Wikipedia

The Dean Martin Christmas Album

The Dean Martin Christmas Album is a 1966 studio album by Dean Martin arranged by Ernie Freeman and Bill Justis.[2]

The Dean Martin Christmas Album
Studio album by
Dean Martin
ReleasedOctober 1966[1]
RecordedSeptember 1966
GenreChristmas, traditional pop, jazz
LabelReprise - R/RS 6222
ProducerJimmy Bowen
Dean Martin chronology
The Hit Sound of Dean Martin
(1966) 		The Dean Martin Christmas Album
(1966) 		The Dean Martin TV Show
(1966)

Release

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This was Martin's only album of Christmas music released on Reprise Records (his only other Christmas album, A Winter Romance, having been released in 1959 on Capitol Records). It was reissued on CD by Hip-O Records in 2008, retitled A Very Cool Christmas.[2]

This was the fourth of five albums Martin released in 1966.[1] Billboard magazine reported in its December 3, 1966 issue that The Dean Martin Christmas Album was on top of its "Best Bets for Christmas" chart.[3]

The release of The Dean Martin Christmas Album in October and The Dean Martin TV Show in November 1966 were accompanied by what Billboard described as a "merchandising avalanche"[4] by Reprise Records and their parent company Warner Music.[4] Billboard described Martin as running the "hottest streak of his career", and said that Reprise planned to sell $4 million of his records over the Christmas sales period.[4] Billboard later reported that Martin had sold 850,000 albums in December 1966.[5]

Ricci James Martin, Martin's son, wrote in a biography of his father that The Dean Martin Christmas Album was the only one of his father's albums that was played in the Martin household; his parents seldom listened to Dean Martin's music.[6]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [2]

Reviewing A Very Cool Christmas (a 2008 CD reissue of the Dean Martin Christmas Album) on Allmusic.com, William Ruhlmann gave the album three and a half stars out of five. Ruhlmann commented that Martin was in a "typically easygoing, good-natured mood on these tracks...He sings the seasonal material with the same nonchalance he gave to pop music of the period".[2]

Track listing

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  1. "White Christmas" (Irving Berlin) – 2:55
  2. "Jingle Bells" (James Pierpont)
  3. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (Kim Gannon, Walter Kent, Buck Ram)
  4. "Blue Christmas" (Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson) – 2:17
  5. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) – 1:57
  6. "A Marshmallow World" (Peter DeRose, Carl Sigman) – 2:44
  7. "Silver Bells" (Ray Evans, Jay Livingston)
  8. "Winter Wonderland" (Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith)
  9. "The Things We Did Last Summer" (Cahn, Styne) – 2:42
  10. "Silent Night" (Franz Gruber, Josef Mohr)

Personnel

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Charts

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Chart performance for The Dean Martin Christmas Album
Chart (1966–2024) Peak
position
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[7] 17
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[8] 78
US Billboard 200[9] 27
US Top Holiday Albums (Billboard)[10] 16

References

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  1. ^ a b Nick Tosches (13 April 1999). Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams. Random House Publishing Group. p. 539. ISBN 978-0-385-33429-7. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d A Very Cool Christmas at AllMusic
  3. ^ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (3 December 1966). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 56–. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 17 February 2013. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  4. ^ a b c Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (5 November 1966). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 10–. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 16 February 2013. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  5. ^ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (4 February 1967). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 3–. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 3 March 2013. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ Ricci Martin; Christopher Smith (1 October 2004). That's Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin. Taylor Trade Publications. pp. 131–. ISBN 978-1-58979-140-4. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  7. ^ "Billboard Canadian Albums Chart: January 4, 2023". Billboard. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  8. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Dean Martin – The Dean Martin Christmas Album" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  9. ^ "Billboard 200: January 6, 2024". Billboard. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  10. ^ "Top Holiday Albums Chart: December 19, 2020". Billboard. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
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