Dino: The Essential Dean Martin

• Artist: Dean Martin
• Rating:
• Release Date: June 01, 2004
• Type: Compilation (best of)
• Genre: Vocal Music

Review

Dino: The Essential Dean Martin is an attempt by Capitol Records to fill up a single CD to the brim (30 tracks in nearly 78 minutes) with Dean Martin hits in the manner of the Beatles' 1. It's a welcome development from a label that was previously content to survey the same territory on the 1998 collection Greatest Hits: King of Cool, which contained only 16 tracks and ran less than 50 minutes. Martin put 36 recordings in the pop singles charts between 1949 and 1969, and 23 of them are found here. Of the four Top 40 hits not included, the most notable is the 1964 version of "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You." The collection does include the 1960 non-hit version of that song instead, a decision that probably was made to reduce the number of essentially similar arrangements heard on Martin's '60s singles for Reprise Records. After he hit number one with "Everybody Loves Somebody" in 1964 using a '50s rock & roll-style triplet rhythm he repeated the same approach several more times ("The Door Is Still Open to My Heart," "Send Me the Pillow You Dream On") before moving on to a pop-country style in such hits as "Houston." The compilers have broken up the same-sounding tracks with inventive sequencing, but reducing the repetition by one must have seemed like a good idea. Before the listener gets to this final phase in Martin's hit-making career, however, there is the long stretch of '50s hits, many of them with an Italianate tone (and not a few Italian lyrics). The disc's long running time allows space for quite a lot of this material; it takes up two-thirds of the album. The compilers have included a few tracks that were hits only in the U.K., plus a couple of Martin classics that were not actually chart items: his renditions of "Just in Time" from the film version of Bells Are Ringing and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," a song he sang in Ocean's 11. By sticking to a core of major U.S. hits and adding some key elements, the collection makes for an outstanding single-disc treatment of Martin's best-known recordings. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Ain't That a Kick in the Head	Sammy Cahn, James Van Heusen	Dean Martin	(2:24)
That's Amore	Jack Brooks, Harry Warren	Dean Martin	(3:07)
Memories Are Made of This	Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr, Frank Miller	Dean Martin	(2:16)
Just in Time	Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne	Dean Martin	(2:13)
Sway	Pablo Beltrán Ruiz, Norman Gimbel	Dean Martin	(2:42)
I'd Cry Like a Baby	Simon Gallup, Howard Steiner	Dean Martin	(2:20)
Volare	Domenico Modugno, Francesci Migliacci, Mitchell Parish	Dean Martin	(2:59)
Under the Bridges of Paris	Vincent Scotto, Dorcas Cochran	Dean Martin	(2:46)
Love Me, Love Me	Vic Abrams, Phil Medley	Dean Martin	(2:34)
If	Stanley Damerell, Tolchard Evans, Robert Hargreaves	Dean Martin	(2:46)
Mambo Italiano	Bob Merrill	Dean Martin	(2:19)
Let Me Go Lover	Jenny Carson	Dean Martin	(3:00)
Standing on the Corner	Frank Loesser	Dean Martin	(2:47)
You Belong to Me	Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, Chilton Price	Dean Martin	(3:02)
Powder Your Face With Sunshine (Smile! Smile! Smile!)	Carmen Lombardo, Stanley Rochinski	Dean Martin	(2:32)
Innamorata [Sweetheart]	Jack Brooks, Harry Warren	Dean Martin	(2:24)
I'll Always Love You (Day After Day)	Ray Evans, Jay Livingston	Dean Martin	(2:33)
Kiss	Haven Gillespie, Lionel Newman	Dean Martin	(2:22)
You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You	Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, James Cavanaugh	Dean Martin	(2:12)
Return to Me	Carmen Lombardo, Danny DiMinno	Dean Martin	(2:23)
The Door Is Still Open to My Heart	Chuck Willis	Dean Martin	(2:53)
Houston	Lee Hazlewood	Dean Martin	(2:41)
Send Me the Pillow You Dream On	Hank Locklin	Dean Martin	(2:29)
Everybody Loves Somebody	Ken Lane, Sam Coslow, Irving Taylor	Dean Martin	(2:45)
In the Chapel in the Moonlight	Billy Hill	Dean Martin	(2:32)
I Will	Dick Glasser	Dean Martin	(2:22)
Little Ole Wine Drinker Me	Snuff Garrett, Hank Mills, Dick Jennings	Dean Martin	(2:48)
Somewhere There's a Someone	Baker Knight	Dean Martin	(2:14)
In The Misty Moonlight	Cindy Walker	Dean Martin	(2:44)
Gentle on My Mind	John Hartford	Dean Martin	(2:35)

Credits

Dean Martin (Liner Notes), Jimmy Bowen (Producer), Voyle Gilmore (Producer), Steven Van Zandt (Liner Notes), Lee Gillette (Producer), Ed Thrasher (Cover Photo), Diana Barnes (Art Direction), Linda Cobb (Design), Frank Collura (Compilation Producer), David McEowen (Mastering), Gail Martin Downey (Liner Notes)