This afternoon shopping for groceries at MOE Carrefour, a song came on in my headphones and suddenly….I found myself shimmying down the yoghurt aisle, twirling the shopping trolly. A few seconds later, I froze when I saw other shoppers looked at me very strangely. I smiled sheepishly, turned down Dean Martin’s “Sway” on my headphones, and, made a run for the check-out counter. “Dean Martin made me do it, officer!” is my defence for being caught dancing in public 😇.

Dean Martin was on the radio a lot back in the late 70s, especially on Forces Request and the Monday lunchtime show on AIR ( I think it was Jazz Hour presented by the amazing Philip Neelam – not sure, as sadly, my memory fails me on this one). I absolutely loved Dean Martin’s voice and his songs then – still do. I always felt…how shall I put it…. he sang with a twinkle in his voice!! Even in his most romantic songs, there’s that undertone of carefree fun, and every time I listen to Dean Martin, I end up with a smile on my face within minutes!

“Sway” is, for me at least, Dean Martin’s best song. I bet everyone , even today’s kids, knows it, especially thanks to all the covers that have been done over the years, including Michael Buble(nice!), J-Lo and The Pussycat Dolls (ugh!). Based on a Mexican song (Quien Sera) it was the first Dean Martin song I ever heard on the radio, and the sensuous music and lyrics just blew me away. I had no idea what a Marimba was but in 2:40, he painted this wonderful, romantic picture of a dancing couple! Mamma Mia! Unfortunately I couldn’t find a video of Dean Martin singing it live🥲

Other dancers may be on the floor
Dear, but my eyes will see only you
Only you have the magic technique
When we sway I grow weak

“That’s Amore”, “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You” and “Memories Are Made Of This” are instantly recognisable, deeply romantic love songs which were regularly on the radio. While I had no idea what a “pizza pie” was (I knew what a pizza was, and I knew what a pie was, but what the hell is a pizza pie?) “That’s Amore” quickly became one of my favourite songs. And I bet you still remember that soft background chorus singing “Sweet Sweet” while Dean sings “Memories Are Made of This”.

Dean Martin was the consummate Entertainer, with a capital E – with huge success in music, TV, movies and on the stage. Born Dino Crocetti, the son of Italian immigrants in Ohio, he quit school at 16 and worked in a steel mill, worked as a bare-knuckle boxer, as a delivery boy for bootleg liquor and even a croupier in an illegal casino. That’s when he made connections with club owners and started singing, but despite his good looks and fabulous voice, struggled for a long time. His big break came when he and Jerry Lewis (you, the famous comic) were appearing together at a casino in Atlantic City. Unfortunately, their individual acts were getting poor reception and the owner gave them one last chance before he fired them both. They decided to pair up and go for broke – for two hours they sang, danced, ad-libbed and did physical, vaudeville comedy. The audience loved it and the hugely successful Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis team was born. Together they made a ton of movies, did hundreds of stage and TV shows and for a while were the top comic duo in the US. They broke up, rather acrimoniously in 1956 and Dean decided to go solo (You should see the Youtube clip of them reuniting live on TV, thanks to Dean;s best friend Sinatra – tears all around 🥺🥰) .

Hit followed hit – “Volare”, “Mambo Italiano”, “On an evening in Roma”, “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?”…until, in 1964, he had his greatest hit “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You” . Dean’s cover of this 1940s song went straight to #1, knocking The Beatles “A Hard Day’s Night”  off the #1 spot. Yup , that’s right – Dean Martin knocked The Beatles off #1 spot in 1964, right in the middle of Beatlemania!.

He kept cranking out hit songs after that too, but it was his TV show that became the real hit. TV allowed Dean to bring his easy charm, ready wit, amazing comedic timing, good looks and magnetic presence to the screen – and it was a smash. Unbelievably, Dean Martin never- not once – rehearsed for the shows. All the guests, the band, the rest of the artists did so for days, while Dean Martin would just show up, unerringly pick up his cues, sing every song amazingly, have the most wonderful banter with his guests and entertain the world as if he had memorised every line he was going to say. He never even knew which guests were going to be on his show. Genius! Watch this clip of Dean Martin and Victor Borge doing “Musical Punctation” – it’s a riot!!

Of course, he is also known for his amazing life-long friendship with Frank Sinatra. Sinatra and Dean were truly “brothers from another mother” to each other, best friends for well over 40 years till Sinatra died. They did some amazing stuff together – their movies are legend! Sinatra and Martin were the lead pair in the original Ocean’s 11 – Sinatra played the part that Clooney played in the 2010 version, while Martin played the part that Brad Pitt played.

Look up Dean Martin on Youtube – it’s a treasury of the most amazing stuff. Songs. Sketches. Clips from the Tonight Show. The Rat Pack, with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr….You’ll fall in love with him, if you aren’t already.

Dean Martin, undoubtably, “The King Of Cool”!