- Martin’s superb 1959 release makes its Hot Stamper debut here with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout
- Richer, warmer, more natural, more relaxed, this is what vintage analog is all about, that smooth, tonally correct sound that never calls attention to itself and never gives you the sense that someone tried to “fix” it
- One of the man’s few recordings for Capitol with audiophile potential (and rare in unmarked condition) – it features arrangements by the great Pete King and an orchestra conducted by none other than Frank Sinatra
- 4 stars: “Martin brought more attention to the sessions than usual, and the sympathetic string arrangements supported his romantic vocals, making this one of his best album releases.”
This vintage Capitol stereo pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely begin to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back.
Having done this for so long, we understand and appreciate that rich, full, solid, Tubey Magical sound is key to the presentation of this primarily vocal music. We rate these qualities higher than others we might be listening for (e.g., bass definition, soundstage, depth, etc.).
Hot Stamper sound is rarely about the details of a given recording. In the case of this album, more than anything else a Hot Stamper must succeed at recreating a solid, palpable, real Dean Martin singing live in your listening room. The better copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.
If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but less than one out of 100 new records do, if our experience with the hundreds we’ve played over the years can serve as a guide.
What the best sides of Sleep Warm have to offer is not hard to hear:
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1959
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional space of the studio
No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
Copies with rich lower mids and nice extension up top did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we’ve heard them all.
Top end extension is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural air and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.
Tube smear is common to most vintage pressings and this is no exception. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich.
What We’re Listening For on Sleep Warm
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness common to most LPs.
- Tight, note-like bass with clear fingering — which ties in with good transient information, as well as the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the players.
- Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, way behind the speakers. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would have put them.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
Sleep Warm
Hit The Road To Dreamland
Dream
Cuddle Up A Little Closer
Sleepy Time Gal
Good Night Sweetheart
Side Two
All I Do Is Dream Of You
Let’s Put Out The Lights
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
Goodnight, My Love
Brahms’ Lullaby
AMG 4 Star Review
On only his third full-length, 12-inch LP recorded as such, Dean Martin finally found a way to construct an album in the style of pal and rival Frank Sinatra’s highly successful concept LPs: Bring Sinatra in as the conductor. (The arrangements are by Pete King.)
Repose was Sinatra’s chosen theme, and he selected a set of songs well-suited to Martin’s bedroom voice, from Johnny Mercer’s “Dream” and “Hit the Road to Dreamland” to “Let’s Put Out the Lights (And Go to Sleep)” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” Just as on a Sinatra theme album, the title track was written to order, in this case by Lew Spence with lyrics by Marilyn Keith and her husband-to-be, Alan Bergman.
Martin brought more attention to the sessions than usual, and the sympathetic string arrangements supported his romantic vocals, making this one of his best album releases.