Somewhere There’s a Someone –

Walk The Line –

Alright, let’s go for a change of tune…

Somewhere There’s a Someone (1966), by Dean Martin. With a mere jump back of fifty years we have arrived at a much different sound than My Chemical Romance 😛

Dean Martin was an entertainer. There really is no other way to put it. You can’t just mention him as a singer or you’ll be leaving out his long acting career on both television and the silver screen. If you label him an actor, you’ll be underplaying his impact as a slapstick vaudevillian comedian with his (extremely funny) partner Jerry Lewis. Listing him as a comedian wouldn’t take serious his musical talent as a distinguished crooner that mixed in some country elements. On top of all this he would even shockingly derail a Beatles song from the Number 1 spot on the US billboards during the height of rock and roll popularity and the decline of crooner music (often called Easy Listening or Adult Contemporary).

The album I chose is a little bit of an oddity itself. Released in 1966, Somewhere There’s a Someone was made while The Dean Martin Show was airing, which meant Martin didn’t have any time to actually record an album. Thus this album was created, consisting of both sides of the single “Somewhere There’s a Someone” and some songs pulled from two of Dean’s “country themed” albums. Although technically it is considered a studio album, not a compilation album (I literally have no have no idea why…). It was the first of five albums to be released that year and probably Martin’s best selling album right behind his Christmas album (which was one of the other albums released in ’66).

These two songs give a good example of the two different sounds of Martin’s music. “Somewhere There’s a Someone” tackles a common crooner theme: love (big surprise there). This genre of music may tend to be predictable and really middle-of-the-road, but those also end up being the major selling points of Easy Listening. The other song, “Walk the Line,” is an excellent song written by Johnny Cash. While I still prefer Cash’s version hands down, this track demonstrates how Martin was able to lend his Italian-crooner voice to the country sound.

With seven different Dean Martin albums in my collection, I knew I had to pay him some attention soon. While I have a few other crooners in my collection like Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra, Dino is by far my favorite amongst the bunch. Sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and listen to something nice and easy. Also, Whoops! Sorry about that harsh needle drop at the beginning of the first track ^^;