Dean Martin was a star of movies, nightclubs and records. But he hadn’t had a big hit single in years.
The song that changed that was an old one. “Everybody Loves Somebody” was written back in 1947 by Irving Taylor and Ken Lane. Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee had both recorded it years earlier, without much success.
Ken Lane was Dean’s piano player. At the end of a recording session, he suggested Dean give the old song a try.
Dean liked the new version so much that he made his son a promise.
“I’m gonna knock your pallies off the charts,” he told him.
And he did. On August 15, 1964, “Everybody Loves Somebody” knocked the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
It became Dean Martin’s signature song. When he got his own TV show the next year, he used it as the theme song. The show ran from 1965 to 1974.
In this clip from a 1964 TV performance, you can see why America loved him. That easy smile, the relaxed swagger, and that smooth voice.
The song meant so much to Dean that the words “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime” are written on his grave marker.
In 1999, the recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Do you remember watching The Dean Martin Show? Tell us in the comments.
