own conclusion on what kind of love it is – I don’t push for a particular interpretation. But as the writer, the only way for me to write this story, was to
believe my character when she says it is true love, and to listen to her voice describing her experience of living with this impossible love. 

Why Dean?

So often people have asked me why I chose to write about Dean Martin – well, there are two reasons. First of all, it had to be a singer from a past era, because I wanted to write a story about a girl whose love ignores the limitations of time.

Secondly, it had to be Dean Martin because – well, it was just so natural to write about a singer I love. 

Here is an extract from the story, when the girl listens to Dean Martin for the first time, late at night in the attic: 

“A loud crackling breaks through the dust and then melts into a deep voice, mellow like wood-smoked honey, gentle and heart-breaking as lips against skin… It is big band music riding the cracked grooves of the disc, harsh trumpets, scratchy violins and the tippity-tap of a light cymbal swinging the tune along deftly. My heart stills; I listen closely, straining to swallow each note of the masculine voice into my lungs and stomach.”

And then a few minutes later, as she is overwhelmed by his voice: 

“…it is a stronger emotion than anything I have felt prior to this night of fine dust and dank attic; sitting on the wooden floor I am lifted up by the crackling, warped notes sung fifty years ago and my soul is in danger of being swept up and out through that murky window slanting towards the violet-black sky; I want to step off the roof and float and flail above the abyss, to twirl off into a frenzied dance, to sink to the floor and sob with my face in the rough grained planks, to have the life snuffed out of me, to go up in a smudge of smoke and merge into that languorous, persuasive voice that lazily sways the very air.”

Now this is strong stuff indeed, in the way of emotions. And the only way to write it, was to channel my own emotions towards Dean Martin’s voice, and then take it up several notches higher to create those dramatic moments of first discovering his voice in the attic. 

So what does my character do next? She starts reading as much as she can about Dean, collects his music, dreams of going to the Abruzzo coast in Italy because she discovers that his ancestors came from there. And she grapples with being misunderstood and lonely because of her strange love. 

Her female colleagues at the office simply can’t understand why she is single: “They are curious, so curious, about why I have no man; of course, they wouldn’t understand if I said I do. I do not tell them that I am indeed in love, that I content myself with listening to his tones and timbres, that he has stolen my soul ever so stealthily via my ear canal, that it is the middle ear, cochlea and tympanum that have become the organs of love.” Perhaps I should stop there to avoid any spoilers as to what happens next! 

Dean and me 

Since I love Dean Martin’s voice myself (though not to the same extreme as the character in my story), the experience of writing the story was joyful as well as emotionally draining. I listened to a lot of Dean while writing and editing. At times I got so caught up in the dilemma  of my main character that I would get a little tearful because her one true love was so unattainable! 

I also enjoyed doing some research into Dean Martin’s life – since my character is an expert on Dino, I had to try and be one too! In particular I really enjoyed reading Dean and Me: A Love Story by Jerry Lewis and James Kaplan, and Memories Are Made of This by his daughter Deana Martin. I found both books very moving, and a great read – not just for the purposes of thinking about my story, but also as a Dino fan.

Often Dean is the first soundtrack of my day, and it’s always a beautiful start to the morning – his voice makes the start of the day feel soothing and yet so full of possibilities. My husband is not a Dino fan and doesn’t necessarily understand my craze for his voice, but he nevertheless ends up listening to Dean again and again, because of me. And when I was away for a few weeks to promote my new book, he also ended up listening to Dean – because, he said, it made it seem as if I was still at home! For the launch of my short story collection a couple of months ago, he surprised me with a lovely present: a 10-CD box collection of Dean Martin’s songs. And inside he wrote: “To the girl who loves Dean Martin”. Needless to say, this beautiful gift brought a special kind of love to a very special occasion.*  *  *

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my journey with this story - please do connect with me through my website or Facebook page! The story collection, These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape, is available on Amazon.com 



Website: www.tejaswiniapterahm.com     
  Facebook: www.facebook.com/tejaswiniapterahm

Available on Amazon USA: http://amzn.to/2jv9TZe

And Amazon India: http://amzn.to/2giUwjH 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tejaswini_Apte  


Instagram: www.instagram.com/tejaswini_apte_rahm/