Jamming With Dino, Deana, & Davy
Birthday shout-out to Dean Martin and other musings
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the legendary, consummate entertainer, comedian, singer, and actor, Dean Martin. In the late 1940s he broke out in a hugely successful comedy duo with Jerry Lewis.
Then he was seared into the public cconsciousness with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. in The Rat Pack.
My respect for Dino grew around his musical choices and catalogue of material. I do several covers of his songs (especially in my care home set) and my original song “Somebody Loves You (Like Dino Said)” has a direct refraction on Dean’s “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You.”
In 1955 he had a #1 hit with the folk-doo wop song “Memories Are Made of This.” It became a theme for a book written by his daughter Deana, a singer in her own right whose career intersected with The Monkees and Davy Jones (they also dated back in the day.
There here was a phase where she’d sit in on our gigs + she sang with us at Davy’s 2012 New York memorial and a Monkees Convention in 2013.
Davy was also close friends with Dino Martin (of Dino Desi & Billy), and when they weren’t driving old army tanks around in the desert, they played pool with Dean at Dean’s home. Davy was quite a comedy quipster, and he often said, “It’s OK to steal my jokes. I just stole them from someone else.” One of his “someone else” sources was Dean Martin.
“Memories Are Made of This” was written by Richard Dehr, Terry Gilkyson, and Frank Miller—as The Easy Riders, they provided the vocal harmonies on Dean’s version. After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the song was adapted into the "Honvágy-dal" ('The Song of Homesickness”) and used as an unofficial anthem for refugees scattered around the world. Recorded by Ida Boros, it became a cultural phenomenon and a sign of protest against the communist government. The standard English version has been covered countless times (notably by Little Richard, Johnny Cash, and Cliff Richard & The Shadows), and here’s how I do it in my assisted living home set. Meanwhile, HB Dino—thank you for the hours of humor and song you left us.
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