Everybody Loves Somebody [Prism]

For more than four years, from 1949 to 1953, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis hosted a weekly half-hour network radio variety series called The Martin and Lewis Show, and on each episode Martin would get to sing. This compilation, despite its unfortunately deceptive title (although there is a rendition of "Everybody Loves Somebody," of course it isn't the 1964 studio recording that was a number one hit), collects some of those performances. Although it isn't acknowledged on the cover, the selection also mixes in eight early studio recordings by Martin made prior to 1949 and is thus newly available in the public domain in Europe. The interesting point for Martin fans is that, of the 22 remaining tracks that are airchecks, 16 are performances of songs Martin never sang on commercial recordings. They include standards like "Deep Purple," "Glow Worm," and "Heart and Soul"; vintage Tin Pan Alley tunes like "For Me and My Gal," Irving Berlin's risqué "You'd Be Surprised," and the Al Jolson favorite "About a Quarter to Nine"; novelties like the World War II-era "A Hot Time in the Town of Berlin"; and even current show tunes like "Here I'll Stay" from the 1950 Kurt Weill/Alan Jay Lerner Broadway musical Love Life. Martin & Lewis team up for "That Certain Party," actually Martin's first Capitol Records single, and an uncredited Marilyn Maxwell joins Martin on "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Available at a budget price, the album may be shoddily put together, but it's worth picking up by Martin fans who don't already have copies of the singer's radio appearances and his earliest recordings. ~ William Ruhlmann