This Dean Martin Hit Single From 1964 Was Actually Written for Frank Sinatra Instead

Among Dean Martin’s many hits is the song “Everybody Loves Somebody”. The title track of an album Martin also released that year, “Everybody Loves Somebody” was written by Irving Taylor, Ken Lane, and Sam Coslow, but it was not written for Martin. Instead, the songwriters wrote “Everybody Loves Somebody” with Frank Sinatra in mind.

Indeed, Sinatra did record a version of “Everybody Loves Somebody” in 1948, although his version did not do well on the radio.

“Everybody Loves Somebody” begins with, “Everybody loves somebody sometime / Everybody falls in love somehow / Something in your kiss just told me / My sometime is now / Everybody finds somebody someplace / There’s no telling where love may appear / Something in my heart keeps saying / My someplace is here.”

A No. 1 single for Martin, it was his first hit since “Volare” came out in 1958.  After releasing “Everybody Loves Somebody”, Martin had several more subsequent hit singles, including “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You”, “Send Me the Pillow You Dream On”, “Houston”, “In The Misty Moonlight”, and more.

In 1971, Martin had the final Top 40 hit of his career as a solo artist, with “She’s A Little Bit Country”. The song also became a Top 5 country single. In 1983, Martin had another Top 40 at country radio with a duet with Conway Twitty, appropriately called “My First Country Song”. 

The Significance of Dean Martin Releasing “Everybody Loves Somebody”

Martin not only returned to the charts with “Everybody Loves Somebody”, but he also achieved something Elvis Presley couldn’t do. When “Everybody Loves Somebody” reached No. 1, the song knocked The Beatles’ two-week No. 1 single, “A Hard Day’s Night”, from the top spot on the charts. Martin later gave Presley a hard time for not being able to do the same. Presley did have several hits in 1964, including “Viva Las Vegas” and “What A Night”, although none had the success of Martin’s “Everybody Loves Somebody”.

Martin reportedly sent Presley a telegram that said, “If you can’t handle the Beatles, I’ll do it for you, pally.”

Later, Presley decided to cover the song while Martin was in attendance at one of his shows, getting a laugh out of Martin.

“Everybody Loves Somebody” is part of the soundtrack of several movies. Among the films that used “Everybody Loves Somebody” are The Last Days Of Disco and Reckless. It has also been part of numerous TV shows, including Friends, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, and Falcon Crest.

Photo Credit: Getty Images