Records Room

by William RuhlmannDean Martin's final sessions for Capitol Records before his switch to Frank Sinatra's Reprise label produced this curious LP, which sought to take advantage of the long-subsided craze for cha-cha music. It was Martin's second album under the baton of Nelson Riddle, who must also have been itching to join Reprise (as he did by 1963). In any case, both artists turned in competent but uninspired performances. Martin could sing as easily over charts filled with peppy horns and Latin percussion as he could over anything else, but the music did not especially move him, and the result was an odd coda to the Capitol years.