Dean Martin - I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am (1969/2018)

By 1969, Dean Martin had scaled back his recording activities dramatically, devoting about two three-hour sessions per year on successive days in the spring to cut a single ten-track album. That's what he did on June 11 and 12 to make another album of Hollywood-style country-pop for release as I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am. The title track was a recent country hit by Merle Haggard that Martin must have recognized as being in the style of Roger Miller's "King of the Road," a song he had covered, and "Houston," a song with which he had scored a hit. It was one of those jocular hobo numbers, and Martin handled it with his usual humor and nonchalance. Billy Mize's "Make It Rain," meanwhile, sounded like the songwriter had been listening carefully to the word-heavy style of John Hartford, whose "Gentle on My Mind" had been the title track of Martin's previous album. And Martin also cut "Little Green Apples," another country crossover hit written by Bobby Russell, who had written "Honey," also covered on Martin's last album. In other words, I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am sounded a lot like its predecessor. Producer Jimmy Bowen was just trying to repeat previous successes, and the result was a bit tired. No wonder Martin was taking more interest in his golf game than in his recording activities. Unfortunately, his public was beginning to catch on to his disaffection and to respond in kind; the album marked a big drop-off in the singer's sales.