Coup de Stereo -- Dinopalooza

I fired up Rhapsody today and found that almost 20 Dean Martin albums had gone live.

You know how the kids are -- one minute they are clamoring for the Strokes and the White Stripes and then the next thing you know, they are howling that we need to give Dino some more digital love.

These records split the difference between Martin's tenures at Capitol and Reprise, and go from creamy ballads to up-tempo tunes to Mediterranean numbers. Dino was also a surprisingly good country crooner.

A nice thing about Dean Martin was that he could be sleazy with such a twinkle in his eye that even swollen ankled  grandmothers could appreciate it. If you don't believe me, check out his version of "C'est Si Bon." His extended vocal riff at the bridge (around 1:20) is not to be missed. Nor is his bit at the end.

My favorite duet Martin did has to be "Open Up the Dog House (Two Cats Are Coming In)" with the great Nat "King" Cole. These two are such charmers that they even make various addictions and spousal abuse sound like frolicsome fun. (We don't make the news, people, we just report it).

Dino had a great voice but he had an odd singing problem -- he would often get lost in a melody and forget where he was. He was always forgetting lyrics too. But his easygoing sense of humor and improvisational skills ended up carrying  him through. He also sang very nicely in Italian during an era when millions of Americans still spoke the language (like Spanish is spoken here today).  As a matter of fact, Dino once infamously cursed out a guest on his popular TV show in Italian. The network was besieged by complaints from swarthy and olive-skinned people who actually understood the physically impossible phrase that he muttered.

Even though what Dino said was really vulgar (even by today's low standards), his show wasn't canceled and he didn't lose any of his audience share.

There were many bad things about the past. But it turns out that there were some pretty good things to.

That Dean Martin could get away with so much and have Middle America love him for it was definitely one of the good things.