Dino, Desi & Billy: Tinseltown Teenbeat at its Most Tuneful
The sons of Hollywood royalty get the star treatment
When I was a little kid, I happily watched the Monkees on TV. I definitely dug the so-called Prefab Four, although the only Monkees melody I remember from that time is the “(Theme From) The Monkees” which kicked off every episode. I recall going to the shopping center with my mother and asking her to buy me a copy of the teen fan magazine 16 which depicted Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones et al. on the cover. When I got back home I poured over the mag and, besides the material on the Monkees, I noticed an article on a group called Dino, Desi & Billy. I must’ve been seven at the time and although the trio was at least twice as old as me, it was still apparent that they looked a fair bit younger than the fellows in the Monkees. That made sense considering the group was made up of teen-aged boys who, as it turned out, were loved by teenyboppers. Unlike the Monkees, Dino, Desi & Billy were completely new to me. I found out courtesy of that copy of 16 that Dino and Desi were the spawn of Hollywood royalty, the former the offspring of suave singer/movie star Dean Martin and the latter the son of sitcom stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Now at this point in my life, I had no idea who Dean Martin was, but I was familiar with Lucille Ball since I watched her popular mid-Sixties program, The Lucy Show. As for the third fellow in this musical trio, Billy Hinsche, well, he didn’t seem to be related to anyone famous, but it turned out that his folks were friends with Dino and Desi’s parents.
I never actually heard Dino, Desi & Billy’s songs at this time and, years later, their first hit from 1965 (#17 in the States), “I’m a Fool”, rarely popped up on the oldies radio airwaves. The group only had one other American hit but managed to make it to the Canadian Top 40 five more times.
By my late adolescence, I had seriously begun investigating the music made by both well-known and obscure bands from the ‘60s, but Dino, Desi & Billy weren’t on my radar at all. I eventually fell in love with a tune I heard on a mix-tape entitled “The Rebel Kind” by the Chicks, a female New Zealand duo whose vocals were backed up by some ferocious fuzz guitar riffing. This 1966 number defiantly and proudly proclaimed teenagers’ rights to dress they wanted to.
It was only a matter of time before I discovered that the original version of that number had been recorded by Dino, Desi & Billy and written by the legendary Lee Hazlewood. Well, I simply had to hear this rendition, found it on a used 45, and enjoyed it as much as the Chicks’ fab attempt at the song.
Other Dino, Desi & Billy records, both 7-inch singles and LPs, found their way into my hands, and it was obvious that when it came to their stronger tunes, I was in for some delightful garage rock and harmony pop made by teens for teens, albeit with the careful help of experienced studio musicians and songwriters. Now, how did these two sons of showbiz parents and their friend get together in the first place?
Billy Hinsche and Dino Martin, who were both were born in 1951, met while attending a Beverly Hills school in the late Fifties. Other children of Tinseltown celebrities went to school with them, including Desi Arnaz Jr. (born in ‘53). Billy was adept at the violin and piano while the guitar was Dino’s instrument of choice. The two lads, inspired by the Beatles’ invasion of America in 1964, teamed up to play acoustic numbers by British beat duos Peter & Gordon and Chad & Jeremy. One day at school, Desi impressed Dino and Billy by demonstrating his skills as a drummer. Dino and Billy had signed up to perform at a school talent show and, lacking a skins-beater, asked Desi to join them. The rest, as they say, is history.
But if you aren’t hip to that history, please bear with me as I continue to tell the story of this lucky trio. For blessed they were since after getting a solid handle on their craft, Dino, Desi & Billy successfully auditioned for Dean Martin’s Rat Pack pal Frank Sinatra who had founded Reprise Records a few years earlier. The three lads impressed Ol’ Blue Eyes by playing and singing for him right in the Martin family living room. (Oh to have been a fly on the wall on that occasion!) Frankie liked what he heard, but by ‘64, he no longer owned the Reprise label. Still, he was its main star and pulled enough weight to get Dino, Desi & Billy a coveted record contract. These kids, through their crucial connections, were able to bypass the route young garage bands habitually took at the time: initially recording for a small mom ‘n’ pop label before maybe, just maybe - if they were extremely fortunate - getting picked up by a label with national distribution. Ultimately, Dino, Desi & Billy weren’t just a case of Hollywood nepotism. They had plenty of talent as their releases went on to prove.
Their debut single from November 1964 contained a good cover of the Everly Brothers’ lament, “Since You Broke My Heart”. The boys only contributed their voices to the song while the Wrecking Crew provided the instrumentation. It failed to trouble the charts and by the time their second 7” came out five months later, Dino, Desi & Billy had indeed respectively played the bass, drums, and guitar in the studio alongside the legendary LA session musicians and would continue to do so. “I’m a Fool”, with Hinsche on lead vocals, was their second A-side and a desired hit. It’s a strong “Louie Louie”/“Hang On Sloopy”-laced rocker and showed the threesome capable of getting down to the garage nitty-gritty… in a pop-ish fashion, mind you.
The task of producing D, D & B fell to former rockabilly singer Jimmy Bowen and the brilliant Lee Hazlewood. The two men took turns overseeing the group’s sessions and it was Hazlewood who was behind the console desk when “I’m a Fool” was cut. (Later in 1965, he would team up with Nancy Sinatra, providing her with her first Billboard chart success, “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’’”). “Not The Lovin’ Kind”, with its jangly folk-rock flavor, was Dino and co.’s third single and second (moderate) hit, making it to #25 in September ‘65.
This pleasant ditty found its way onto the boys’ first album released that same month, I’m a Fool. It’s a mixed bag partly consisting of a few Dylan covers and their version of the Stones’ “Satisfaction”. They’re okay, I suppose, but the main reason for getting ahold of the platter is the fact that it also includes the A-sides of their three first 45s. “The Rebel Kind” - penned and produced by Hazlewood - is the strongest track on it, but only reached #60 when released as a single in November that year. The flip side, which isn’t on I’m a Fool, is a ravin’ rendition of “Please Don’t Fight It” which the terrific New Jersey garageniks, the Knickerbockers, also cut.
By now, Dino, Desi & Billy were gracing the pages of teen music mags such as Tiger Beat, Flip, Teen Screen, and the aforementioned 16. Even if they weren’t nearly as famous as, say, the Beatles and Herman’s Hermits, their wholesome appeal didn’t pass unnoticed by adolescent girls, and their connection to showbiz stars must’ve helped to guarantee them exposure in such publications.
In the summer of 1965, D, D & B joined the some of the top acts of the day including the Righteous Brothers, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds for a concert at the renowned Hollywood Bowl. The group also benefited from TV appearances on the boss LA program Shivaree (sharing the stage with James Brown!), American Bandstand, and the Ed Sullivan show where they lip-synched to “I’m a Fool” and “Not The Lovin’ Kind”.
In 1966, Reprise was quick to flood the market with not one, not two, but three Dino, Desi & Billy albums! I guess the label wanted to take advantage of the kids’ popularity while it lasted. The LPs, Our Time’s Coming, Souvenir, and Memories Are Made Of This, each followed I’m a Fool’s template by largely consisting of a mixture of covers by contemporary hit-makers. But as in the case of their debut album, the best material on the discs was made up of tunes D,D & B put out on singles, like those concocted by songwriters like David Gates, Baker Knight, and Boyce & Hart. In fact, the group only released self-composed compositions towards the end of the decade. Rest assured I’ll get to a couple of them later in this piece.
One of the most memorable tracks on, ahem, Memories Are Made Of This was their punky plea for autonomy, “Tie Me Down”, also recorded by the Turtles. Dino, Desi & Billy’s stab at this garage grabber is almost as punchy as Howard Kaylan’s and Mark Volman’s, and it was unleashed on a 7” in March ‘66. Flip over the record and what do you get but a killer kase of Kinkdom: "It's Just The Way You Are", an impressive attempt at emulating the crunching sound of Ray Davies’ group à la “All Day and All of the Night”. The lead vocals even come off like Davies’ and you could be easily forgiven for assuming "It's Just The Way You Are" was a Kinks cut you had never heard. Unfortunately, the single didn’t chart.
Reprise Records nonetheless gave the boys the opportunity to release more 45s which they recorded in between TV appearances on The Lucy Show (naturally), The Dean Martin Show (but of course), and Shindig. The single of "Look Out Girls (Here We Come)" backed with "She's So Far Out She's In" is a must-have. These two tracks were written by Baker Knight, a songsmith responsible for tunes by Rick Nelson, members of the Rat Pack, and the psychedelically-inclined West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. This May 1966 record must’ve pleased Dino, Desi & Billy’s female fans, but as fine as it was, it went nowhere sales-wise.
This lack of chart action fortunately didn’t stop Reprise nor Dino and his buddies from continuing to put out singles even if they were done with releasing albums. I especially love this ultra-catchy Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart-penned number which was featured in the late ‘66 Matt Helm spy spoof Murderers’ Row, starring Dean Martin and Ann-Margret. In the film, one can see D, D & B miming to the song in a fun-filled discotheque scene.
“If You’re Thinkin’ What I’m Thinkin’” didn’t land on the Billboard Top 100 but actually made it to #2 here in Canada! The following single from May ‘67, “Two in the Afternoon”, was a departure for the group and marked a move away from teenbeat to more polished pop with a sumptuous orchestral background. That’s an accurate way of describing the remainder of Dino, Desi & Billy’s recorded repertoire. “Two in the Afternoon”, with its Penny Lane-like flourishes, was written by the ace songwriting duo of Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon who had been responsible for the Turtles’ smash, “Happy Together”, that same year. They also came up with the relatively lightweight “Kitty Doyle” which was released by D, D & B that August.
More importantly, the beginning of 1968 saw the release of a 45 consisting of their first original compositions, written and produced by sixteen year old Dino. On its soulfully-sung A-side, “My What a Shame”, the kid definitely showed considerable promise as a tunesmith, and in May that year, Billy Hinsche matched his friend’s budding songwriting prowess with the self-penned number, “Tell Someone You Love Them”. This impressive and beautiful melodic confection only crept into the U.S. Top 100, however.
Before Reprise finally let the boys go in 1970, one last single on the label was in store: the elegant Billy Hinsche/Brian Wilson collaboration, “Lady Love”. (You can read all about the song by checking out the Front Row & Backstage Substack. Link provided below.) Now to wrap up the tale of this teenaged trio, let me point you in the direction of a fabulous song -one of three - that Dino, Desi & Billy recorded for the soundtrack of the 1969 surfing documentary, Follow Me. “Thru Spray Colored Glasses” was written by the great TV and film score composer/producer Stu Phillips and David Gates who found fame in the group Bread. It perfectly captures the carefree California coolness of the era.
Dino, Desi & Billy eventually went their separate ways after the commercial flop of “Lady Love”. By this time, Desi was already an actor, appearing on his mother’s TV series, Here’s Lucy, as well as in a good number of other television shows and movies over the years. Dino acted in film, worked in a hospital after studying pre-med, and became a helicopter and jet pilot. He died tragically when the military plane he was flying crashed into a mountainside in 1987. After D, D & B broke up, Billy continued having a successful and accomplished career as a musician. Already in the late ‘60s, he had sung backup on Beach Boys recordings and subsequently played keyboards in their touring band for a long time. He sadly died of cancer in 2021 at the age of seventy.
Although their output could be hit and miss, Dino, Desi & Billy nevertheless did have well over an album’s worth of first-class pop/rock in them. Their earlier songs endearingly reflected the teenage “punk” stance of Boss Angeles garage bands made up of older musicians like the Standells and the Leaves. And the sophisticated harmony pop that they later recorded stands proudly alongside that of the Cyrkle, the Critters, and the Peppermint Trolley Company, for example. And that’s how this story ends… but wait! One last thing: just in case you thought that Dino, Desi & Billy were pretty precocious releasing their first records in their early teens, then, man, do you ever have another think coming! Ever hear about the Bantams? These boys were just little kids when they put out their album in 1966 and I invite you to find out about ‘em right here on Brad Kyle’s superb Substack. And now, I bid you, “Ciao!” until we meet again here on Painted Dayglo Smiles.
Thanks, Phil, for linking my coupla articles! Much appreciated! A wonderful post about an underrated pop band!