When You're Smiling

Ballad singer, light comedian, sometime dramatic screen actor and colourful Chief Deputy of the 'Rat Pack', Dean Martin was the essence of devil-may-care, the epitome of nonchalance. Born Dino Paul Crocetti, the son of an immigrant Italian barber, in Steubenville, Ohio, on 17 June 1917, after quitting school in the 10th grade he was employed as shoe-shine boy, petrol pump attendant, steel mill labourer and (it is said) 'card shark', before turning full-time to pugilism where, billed variously as 'Kid Crochet' or 'Kid Crocetti', his bouts in the category of welterweight earned him $10 per fight. The shine of being a human punch-bag soon wore off, however, and he next took up employment as a croupier in a local casino while vocalising in his spare time.

By 1940, as 'Dino Martini', he had turned in earnest to singing for a living, as vocalist first with Ernie McKay and the following year with the Sammy Watkins band. After the US entry into World War II he was excused military service on health grounds and, with a wife and children to support, continued to sing with various bands for the duration of hostilities. Dean's first records, made in 1946 for Diamond and the almost exclusively 'race' Apollo label, included revivals of time-honoured standards such as Walkin' My Baby Back Home (1930) and All Of Me (1931) as well as 'covers' of more recent fare, notably I Got The Sun In The Morning (from the Irving Berlin Broadway musical Annie, Get Your Gun, 1946). None were particularly successful, nor did they bring Dean his much-needed first break, which would materialise from another direction.