Dean Martin: s/d?

I have The Capitol Collectors Series, but that's only 20 tracks, half of which you've got.

Some of the country albums are allegedly pretty good, but I don't own any.

I think doctors should be able to prescribe these DVDs to patients diagnosed with depression - I just can't help but grin whenever I see him on the screen. Dean was a far funnier comedian than Jerry Lewis, and that is true. He could also sing rather well.

Destroy: Practically nothing pre-1973.

You could do a lot worse than just buying the rest of those box sets. There's another three in the series, IIRC. All great.

Disagree totally, but Dean was hilarious and at their best they were truly a TEAM -- which was usually obliterated in nearly all their films. Search the budget DVDs of their TV Colgate Comedy Hours, where they pretty much go off-script in every single sketch and have a blast doing it.

The Dean '70s variety shows are compelling for his completely unrehearsed brio (and the caveman sexism).

little ole wine drinker me.

if you don't like this song you're no friend of mine.

I thought that was Robert Mitchum... well, maybe they both did that song.

What's the best Dean Martin compilation? My brother asked for something from him and I'm not sure which period or what compilation to get.

(knew i have to go through this one day)

the most extensive & still available collection i found so far,
all on Bear Family International. don't look at the price tag.

Memories Are Made Of This 8-CD & 84-P.BOOK /224 tracks
(complete recordings from 1946 to 1955)

Return To Me 1956-1961 8-CD & 84-PAGE-BOOK /220 tracks
("These two 8 CD boxed sets contain all of Dean Martin's recordings for Capitol, Diamond, Apollo, and Embassy.")

Everybody Loves Somebody 6-CD/1DVD & BOOK /161 tracks + DVD
(1962-1966)

Lay Some Happiness On Me 6-CD/1DVD & BOOK /153 tracks + radio spots + DVD
(1966-1985)

dupes found (probably different recordings):
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
The Things We Did Last Summer
Silent Night
Silver Bells
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
Only Forever
Once In A While

best

"Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" is the kinda thing that fits his attitude/chops perfectly

ditto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64DXeib1u9E

i've read that martin and lewis did their best stuff in their stage show -- sadly little of it seems to have been filmed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/just-how-good-a-singer-was-dean-martin

I'm watching all the Martin & Lewis films in order now (so far up to Three Ring Circus from 1954), and most of the points I could make about Martin are made in that dailybeast piece. Dean always sang well, but not always quality material, and often not in a respectable setting/context. Many of the tunes in the films are presented as if they're just slightly above a joke. The "That's Amore" sequence from The Caddy, however, is delightful and exhilarating - by far the best musical interlude to that point in their filmography.

There are some gems among his Reprise records from 1964 on, but noticeably diminishing returns as the '60s wind down. He becomes boring.

I got this 50-song Charly compilation for next to nothing a year or two ago, Dean Martin Sings the All-Time Hits. I don't think I posted about it at the time. It's a real mixed bag, a lot of covers from the mid- and late '60s.

I was struck how good he is with material like "The Green, Green Grass of Home," "Gentle on My Mind," "Little Green Apples," "The Glory of Love," etc. Easy-listening staples that seem to have been written expressly for him.

Of the three films he (Scorcese) has been trying to make since the mid-1970s, he has done two: Die letzte Versuchung Christi (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002). The third film, a biopic of Dean Martin called "Dino", has been on hiatus at Warner Brothers since the late 1990s. Scorsese has a very specific all A-list cast in mind, probably why this has yet to be produced. He wants Tom Hanks to star as Martin, Jim Carrey to play Jerry Lewis, John Travolta to play Frank Sinatra, Hugh Grant to play Peter Lawford, and Adam Sandler to play Joey Bishop.

i am happy and sad at the same time how this movie didn't make it into production.

The Day the Crooner Cried.

I treasure the memory of seeing Lee Hazlewood sing "Houston" at some bar in the East Village (or Lower East Side?) and pronouncing it "How-ston."

omg

Feel like I need to use that Dean Paul Martin/Olivia Hussey info from the other thread some time soon.

I got this 50-song Charly compilation for next to nothing a year or two ago, Dean Martin Sings the All-Time Hits.

until this, i had totally forgotten that many years ago, BH bought me a cheap-n-cheerful 3cd set of out of copyright stuff thats hidden deep in the attic.
not so sure i can be bothered to go a digging though.

"The "That's Amore" sequence from The Caddy, however, is delightful and exhilarating"

Sadly it doesn't begin with Dean Martin saying "my name is Dean Martin?".

And I mean yes technically he plays a character called Joe Anthony but humour me.

I don't get the reference

Recently saw a TCM doc about him, The King of Cool, with a lot of admiring, affectionate commentary from friends, family, colleagues, but also candid about his limitations, clashes with Lewis and Sinatra, drugs, son's plane crash, F-bombs a-plenty, without getting too melodramatic---reminding me of my fave Dino track, "Ain't That A Kick In The Head."

Had forgotten, if I ever knew, how good a comedian he could be without Lewis, winging it on his TV show, esp. when lines and cues gone with the loaded wind---back then, Frank was the good side of Dad Pop, Dino not so much, in hip estimation (Dylan on the back of one of his LPs: "Dean Martin should apologize t the Rolling Stones": hey just kiddin' the kids, Bobberino).

https://i.redd.it/12xtk46ohah81.jpg

My favorite (in so far as I have one) Dino song from a favorite movie just showed up in my favorite (current) television show!

it may have some annoying takes ("he should have reheased more!") but I found the Gioia piece informative

I’ve never seen any performer more relaxed and unruffled in front of an audience. He radiated a kind of charm and offhand charisma that even double platinum stars can’t match.

this made me smile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuEv942wOZs

Very much recommend the season of podcast You Must Remember This about Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. One amusing insight I took from it is Sinatra really wanted to be friends with all the big mobsters and so they had contempt for him while Dean Martin couldn't care less so they all bent over backwards for him.

Many of the tunes in the films are presented as if they're just slightly above a joke.

Season also makes a case that this is part of his thing - a certain ironic distance from the kitschy italo material, that ethnicity graduating to whiteness allowing for a more fluid stance towards it.

I just finished watching all the Martin & Lewis-starring films in order - not including the two "My Friend Irma" films in which they apparently have secondary roles.

Would say the best ones are Sailor Beware, The Stooge, The Caddy, Artists and Models and Hollywood or Bust.

The worst are Scared Stiff, You're Never Too Young and Pardners, all of which happen to be remakes of older, non-Martin & Lewis films.

The other films are of varying in-between quality. Living It Up, a remake of Nothing Sacred (1937), might be good enough for the "best" category.

I new from the first few words that this would be your post.

ffw vmic

ffs

Aargh new=knew, typo degradation acceleration is real!

I found it interesting in the Martin & Lewis films that a theme of "breaking up" or two partners/friends going their separate ways, one dropping the other or whatever, is present in almost all of the films, not just the ones toward the end when they were growing apart IRL.

Another note, Dean is drawn as more of a jerk in some films than others. That is a big variable when you start to watch any given film. Jerry is pretty consistent temperamentally, though slightly stupider in some films than others.

(Off topic, when I was trying to watch all the Monogram Pictures "East Side Kids" films I noticed a similar thing with Leo Gorcey, where he can be either quite likable or quite insufferable from film to film though he's always ostensibly playing the same character, named Muggs).

(Very interesting aside there)

Thought Martin was pretty effective in this---a rough-edged, blah-zay party guy & gambler, capable of some insight, but won't stop drinking when finds out has diabetes (which he does while in hospital after getting stabbed while trying to protect Sinatra) and remember his acting better than I do Sinatra's (whose character is more "artistic" and tiresome): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Came_Running_(film)

Two of his late 60s superspy movies were on TV the other day back to back; I watched the last hour or so of the first, and maybe 20 minutes of the second. Other than seeing immediately where 2/3 of Austin Powers came from, it was not a particularly memorable or edifying experience.