Dean Martin/Rat Pack

1. 62

   FeekaBabyposted 13 years ago

   Hi Hubbers!
   
   Well it's been over a year since I've been here! Good to be back Anyway, I'm writing my next play and I need to know a little about Dean Martin's music, I've searched on the internet for quite a while but can't find any particular dates for when Dean martins Music was around, like Volare and Amore, Little Old wine drinking me etc also I would like to know when he got together with Frank Sinatra and formed the Rat Pack. Also does anybody know much about the clubs back in the..... maybe 1940's/50's around that era I think, you know where they had show girls or a singer and all the men would sit in suits at round tables smoking cigars like you see in the movies. I also need to find out as much as I can about Italian/American families back in the old days, around 30's/40's/50's/60's. If anyone could help me out with any of this that would be great!! Thank yooouu and happy new year! xx

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      couturepopcafeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Maybe this will be of some help. 
      
      Humphrey Bogart and his wife Lauren Bacall formed a group known as "The Holmby Hills Rat Pack" dedicated to drinking, fun, staying up late and not caring about what others thought.  It was an unofficial club and members came and went except for people like Frank Sinatra.  After Bogart's death, he became the Rat Pack leader.  Other members were, as you know, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. with Shirley MacLaine as mascot.  They were extremely influential in Hollywood at that time and were allegedly heavily involved in the campaign to put Jack Kennedy into the Whitehouse.
      
      Dean Martin worked as a coal miner, boxer, gas station attendant, and mill hand.  By the time he was 27, he decided he wanted to become a singer, even though he had no previous experience.  In 1950, Dean Martin signed a recording contract with Capitol Records.  He had his first international hit with "Memories Are Made Of This" in 1955.  Dean left Capitol at the end of 1959 and in 1962 he signed with Reprise Records.  In June 1964 he recorded his next number one song, "Everybody Loves Somebody" which became his theme song.
      
      I know they could be found at the "Villa Venice" Club in Chicago in the early 60s and recorded at least one live album there. (The Rat Pack happens to be one of my favorite topics).
      
      My family is from Sicily and Bari.  They came here in bits and pieces at the turn of the 1900s.  If you email me (from profile pg.) we can talk more.

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         couturepopcafeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Sinatra got his first break in the late thirties when he became a regular on the Major Bowes Talent Show.  You might try to find something about that.  After that he signed with the Harry James band (big band) and then sang with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.  Reprise records was actually Sinatra's own record label (which he started in 1960).
         
         Sammy was born in NYC and his parents were vaudevillians in the early 20s.  I know he played with his father and uncle as the Will Martin Trio at a place called Slapsie Maxie's in Hollywood in 1946.  Sinatra and Martin convinced him to pay more attention to singing instead of vaudeville and in 1954 he had his first chart record with "Hey There".
         
         I think "Volare" was written by Parish/Mondungo so you might find something there.  I think the name of Volare is "That's Amore" written by Warren/Brooks.

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2. 60

   paradigmsearchposted 13 years ago

   Rat Pack... Las Vegas... Flamingo... 1940's~1050's...
   
   To the best of my recollection, all info approximate.

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