Dean Martin's classic croon projected the kind of warm confidence that you'd expect from a Rat Pack founder. In the '50s, the Ohio-born Italian-American became a huge star thanks to the tunes he chose to record - classically poignant and witty gems of regret, romance and yearning. He was, among many other things, a master interpreter of songs with influences ranging from big band swing to opera to country music, and in 1964 he was still the ultimate king of martini cool, even knocking The Beatles off the top of the US singles chart. His star ascended into TV, stage and film, and he died in 1995 a cultural legend.