Search - Dean Martin :: Live at the Sands Hotel

The most entertaining album I have ever heard

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 12/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This amazing live album gives us Dean Martin at his most entertaining best; no one worked a crowd like Dino, and this has to be the most entertaining album I have ever listened to in my life. The date is February 8, 1964, and the setting is the immortal Sands Hotel in Las Vegas; truly, to borrow a phrase from what is probably Dino's most well-known song, memories are made of this. Those looking for the world's greatest crooner's delivery of impeccably romantic love songs should look elsewhere, though, as this performance lives up to its subtitle: An Evening of Music, Laughter and Hard Liquor. Dean is in full character as the fun-loving, alcohol-consuming entertainer he portrayed so well, and there is probably more comedy than singing over the course of this 58+ minute performance. I believe only On a Slow Boat to China is sung without some kind of interruption or comedic break, and most of the songs feature Dino's own reshaping of the lyrics. Drink to Me Only and Bourbon From Heaven leave no doubt from the start that this show is about entertainment more than singing. After quasi-serious renditions of Memories Are Made of This and That's Amore, Dino launches into a monologue of almost seven minutes. The man is absolutely hilarious; he had me laughing heartily nonstop and the live audience rolling in the aisles. A few Bing Crosby jokes and stories about his family are big highlights here; my favorite joke has to be Dino's reference to his 74-year old mother-in-law, a remarkable woman who does not even need glasses at her age - she drinks straight from the bottle.



A lot of give-and-take with the band appears in Dino's cover of Bing's June in January, then after a terrific delivery of the song You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, Dean goes back to pure comedy. More Laughs With Dean features another six and half minute monologue, in which Dean tells the audience he drinks because he is insecure and can't really believe he is Dean Martin and getting to do all these wonderful things he does, a statement that I think bears a lot of hidden truth. From there, we get a most extraordinary medley of "throw-away" comedy songs, as Dean gives his own unique, sometimes non-PC twist to some old, familiar songs. The "Pretty Songs" medley that follows is less than serious in and of itself, as is the medley of Dean's classic Volare and On An Evening in Roma. This is followed by almost ten minutes of hilarious dialogue, after which Dean wraps up the show with his closing theme of Mr. Wonderful.



As I said, if you want Dean's romantic ballads, you'll need to go to his studio recordings; there are only a limited number of moments in which Dean truly unleashes his uniquely powerful voice over the course of this performance. The sound quality, while good, is also far from perfect. There is just no fullness to the sound of the music or Dean's voice, but given the nature of this performance this is not the type of problem it would have been had Dino been crooning romantic ballads for an hour without taking a break (or a drink). This is vintage Dean Martin the entertainer, and he elicits more laughter from his audience than most successful comedians can even dream of. Rarely have I laughed so much and enjoyed a performance so completely as I did this historic recording of Dean Martin Live From the Sands."