(EMI)
Herald rating: * * *
Review: Graham Reid
Nick Tosche's 1993 biography of Dean Martin, Living High In The Dirty Business Of Dreams, showed how this great talent squandered his abilities and didn't care much about anything, whether it be the movies he acted in, the songs he sang, the Mob, Sinatra
(the argument goes that Frankie only ever wanted to be as cool as Dino), the women he slept with ....
None of it mattered much to Martin. He just moved through it all, increasingly detached.
This second volume which follows 1998's excellent first set (which had all the hits) is still kinda fun: he signs off C'est Si Bon telling Frank he'd be surprised how much good stuff there is around in Paris (all those "mam-zellies"), delivers up an easy swinging version of On The Street Where You Live and over late-night sax'n'strings actually makes an effort on the always gorgeous You Belong To Me.
But in these 21 tracks we also hear the squandering of the gift: he justifiably laughs his way through stupid Mambo Italiano.
It's a measure of how little Martin cared that he offers I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am with no discernible irony.
And that the final three here are a cover of Roger Miller's King Of The Road, the unpromisingly titled My Rifle, My Pony And Me from the Rio Bravo soundtrack and finally Bumming Around, which is his My Way.
That Martin delivers them all with equally winning indolence and that they all sound pretty good is proof that, like Elvis, he could sing anything. And, like Elvis, sometimes unfortunately did.
