Pre-Owned This Time I'm Swingin'/Pretty Baby (CD 0724385454622) by Dean Martin

0724385454622. Pre-owned: Good condition. CD. This British two-fer combines Dean Martin's fourth (This Time I'm Swingin'!, 1960) and second (Pretty Baby, 1957) regular studio albums onto one CD. The later album, heard first, was Martin's initial collaboration with conductor/arranger Nelson Riddle. It was an easy, swinging collection with appealing horn charts and a series of comfortable readings of recent and vintage standards. Especially notable were the two songs borrowed from My Fair Lady, "On the Street Where You Live" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," which Martin and Riddle re-imagined as straightforward love songs; "You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You" (not the hit recording), and a solo version of "Just in Time," which the singer had recently done with Judy Holliday in the film version of the musical Bells Are Ringing. This Time I'm Swingin'! was a good, confident set by an artist who had figured out how to make competent albums without expending a lot of effort, which was a key to his charm. Though less distinguished, Pretty Baby, made under the baton of Lee Gillette, was a 12-song set of ballads, among them semi-standards (and Bing Crosby hits) like "It's Easy to Remember" and "Only Forever." Martin didn't seem particularly involved, and the gimmicky female backup accompaniment undercut the romantic mood, making this a less satisfying album than it might have been. Still, with both albums out of print in the U.S., the two-fer is a relatively economic way to obtain them. Note that, though it was recorded in stereo, This Time I'm Swingin'! is presented here in mono. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi