Not Enough Indians/That Old Time Feelin’/Honey/Welcome To My Heart/By The Time I Get To Phoenix/Gentle On My Mind/That’s When I See The Blues/Rainbows Are Back In Style/Drowning In My Tears/April Again
Relaxed rat pack crooner Dean Martin's long run of top twenty albums came to an end with Gentle On My Mind. The title track hit single reached No. 2 in the UK. (US:14 UK:9)
"By the late '60s, Dean Martin was spending less and less time in the recording studio as his days as a pop singles act were behind him. Producer Jimmy Bowen chose the best of the then current country-pop scene and had Martin cover recent hits like Bobby Goldsboro's Honey and Glen Campbell's By The Time I Get To Phoenix and Gentle On My Mind. Martin, if possible, seems even more comfortable with this material and these arrangements than he had with the more uptempo tracks he and Bowen had done in previous years. But his nonchalance also robs some of the songs of force. It's hard to tell that Honey is about a tragic death, or that By The Time I Get To Phoenix concerns a man desperate to leave a bad love affair behind. Martin simply meets every lyric and every chart with the same easygoing charm, and for his fans, that's more than enough."
"When Dean Martin sings it's like listening to silk; and Gentle On My Mind is no exception. Dean sounds great. Even in the late 1960s he could still take any tune and make it sound singularly beautiful. The quality of the music on the album is excellent."
"Not Dean's best Reprise work, but there are some real gems here. Two of the cuts are just plain fun - Not Enough Indians and Rainbows Are Back In Style, unusual, playful arrangement on the latter."
"The first song, Not Enough Indians, is just about my very favourite style of country. The musical arrangement uses the brass and the strings to great advantage, and Dean never falters. The backup chorus helps out even though Dean didn't need it, but it sounds good anyway. I really like Welcome To My Heart which charms me with its beauty; Dean swings lightly to make this tune memorable and he was still every bit the champ he always was. Another highlight is a cover of Glen Campbell's By The Time I Get To Phoenix; Dean sings this with panache and I'm very impressed with Gentle On My Mind which is absolutely wonderful; Dean sings this Glen Campbell hit so well that I actually prefer it to Glen's rendition."
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