In 1966, Dean Martin was at the top of his game and near the peak of his stardom when he decided to give his fans a gift for the holidays. The Dean Martin Christmas Album featured ten songs of the season, interpreted by Martin in his trademark full-bodied but easygoing style, with his longtime studio sidekicks Jimmy Bowen (producer) and Bill Justis and Ernie Freeman (arrangers) helping to give the music the right Yuletide glow. The Dean Martin Christmas Album was the only holiday album Martin recorded during his nearly two-decade tenure with Reprise Records, and became a perennial favorite of fans of the legendary barroom crooner. [In 2006, a re-sequenced version of The Dean Martin Christmas Album was released under the title My Christmas Album; the album was given a CD reissue in its original running order in 2017.] ~ Mark Deming