After putting five Dean Martin albums into release in 1966, Reprise may have felt it could afford a breather in 1967, and the label waited until spring to put out the first of its two Martin LPs for the year.

Then, too, with Martin hosting a weekly television show and starring in three movies in 1966, the public may have been becoming sated with the entertainer; another reason for delaying a new album was that Martin's recent singles had not performed so well.

After eight consecutive Top 40 hits between 1964 and 1966, his 45s began struggling to make the middle of the pop charts (although they continued to soar into the Top Ten of the easy listening charts).

Mid-chart entries "Nobody's Baby Again," "(Open Up the Door) Let the Good Times In," and "Lay Some Happiness on Me," all of them arranged in the soft rock style of "Everybody Loves Somebody," didn't seem to justify tie-in LPs.

All three, along with their B-sides, were rounded up for Happiness Is Dean Martin, which meant that more than half the album consisted of tracks that had been released previously on singles.

The rest were in the familiar country-pop style Martin had been pursuing for the past few years, the most impressive being a recasting of the old Patsy Cline hit "She's Got You" as "He's Got You." But the declining sales curve of Martin's releases indicated it was time to find a new formula.