Dean Martin - "The Door is Still Open to My Heart" (1964)

Hello Friends,

Here's Dino performing one of his hit songs on the Bob Hope Show in 1964.

Jeez... is it me or does his voice just want to make you drink a highball?

Enjoy!

The door is still open to my heart...

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

Witchy Woman

Nelson Riddle & his Orchestra - "Witchcraft!" (1965) - Pickwick 

Hello friends,

October's here and we're celebrating Halloween all month long here on Vinyl in the Valley!

Best known for his soundtracks and famous arrangements for the likes of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Linda Ronstadt, et al, Nelson Riddle actually had a pretty successful recording career himself!

The highlights on this LP are his lush and jazzy instrumental versions of the title track, "It's So Nice to Have A Man Around the House", "You Fascinate Me So", "Darn That Dream", "Blue Safari" and especially, "Playboy's Theme".

The instrumentation is big in spots and sublime in others.  The devil's in the details like the vibraphone in "Darn That Dream", for instance, or the background guitar on "Blue Safari".  

And check out this little minx on the LP's cover... nothing says dim the lights, light some candles and fire up the old Ouijia Board like a sexy brunette, a black cat, and a cigarette-smoking skull!

"Nice pussy"

RATING: 4.5 cigarette-smoking skulls out of 5