Dean Martin - "The Door Is Still Open To My Heart" (1964) - Reprise Records
Hello Friends,
Its a boozy Saturday night here on Vinyl in the Valley and we've got some boozy Dean Martin on the ol' turntable. Martinis be flowin'.
In the 50's and 60's, Dino had a sort of alter-ego in Dean "Tex" Martin where he would get away from the American Songbook-type standards and would instead croon some cowpoke-style tunes.
Now, this isn't stripped-down, shit-kickin', rural honky tonk music, but very lush, over-produced and orchestrated easy listening/lounge music. The stuff your parents and/or grandparents (depending on your age) would put on their living room console turntables on a Saturday night while mixing highballs or pitchers of watered-down martinis.
And watered-down is a pretty apt description of what's going on.
Not that its a bad record, by any means! Sure its big on sentiment, but its all very safe, very saccharine, very uninspired.
Three songs from this record-- "I'm Gonna Change Everything", the Sheb Wooley-penned (yes, that Sheb Wooley) "The Middle of the Night is My Cryin' Time" & "My Sugar's Gone"-- were directly lifted Dean's 1963 record entitled Dean "Tex" Martin Rides Again. #lazy.
The great title track and the song, "You're Nobody Until Somebody Loves You" were pretty big hits for Martin. Other highlights include the cha-cha-shuffle of "In The Misty Moonlight" (originally written by Cindy Walker), the fantastically lush "Every Minute, Every Hour", the sappy "Always Together", the muted guitar work on "Take Me" and the epic kiss-off of a closer "So Long Baby".
Honestly, there's not a bad song in the bunch! Its a great LP for gathering around the record player, drink in hand and washing down the problems and realities of the working week. There's no due dates, or bills due, or tax forms, or clients, or traffic jams or yelling bosses. Just you, your girl, a dimly-lit tiki bar and a half-empty bottle of rye whiskey!
RATING: 4 so long baby's you better go now out of 5
Hey pallie, likes we loves your style of potent patterin' and we loves your coolest of cool choice of accentin' our most beloved Dino! Never was, never will be anyone as cool as the King of Cool...oh, to return to the days when Dino walked the earth. Know that your deeply delightful Dino-thoughts have been shared this day with all the pallies gathered 'round ilovedinomartin.
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