I’ve had Karl Zero’s Songs for Cabriolets and Otros Tipos de Vehiculos for a few years now. It has that Brasilian beat to it that puts me in mind of the Swingin’ Sixties. And Frank Sinatra is on my iPod. Same vibe.
And I’ve been hearing Dean Martin’s Sway a lot recently. There’s a commercial that plays it; and I watched Dark City again the other night, which has a rendition of it.
So I’ve ordered The Essential Dean Martin. Who cares if my usual fare is The Pogues or The Sex Pistols? That old music is just
I think Dean is cooler and a better singer than Frank in many regards, but his material was generally worse. Lots of those Italian novelty songs, generally “schmaltzier” than what Frank sang. But he had a hell of a voice and great charm.
The further Dino went, the better he got. He was the template for a certain kind of manhood - a manhood that sometimes it makes me sad had vanished. And his songs swung and rocked and dipped and swooned and laughed and cried with the best of 'em. It was a sad, lonesome day when we lost him!
Dean Martin is not of my era. My parents probably listened to him and enjoyed his music. They were young in the '50s. ‘My music’ is of the late-1970s to the late-1980s (and Alternative and ‘Corporate Alternative’ up through the present). So I have no real ‘basis’ for liking Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, et al. But I do watch a lot of old movies, and I dig the vibe. The Rat Pack vocalists have stopped being ‘old people’s music’ and have become rather hip.
What he said. From what I’ve been able to discern Sinatra was the first major popular singer who abandoned the hyper trained or quasi-operatic approach, and delivered the lyrics in a more or less natural voice. And the songs have a lot of merit; many of them have been the basis for classic jazz recordings.
And if I had it my power
I’d see tht every girl had your charms
So that every moment every hour
Some boy could find what I find in your arms…
Dnag, now I’m gonna have to hunt up my copy of The Very Best of Dean Martin. (an import bought years ago when “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime” was outta print in the US)
I won a radio contest when I was 13 with this very bad joke:
Me: Knock knock.
DJ: Who’s there?
Me: Ezra!
DJ: Ezra who?
Me: Ezra body loves somebody sometime…
DJ: (groan) Get the hook!
I like Dean and have many of his records. I remember watching his show with my parents in the '60s, with the Golddiggers, all lounging around his sunken semicircular white sofa. I still want one of those! And he had a bar on the set, with a circular staircase in it. And didn’t he slide down a pole from the balcony above to get to the set?
Cool guy, not to mention funny. And handsome and suave.
I love Dean Martin! I have a “best of Dean Martin” CD and I’ve worn that sucker out. Yes, he had a luscious, deep velvety voice that makes me go all weak in the legs.
I have yet to find a song more seductive than Dean’s rendition of “Sway”:
I can hear the sounds of violins
Long before it begins
Make me thrill as only you know how
Sway me smooth, sway me now
And I don’t mind his schmaltzy Italian restaurant music. In fact, dining at an Italian-American eatery just wouldn’t feel complete without Dean or Louis Prima singing in the background.
Welcome to the Club. Dean is great. As a matter of act my favorite Italian restaurant is in Milwaukee, called “That’s Amore”, complete with lyrics on the cover of the menu. PBS just had as special on him saturday night here.
I like “Candian Sunset”. I was in an exercise class and there was this techno-ish version of Sway. The instructor notes how much she likes that song, I tell her it’s an Old Dean song…she looked kinda surprised and embarrassed.
I’m thinking of filming a ‘title sequence’ when I get my car out of resto. Think of the original The Italian Job. While the car is driving along the mountain roads, Sway will be playing. The ending of the song fades as we bring in the sound of the car’s tyres crunching on the gravel in front of an alpine restaurant and the MGB stops with just the front end in the left side of the frame. The driver gets out and starts walking toward the restaurant. A single gunshot, and he topples into the gravel. Cut to the assassin 400 metres away…
I could never sell it of course, the song being copyrighted and all; but it would be cheap to shoot on DV and it would be fun practice for me.
