Dean Martin finally got access to conductor/arranger Nelson Riddle for an album project, and the result was an easy swinging collection with appealing horn charts and a series of comfortable readings of recent and vintage standards. Especially notable were the two songs borrowed from My Fair Lady, "On the Street Where You Live" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," which Martin and Riddle re-imagined as straight-forward love songs; "You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You" (which Martin would try again in a more contemporary arrangement four years later for one of his biggest hits); and a solo version of "Just in Time," which the singer had recently done with Judy Holliday in the film version of the musical Bells Are Ringing. This Time I'm Swingin'! was a good, confident set by an artist who had figured out how to make competent albums without expending a lot of effort, which was a key to his charm.

The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 5 collects more pop and rock holiday tunes, this time venturing further into the '70s and '80s with songs like Paul McCartney & Wings' "Wonderful Christmastime," Hall & Oates' "Jingle Bell Rock," and Barry Manilow's "It's Just Another New Year's Eve." The collection still features traditional pop chestnuts, including Dean Martin's "A Marshmallow World," Johnny Mathis' "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)," and Andy Williams' "Sleigh Ride," but this volume's overall feel is more contemporary than classic. Other highlights include Manhattan Transfer's "A Christmas Love Song," the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping," the Tokens' "Little Drummer Boy," and the Jackson 5's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." If The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 5 isn't necessarily the most coherent volume in the series, it's certainly one of the most interesting.

This overlooked gem has thirty two tracks of great music. The list includes: Herbie Hancock, Lou Donaldson, Stan Kenton, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Candido, Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell and Willie Bobo among others. In fact you get two compact discs of latin fused jazz.

Dutch reissue label Disky's Golden Greats series of triple CDs of the works of major pop singers takes advantage of the European copyright law that releases recordings more than 50 years old into the public domain. When it comes to people like Billie Holiday and Judy Garland, that puts a substantial number of the artists' recordings at the label's disposal for no charge. Dean Martin is another story. Something of a late bloomer, he didn't start to take off as a recording artist until 1953, when "That's Amore" became his first gold record. But given that this album was released in 2002, that and Martin's later hits were off-limits to Disky.

Includes the following albums - Pretty Baby, Sleep Warm, A Winter Romance, This Time I'm Swinging, Dino Italian, Love Songs, Cha Cha Cha De Amour, Free Style, Dino Latino.

He may have played second banana to Jerry Lewis and (later) Frank Sinatra, but whether he was in the studio or in front of a crowd, no one carried a song (or performance) quite like Dean Martin. Martin's interpretive skills were extraordinary, and he could go from the slickest of clowning to the smoothest of crooning in a heartbeat. Collected Cool, his first career-spanning box set, came along surprisingly late, but it's no less impressive for the late arrival. A four-disc set, it includes one disc of Capitol recordings (the '50s), one disc of Reprise recordings (the '60s through the '80s), one audio disc of a concert in Lake Tahoe from 1962, and a DVD featuring a London concert from 1983. The audio portion is an excellent selection of hits and neglected classics, with a few unreleased nuggets – all of which deserved the excavation. The 1962 show is riotous and very entertaining, with Martin repurposing standards into new songs like "Almost Like Losin' My Mind" (instead of being in love) and "I Love Tahoe" (instead of Paris). The 1983 show is slightly more staid, and features more of the country material Martin turned to later in his career. It's easy to wish that the earlier concert was available on video, especially since some of the jokes are visual and lost on an audio-only audience, but Collected Cool functions extremely well as the best possible overview of the aspects that made Dean Martin a star – his peerless voice and, equally, his distinctively cool and clowning way with a crowd.

The soundtrack to the period gangster movie Donnie Brasco highlights the music of the film's 1970s milieu, including hits from Electric Light Orchestra, Blondie, the Trammps, Neil Diamond, Dean Martin, The Miracles, Herbie Hancock.

There are some really nice tunes on this soundtrack to the excellent film "Grumpier Old Men". The highlights for me are the songs by Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, Harry Belafonte, Doris Day, Nat King Cole and the couple of instrumentals by composer Alan Silvestri. These are the recordings that will remind you of the fun that GOM provided to those fortunate to see legends Lemmon, Matthau, Meredith, Ann-Margaret and Sophia Loren (holy moly) in their last great film together. The only pity is that because the first films soundtrack is not available to buy, that the song from that film "We're Having A Heatwave" is not here. Sound quality is excellent and joyous.

A relaxed, easy vocal stylist who clowned with the Rat Pack, developing into an extremely popular ballad singer and light comedian.