I recently read Jake Tapper’s novel The Devil May Dance and it prompted me to look more into some of the music from the 60s. The book centers around the main character, Congressman Charlie Marder, and the Rat Pack. The Rat Pack were a group from the 50s to around the 80s that consisted of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford. The main three being Davis Jr., Sinatra, and Martin. Their music individually and collaboratively has impacted much of the world today and I thought it would be fun to share what I found.

These three main Rat Packers were always doing live performances individually. It was when Martin and Davis Jr. started heckling Sinatra during his performances that they decided to put on a show together. A show that consisted of comedy and music. One of their most famous performances was fit into the album The Rat Pack: Live At The Sands. The Sands was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Naturally, when I found this full performance on this album on Spotify, I had to give it a listen. 

The performance starts off with Dean Martin being introduced. He sings a few songs like “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes” and his famous “Via Veneto.” During these performances, along with a few other songs, Martin talked with the audience and made jokes with them. The way he sang and made jokes at the same time with the audience was amazing. He would even sing jokes to the audience sometimes. 

After Martin’s last song, Sinatra was introduced with his hit song “Ring-A-Ding-Ding.” After this, he went on to perform “I Only Have Eyes For You” and one of my personal favorites of his, “Call Me Irresponsible.” Similarly to Martin, Sinatra was making jokes here and there with the audience.He sang a few more songs including “Please Be Kind” and the iconic “Luck Be A Lady” before he took a break from singing and put on a comedy segment with Martin. 

This segment was very funny and it really showed how naturally comedic these two were. It demonstrated the talent of back then and made me realize that a lot of the jokes they told back then, are similar to the ones that comedians say nowadays. 

After Martin and Sinatra’s segment, Sammy Davis Jr. came in and performed “The Lady Is A Tramp.” He then went on to do his famous impressions of a bunch of singers while singing Sinatra’s song “All The Way.” Once that was up, the three did another comedy performance in which you could tell they were enjoying themselves and having fun.

After this, Martin and Sinatra sang two of the songs from Sinatra’s musical film Guys and Dolls. These songs were “Guys And Dolls” and “The Oldest Established (Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York).” Talk about a long title for a song. Once that was over, Davis Jr. introduced all of the band that was performing with them that night and then the three Rat Packers sang “The Oldest Establishment” and closed with “Ring-A-Ding-Ding.”

I describe it to you in detail because it is so hard to find a video of this live performance specifically. There were other performances that I saw where the three had fun and sang together like they did here.

This performance is not only significant for the world of music but also for civil rights. Sammy Davis Jr. was a black performer who was best friends with Sinatra. Davis Jr. was the one who integrated the Las Vegas Strip. When the group was filming Ocean’s Eleven, they would go around the strip and gamble in the casinos. Davis Jr. wasn’t allowed to perform or enter the casinos because of his race. Sinatra responded by threatening to cancel production of the movie and leave Las Vegas. Having Sinatra in his corner was a huge deal for Davis. These events would eventually become important for civil rights legislation in the 60s.