CINDY WILLIFORD examines Dean Martin’s coolness and grace in his move to Reprise in 1962.

Before we can appreciate the beginning of Dean’s  recording career with  Reprise Records in February of 1962, we must remember where he had come from and the success he had achieved for Capitol Records. 

During his fourteen years at Capitol he had a good run of songs which entered the countdown fairly regularly on the Hot 100s Singles Charts, and he had seven studio albums to his name. In December of 1961, he finished his final Capitol project: Cha Cha de Amor. The next chapter of his career would begin on the newly established Reprise label, which was owned of course by his dear friend, Frank Sinatra.

While change and adaption were no stranger to Dean, it still must have sent questions through his head as to whether he had made the right decision in moving to a new label.  After all, it would be like starting at ground zero, even with his talent and career history to speak for him.

For an artist who had just had a fairly  successful run of hits and success for Capitol to now facing somewhat of a struggle of being recognized, Dean once again displayed his coolness and grace in the transition to Reprise. But what was even more amazing as I researched through the science behind his ultimate success with Reprise, were the people who surrounded him every step of the way. They included songwriters, arrangers, and session musicians.

The first person was Jimmy Bowen, who joined Reprise in the fall of 1963.  He was given the mission for finding hits for the artists who were on the labels roster.  In the meantime, he was also given the task of A&R (artists and repertoire) representative who was responsible for finding promising new artists for the label or music publisher to sign. Big job and lots of responsibilities.

It was during a 1964 session when finalizing Dream With Dean with Dean, Ken Lane and a group of musicians, that the song “Everybody Loves Somebody” was suggested as the last song for the album.

Dean had sung the song back in 1948 for an edition of The Bob Hope Show, which was a small detail that Jimmy Bowen was not aware of at the time. While the version sang during the Dream… sessions was a slow, mellow version, Jimmy was convinced that this was the song which could potentially be the hit they were looking for. He visited with Mack Gray, Dean’s long time confidant /manager and told him that he had found ‘the hit song’ for Dean, it just needed a big orchestra to accompany him.

The next person added to the list for this task, was the very talented sessions pianist and arranger, Ernie Freeman. Ernie was a huge part of the Dean’s success with Reprise. He arranged a number of Dean’s albums, all with a very distinct sound, having the gift of taking something ‘questionable’ and creating something dynamic. And he did every bit of that and more with “Everybody Loves Somebody” . The new, upbeat version , which was recorded during the same studio time as Dean’s solo pieces for Robin and the 7 Hoods, went on to be a No. 1 hit, knocking The Beatles off the No. 1 position!

Once you get that No. 1 song, it is important to continue to find hit songs for your artists.  And Jimmy did just that. In addition to the arrangers who contributed to Dean’s success, there were songwriters who would give Jimmy songs they had written for Dean.  Amongst those were folks like Lee Hazelwood, Don  Burgess and Dick Glasser who all wrote songs which became hits. Those songs include “Send Me The Pillow You Dream On”, “Houston” and “I Will” to name just a few.

During Dean’s time at Reprise, he had twenty songs which   entered the Hot 100 Singles Charts, eleven of which were Top 40. He had twenty-three studio albums which charted on the  Billboard 200s Chart with eleven finding their way to Top 40 positions and eleven receiving R.I.A.A. Gold Awards. Not too shabby for such a sluggish beginning on your new label!

In addition to the studio albums receiving the Gold Awards, he had eight    compilation albums which received the R.I.A.A. Gold Award and in one reaching Gold in the UK.  In 1968, he was awarded the Best Male Vocalist. Dean once told Jimmy, ‘Look, I sing a song. If it’s a hit, beautiful. If it isn’t, we try again. I am not a singer; I am a stylist. Why make it complicated? ’

While most artists in the industry had a focus on making that next No. 1, while it was important to Dean to do his best, it seems that once he had the right team assembled, the rest became history for him.

‘I am not a singer; I am a stylist.’

Dean Martin

In part of a statement written by Jimmy for the Billboard  Spotlight on Dean for 1969, he said, ‘[He] is a fantastic singer, a great stylist, a fine actor, and wonderful personality. I don’t know many artists who can do a one-hour network TV show in eight hours, record an entire album in two and a half hours, play eighteen holes of golf and still be in bed by 10pm. What I am really trying to say here is I take a lot of pride in who I produce and I take a lot of pride in having been a part of Dean Martin’s success story at Reprise Records.’

Jimmy did what he had to do to get Dean back to the top position on the charts. And while not every song made it to the charts and not all of the albums received the Gold Award, the chemistry between them proved to be very rewarding. Dean and Jimmy were a great team.

And the success of Dean’s story with Reprise spoke volumes to those who had been watching. 

One of those individuals was Frank Sinatra who asked Jimmy to do the same thing that he had done for Dean. And while the personalities of Dean and Frank were as opposite as night is to day, the mechanics were the same and the magic began.

Taken from the latest edition of JUST DINO – our official (and free!) monthly magazine. To get your copy, simply join the DMA today!