Driving, riding, roads and of course cars themselves have all been immortalized by writers, composers and musicians around the world. Auto Tune is our way to spotlight a unique transportation song to celebrate these “ridden” gems along with the artists or composers who crafted them. Some you may know, many we’re sure you don’t.

In the mid to late ‘60s it was hard to find anyone cooler than Dean Martin. Not only did he have a top-rated variety show, but he was the anti-James Bond playing the tongue-in-cheek secret agent Matt Helm as well as a recording powerhouse for his buddy Frank Sinatra’s label Reprise. It’s the latter that leads us to this week’s Auto Tune.

Because he was so popular, Dean was putting albums out two, sometimes three, per year. Buoyed by young producer Jimmy Bowen who always managed to find the right mix of songs for Dean’s Reprise releases, the team gave us “Remember Me” (I’m The One Who Loves You) in 1965. The last track on the album is a little chestnut written by Peter Graves (no, not Peter Graves the actor) and produced by Bob Gaudio (yes that Bob Gaudio from the Four Seasons).

The song was called “Bumming Around” and it featured Dean, doing his best hobo imitation for about 2:43. He had his “old slouch hat” and his ”roll on his shoulder” as he toured around town without a care in the world. The song doesn’t translate well to 2015 but just to hear Dean pretend to play a down on his luck laborer just hanging out in all the right spots shows how different today’s music is from just 50 years ago. But in spite of the generational differences this a great Auto Tune from one of the coolest cats to nudge up to a microphone ever.

- Chip Drake, Executive Producer, Autoline

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