Dino, Desi & Billy - History

History

Dino Martin, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Billy Hinsche first met in grammar school. Due to the family connections of Dino and Desi, the band's first audition was for Frank Sinatra, who owned Reprise Records, the recording label for Dean Martin. On most of their records, they did not play their own instruments, but used top session players, producers and songwriters. Producers included Lee Hazlewood, Billy Strange and Jimmy Bowen. Songwriters whose compositions were recorded by the group included Lee Hazlewood, David Gates, Boyce and Hart, Clint Ballard, Jr. and Bonner & Gordon.

Dino, Desi & Billy's best known songs were "I'm a Fool" (1965; U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #17) and "Not the Lovin' Kind" (1965; U.S. #25). Both were hits for the group before any group member had reached the age of 15. Following this success, they toured as an opening act for the Beach Boys in 1965. The group also opened for Paul Revere & the Raiders, Tommy Roe, Sam the Sham, the Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas and the Papas.

The band did not have a top 40 hit after 1965, despite releasing records for five years thereafter. The group's contributions to music history have been met with critically mixed reactions. Respected critic Richie Unterberger describes the band as a group that "never had an ounce of credibility", with music that was "innocuously bland in the extreme, making The Monkees...sound positively innovative and hard-nosed in comparison." He further contends that the resources devoted to Dino, Desi & Billy in an effort to make them successful took away valuable support needed by other bands at the time, such as label mates The Kinks: Dino, Desi & Billy "took away valuable air time and sales from much better groups that really needed it, in an era in which chart considerations were much more vital to ensure an ongoing career." These sentiments may be contrasted with the fact that the band was well thought of by the Beach Boys, to the extent that Brian Wilson co-wrote with Billy Hinsche one of the band's original songs, and their final single, "Lady Love".

The group released one album in 1965 and three albums in 1966. In contrast to the albums of other pop artists at that time, Dino, Desi & Billy albums contained primarily cover versions of Top 40 songs made popular by others, with original content being minor. The three boys make an appearance in the Dean Martin Film Murderers' Row and sing the Boyce & Hart song, "If You're Thinkin' What I'm Thinkin'". From 1966 to 1970, the group continued to release singles, encountering marginal success, which was not altered by a change of label to Columbia Records in 1969. Also in 1969, the group contributed three songs to the soundtrack of the surf film Follow Me. The group received top billing on the soundtrack album, despite the fact that most of the album featured music by composer Stu Phillips. Later in 1969, the group broke up, due in part to Desi joining his mother's television show and Hinsche wishing to commence university studies. The group's last single, "Lady Love", was released by Reprise Records in 1970, after the group had broken up.

Dean Paul Martin became a tennis player, actor and a captain in the California Air National Guard. He was married to actress Olivia Hussey and figure skater Dorothy Hamill, and was killed while piloting a military jet in 1987.

In 1996, Sundazed Records released The Rebel Kind: The Best of Dino, Desi & Billy, in which all of the group's singles and other non-cover material was collected for the first time on one album.

From 1998 to 2010, a reconfiguration of the group, known as "Ricci, Desi, & Billy", performed at various times, in addition to releasing two live albums. The band performed new material and the original hits, with Ricci Martin, the youngest son of singer Dean Martin, replacing his late older brother, Dean Paul Martin.