Customer Reviews

Dean Martin Greatest Hits King of Cool

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me be honest and tell you what the fans have said to us about this cd... about 80% just love it! It has great liner notes and information, along with Dean's Greatest hits in remastered digital sound. (This pressing has been upgraded from the original Greatest Hits release, where inferior mastering was done to get this product out for the fans... but it has all been fixed, and excellently done!).

We have heard a few complaints that they keep putting the same old "That's Amore" and "Return to Me" on the releases, but you need to bear two things in mind... this IS a compilation of Dean's GREATEST hits (both Capitol & Reprise years), and second... if it were not for Capitol Records (Dean's first recording label) we would not have a company that would be finacially able to offer Dean's catalog of "Reprise" recordings. The money that Capitol earns on the releases that they own, help fund the tremendous cost of releasing the Reprise masters.It's a long and complicated story (we have explained in our Dean Martin publication) but the bottom line is that this cd is a wonderful place to start in obtaining the great body of work that Dean has left for all. If you have grown up with Dean over the years, or simply looking for a good cd filled with wonderful music when music was fun and arranged well, then this is a must! From here you can go on to buy other titles and find out more about Dean's vocal directions and legacy he left us. admin@deanmartinfancenter.com

Please don't let any character-assassinating reviews posted here (that have nothing to do with this CD) keep you from purchasing this item! It contains a nice representation of Dino's hits and is sure to become one of the "crown jewels" of your music library. After experiencing this guy's talent and laid-back style, you will be haunting Amazon.com's Dean Martin section to round out your CD collection! Stressed? Just put this on your player -- fine as wine!

Yes i am a very big Dean Martin fan, have been for years, I try to get my hands on everything that's released on Dean. This compilation is a very interesting one, Capitol Records managed to incorporate Dean's Capitol works and his Reprise works, interesting concept. Aside from his popular big Capitol hits that everyone associates Dean with you get a taste of his landmark recordings of the sixties that have been out of print for years. My two favorites on this disc are from his days at Reprise, "I Will", and the song everyone heard him sing every week on the Dean Martin TV Show..."Everybody Loves Somebody". I'm glad that after all these years I have an excellent pristine version of his signature song. I would highly recommend this disc to anyone who wants a taste of his works from two major record companies, in the spirit of Dean Martin I raise a glass of vino "Salute Capitol Buona Dino".

The King of Cool is truly an appropriate moniker for Dean Martin; he was suave and cool, delivering timeless ballads in a velvety voice with a seemingly effortless delivery. No one will ever croon a tune the way Dino did. For those who are unacquainted with his musical legacy, this is an excellent introductory purchase. You can find Dean Martin CDs of all shapes and sizes, but this item is the first to offer hits from both his Capitol and Reprise years on a single CD. "Powder Your Face With Sunshine" may be my least favorite tune on this album, but it was Dean's first big hit in '49. Throughout the 50s and early 60s, Dean turned out one amazing Italian love song after another--Memories Are Made of This, Volare, Return to Me, Innamorata, That's Amore, to name a few. These are the songs most treasured by many a Dean fan (including myself), and you cannot hear a single one of these titles without thinking immediately of Dean. Ain't That a Kick in the Head is a great song many would hail as Dean's best, and it marked a transition toward livelier, "pop" music in the 60s. Dean Martin pretty much towered over the 60s with huge hits such as The Door Is Still Open to My Heart and the classic You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You. His experiments with even different types of music also proved quite successful--Houston, for example, strikes me as a terrific song, but its different sound does not quite win over all Dino fans as it does me. Two songs I adore which don't receive quite as much attention as I would give them are In the Misty Moonlight and In the Chapel in the Moonlight. If you really want to see how popular Dean was in the 60s, just consider the fact that his Everybody Loves Somebody knocked the mighty Beatles out of the top spot on the charts in 1964.

Frankly, I don't know how anyone cannot love Dean Martin. He basically defined the words cool, suave, and hip. I believe Judy Garland is the greatest singer ever, but I am just as convinced that Dean Martin had the most beautiful singing voice the world has ever heard. If you were to lay a stick of butter beside your stereo, I'm half convinced Dean's rich, mellow singing would melt it. There is also no singer I enjoy singing along with more (except I do let Dino handle the occasional Italian lyrics by himself), and this CD affords me the opportunity to sing along with almost all of his best tunes one after another. This collection is basically a Dean Martin starter-kit sure to make even the most disinterested listener a Dino fan for life.

This CD contains all of Dean Martin's greatest hits except one: "You're Nobody till somebody loves you." The version on this CD is not the original hit, but rather a live version. If you can live with this (but I don't see how - its one of his best songs), then this is the greatest hits collection for you.

Dino is incomparable and this is a great introduction to those who are new to him. Though barely scratching the surface of his career, newbies will get a generous dose of the Dino charisma on this solid collection. It's too bad there isn't more from Martin's Capitol years in the 50's, when his voice was at its splendid height, but you get a decent sampling which might make you expand your collection.

The greatest track on this disc is "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," which is an absolute classic and in the same league with anything uptempo that Frank recorded in the 50's. It's almost impossible not to love this song and the vocal. Indeed, comparisons between Dino's vocal capabilities and Frank and Bing are inevitable. As Martin freely admitted, Crosby had a tremendous influence on his singing style, but I would argue Martin sings the uptempo songs with as much or more panache and power that Sinatra. Frank brings a pathos and yearning to the ballads that Martin lacked, but Dean does beautifully on this album with the exquisite "Return to Me" and the classic "Volare."

The era of the truly great singers is sadly over. Crosby, Sinatra, Como and Dino are all dead, but Dean will live on as long as great discs like this are around for us to savor.

As a huge fan of Dean Martin, I have to say that this Greatest Hits CD: King of Cool is incredible.

As you listen to 'In the Chapel in the Moonlight', 'You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You' and the other great hits on this CD, it is so easy to see how his easy going manner and smooth voice made him one of the world's most popular entertainers. That popularity still exists even today for Dean's appeal is worldwide and eternal.

One of my all time favorite songs, 'Everybody Loves Somebody' (which evidentally beat out the Beatles for #1), has never sounded better.

Another great installment for my collection and one that any Dean Martin fan would be proud to own!

Sit back, relax and allow the mellow voice of Dean to sweep you away! I certainly have! <G>

I went to Italy when I was 18. Immediately I feel in love with the sights, the people (Elena, bella mia), and the music. I had heard "Volare" and "That's Amore" when I was a little guy. I obviously payed no attention, and thought that it was only "Old people music". When I got back home I had this urge to know the music I found. I heard an orchestra play "Volare" on the radio. I asked my mom about it, and she said, "Oh yeah, Dino!" She said this with a smile on her face. I thought, "Well, this guy must be cool." So I bought this CD not fully knowing what I was getting into. I was so surprised that I, a kid of 19 years, heard this stuff as cool. It is awesome! My mom heard me playing it in my room and then we started dancing. She was so surprised that I liked it. It IS awesome. I am only 19, but when the music is good, it's good.

I'm new to the music of Dean Martin, I'll admit. Honestly the whole Rat Pack (aka alcoholics in tux's) thing really put me off. It took hearing Dean Martin's voice without knowing it was him, to really appreciate his talent. After hearing a few songs and discovering that I really liked his voice after all, I figured I'd best get started on his music with a Greatest Hits.

The songs on this disc are terrific, his voice is beautiful and as a Dean Martin neophite, I'm hearing enough to want to buy more of his work.

My problem with this disc, is that a little more than half the songs have been remixed (says so in the booklet) as stereo from what were probably 3 track tapes that were never meant to be mixed as anything other than mono. The engineer who did the remix, somehow missed that day in engineering school where they teach you that anything you pan to the right or left sounds much LOUDER than whatever's in the center. On this recording, that means that the horns, drums, and backing vocals are very often MUCH louder than Dean Martin's vocals.

I understand the temptations to remix in stereo. In today's world where 5 channel audio is on the rise and stereo is an established standard, that as a producer, you'd want to present Dean Martin in a competitive fashion with today's artists. Only he isn't one of today's artists and in his day, they had mono play back devices and the engineers mixed the performances going to tape accordingly.

From an engineering stand point, the temptation is to unclutter the mix by pulling the instruments out to the right and left, leaving the vocals and bass instruments (if possible) in the center. This works fine on the quieter passages as it leaves Martin's voice alone in the center, sounding great. And you CAN hear the instrumental parts better, even if the instruments aren't really the point of this record. It all works okay, until the song really gets going and then Martin's voice is lost behind pounding drums, wailing horns and very loud backup singers.

The other problem with the stereo remix, is that because the original tracks weren't really meant to be stereo, you get the drums and more than half the instruments coming out of one speaker while the backup singers often fill up the other speaker. It's a lot like listening to the stereo remixes of the early Beatles albums where you'd get John Lennon and the guitars in one speaker and the rest of the band in the other. It's not how it was meant to be and it ruins the listening experience.

The remix/remaster engineer for this King of Cool recording does the listeners a disservice by putting more emphasis on the instrumental performances than on Dean Martin's voice.

I'd hold off and recommend getting an old mono recording if you can, or wait until whoever owns the rights to Martin's recordings decides to do the right thing and put out mono remaster that's true to the original vision. This disc is a waste of money and good music unless you have digital audio editing software that can rip the audio off the disc and convert it back to mono. Which is really just a band aid to make do.

I am very disappointed in the sound quality. The content is good however, so if you can accept an, in my opinion, subpar listening experience it could be recommended. The sound seems somewhat muffled and distant, not crisp and clear. Adjusting the equalizer and sound fields and turning up the volume help.