Rat Pack relations), Swifty Lazar (recording secretary and treasurer), Nathaniel Benchley (historian), David Niven, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, George Cukor, Cary Grant, Rex Harrison, and Jimmy Van Heusen. In his autobiography "The Moon's a Balloon", David Niven confirms that the Rat Pack originally included him but neither Sammy Davis, Jr. nor Dean Martin. The 1960s version of the group included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Marilyn Monroe, Angie Dickinson, Juliet Prowse, Buddy Greco, and Shirley MacLaine were often referred to as the "Rat Pack Mascots". The post-Bogart version of the group (Bogart died in 1957)
Starring Sammy Davis Jr. released five months later. The Allmusic review by William Ruhlmann awarded the album three and a half stars and said that the final track "The Birth of the Blues", "succeeded in giving the listener a sense of what Davis was like in live performance". Starring Sammy Davis Jr. Starring Sammy Davis Jr. is the debut studio album by Sammy Davis Jr., recorded in 1955. Five of the songs on "Starring Sammy Davis Jr." had been previously released as singles ("Hey There," "And This Is My Beloved," "Because of You," "Glad to Be Unhappy," and "Birth of the Blues"), one of