Nat King Cole - Year by Year - Part 1

Tim: Many thanks. Great info here. Interesting that Love is the Thing was his first album to go Gold.
The first number one album was the very first, however, way back in 1944-45....

 

An aspect of the jazz-pop world in 1955 was the relative accessibility of many compared to the (safer) email of today.

I happened to look in my copy of Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz, 1955. The last line in most entries is the home address for the person.

So here we are: Nat King Cole

Address: 401 South Muirfield Rd., Hollywood 5, Cal.​

And a picture I found of Nat's house. In the picture you can read the street sign on the lamp post --Muirfield Rd.

On page 20 of the L-O-V-E book, you have this memorable vignette:

 

a recordable, and reusable small data disc that recorded digitally. they are a wonderful invention, the portable players were amazing...sort of the bridge between cd discmen and mp3 players. they did a bit of compression to get 80 minutes of music on a disc not much bigger than a quarter, which was encased in that protective plastic case Clark so cleverly labels.

I loved and still love the mini disc and its my "cassette" if you will of my stereo. I use it now mostly for taping off the radio and playing so many great mixes I once made...both portables I have still work fine, unlike so many discmen of my past....

 

A Minidisc is basically a small recordanle CD but in a hard-plastic, protective case. Eahc disc gives you up to 80 minutes of virtually compression-free recording time in stereo, or up to 160 minutes in mono. (You can add compression to double or triple your recording times, which is OK for voice recordings, but not music, obviouly.)

The great advantage to Minidisc over cassette or even CD is that each disc is easily rewritable and you can move tracks around or delete and add tracks with a touch of a button. I also like the fact that you can do some seriously detailed editing of individual tracks, which comes in handy for creating audio montages or needle-drops.

I bought a Minidisc recorder 10 or 12 years ago to replace a worn-out cassette deck and I loved it. At the time, the format was growing in popularity, but then CD-R burners took off as THE digital recording medium. Minidisc is still very popular in Japan and is used by radio reporters everywhere because of the great editing capabilities. I have two home recording decks, three portable players and one in-dash player in my car.

By the way, those photos I posted of the Cole discs are a bit LARGER than actual size. The thngs are pretty small. But I love the sound quality and versatility. Lots of semi-profesional bands record their live sets and demos using Minidisc...

 

So I played the film version of Nat singing Raintree County (main titles) and... man. The effect of his voice is practically hypnotic to me and yet again left me in a state of wonder. Such an awkward song really; who else is going to sing "and I looked in two eyes of perrywinkle blue" and the relatively choppy phrases in such a way as he? That despite the sometimes awkward lyric your mind should stay following his every word...

The audio geek in me wonders at how great that may have sounded in some places then, his voice issuing loud and clear, front and center from some admittedly somewhat brutal, vintage tube-driven Voice of the Theater speakers in the live acoustics of the auditorium of an old movie palace...

Incidentally, unless I'm overlooking something (possible!) and unless China Gate took the honors (which is much less likely), The Song of Raintree County in theaters so equipped could have been the first time that any large numbers of folks would have heard Nat "in stereo."

 

Thanks to the minidisc users for their explanations of that fairly neat sounding technology. I had heard of it, but never really knew what it was...

Well, I've just been enjoying a very nice gift I just got--the two disc epic score of Raintree County, composed by Johnny Green and featuring the MGM orchestra and chorus. I like film scores, which to me are rather like our modern day versions of symphonies by Mozart, etc. I think one's pretty good. There's an xm station called Cinemagic that does nothing but play snippets from movies with pieces of their scores. Their current tagline is "Music--for your eyes!" Corny, huh?

I also watched a little clip of the movie itself on youtube, and saw that DeForest Kelley, later famous as "Bones" on Star Trek was in this a decade before that TV show. It looked like a moderately interesting movie, but I vaguely recall watching some of it on tv long, long ago, and feeling about like apileocole said--that it might "put you in a coma before it is ova."

With the release of this score I now think we may have four (??) versions of Raintree County by Nat King Cole--the mono version on the Stardust Set, the stereo version on LOVE, and now the two versions on this soundtrack set. Maybe someone else can tell us if these are all really different versions, because I'm still trying to sort it out.

Anyway, as most of us have heard by now, the version on disc 1 of the soundtrack differs from the Mono version on Stardust set. The film version has a grander orchestral beginning, and then has a swelling male chorus in the background. I think Nat's vocal is just slightly different. I mean I think it's a different take, but the delivery is almost identical to the mono version. I think I like the more minimal mono version, but they're both good, and the film version is more "cinematic."

There's yet another version of the song by a different vocalist on disc 2 of the soundtrack. The vocals are by Billy Lee. Sorry for my ignorance, but I don't know anything about him. In any case, listening to the Billy Lee version makes it clear what we know about Nat--he could often put the most improbable of songs over the top. What I'm trying to say is that Billy Lee's version sounds rather silly and awkward, and for me didn't have any emotional impact to speak of. And that's not because this guy Billy Lee is a bad singer--he seemed perfectly competent and fine, but the song is strange and he (to my ears, anyway) couldn't through alchemy make this somewhat leaden song into delicate flowers of spun gold.

And that's just what Nat King Cole does. It is an interesting song, in a way. I can see what the writer was going for. It's really quite a complex and epic song lyrically and musically, esp. considering it's only about 2 and a half minutes long! Here are the lyrics:

They say in Raintree County
There's a tree bright with blossoms of gold
But you will find The Raintree is a state of the mind
Or a dream to enfold
(special effects like sound right here--what is that?? That sound isn't in the mono version. Sounds almost like something you hear once in a while in the old Star Trek when they first beam down to a strange alien planet.)

It was there one day
With the buds of early May
That you came
Like a flame from the South

And I looked into
Eyes of periwinkle blue
and I knew
Then I knew

I'd love you in Raintree County
And I'd find what we all seek to know
We shared the golden dream when we found
Our true love in Raintree long ago

For brave who dare
There's a Raintree everywhere
We who dreamed found it so
long ago....



There you go. Imagine seeing that and thinking, "Well how the heck am I going to sing this one?!" And with Billy Lee, to me (hope I'm not insulting anyone here), you feel the strange seams in this beautiful but difficult song. NKC on the other hand makes a lot of beautifully crafted dovetail joints.

Lovely song when Nat touches it. I *really* like this number. Like I'd Rather Have the Blues it's one of those songs that really makes the Stardust set totally worth it for me. Has anyone ever thought of getting together all of Nat's songs that are from films or plays, or were even featured in films? That might make a nice album, although very eclectic.


OK, on another Nat King Cole topic--check out apileocole's site. It's really coming along. I love the albums page! Each one that I checked out had recording date, track list, plus and essay. Excellent reference, and fun for just browsing and reading. Check it out:

http://apileocole.alongthehall.com/albums.html

 

Gorts

Had no communication from the Gorts, and so I guess I have to seek them out if I want to start something new before we reach 1000 posts. Right now I think I'll just take the path of least resistance and let this run its course until a Gort tells me I need to start thread 2. I'll keep you updated if that's about to happen, but depending on our pace that could still be a few weeks away--or even more.

 

While on the subject of Raintree County, I just wanted to throw out there that I quite like the version that Nat did on his TV show. It's basically the same arrangement as far as I can tell, but the tempo is a bit faster.

On another note, I saw this on Nat's wikipedia page:

Dinah Shore: Nat King Cole was also on the Dinah Shore show – singing "Mr. Cole Won’t Rock & Roll" — in the early-1960s.

Anybody know if this is accurate, and/or if a recording exists? It sure would be something to see a live performance of "Mr. Cole."

 

Yes Nat did appear on Dinah Shore's show in 1961; Dinah herself had wanted Nat as a guest and actually appeared and sang with him (not quite a given in those days). What's more, Dinah paid extra to have the recordings of her show preserved (after around '59), so that 1961 episode is almost certain to still exist in good quality.

As for what songs were featured, I don't know. Perhaps someone else here can chime in. I think Everytime I Feel The Spirit was the song I saw a clip of once. For whatever reason her series is not on DVD outside of a compilation or two, although it should be.

 

Nat appeared with Dinah on her show at least twice, in October 1960 and then on December 29, 1961 episode. On the former Nat did in fact sing "Mr. Cole Wont Rock and Roll" and a brief snippet of that was featured in The World of NKC documentary.

The 1961 show is great, featuring George Burns and Ginger Rogers in addition to our guy. Cole sings the following numbers: "I Won't Twist," "Where Did Everyone Go," "Friendless Blues" and "Everytime I Feel the Spirit" (both with Dinah), and finally "The Story of Alice" which the four stars do together.

 

To yaw about it a bit more...

Billy Lee was a veteran singer around Hollywood, mostly behind the scenes; if you've seen The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Lady and the Tramp or 101 Dalmations for some high profile examples, you've heard him singing for someone else or a character. He's a quite competent vocalist with a pleasant voice and sings Raintree in a very conventional, literal manner, Perry Como or Vic Damone, et al. Bill's reading sounds "correct."

It's just good singing though. I think it's clear the song needed something else. Nat to the rescue. He pretty much throws away some of the song's implied phrasing (which wasn't too smooth anyhow) to follow the meaning of its lyrics and rolls with his own impulses in terms of timing. For all I know the writers were appalled, but I call it an alchemy.

While the comparison is interesting, I wonder why Bill was brought in to do it at all? Version for MGM records? Or, despite knowing at some level that Nat brought what it needed creatively, were the filmmakers so uptight they were still flirting with a more conventional vocal? Their decision to excise Nat's vocal reprise at the finale in the belief Nat's "distinctive" voice would "draw too much attention" together with the generally uptight treatment of other aspects of the film would lead me to think they barely allowed themselves to go with Nat's vocal at all. But that's just an impression. It could've been down to money, despite that film's gigantic budget, or other business.

Perhaps it's a reminder that Nat was not always thought of as a "smooth crooner" and he and his popular vocal music as "middle of the road," as is often the case today. Back then, there were folks who considered his quite distinctive singing (and sometimes his music) to be more novel (esoteric) than that of a "proper" performer. That was something Nat had largely overcame by the 1960s and has been all but forgotten now, but then we're further away from the days of the strict and mannered recital than they. We may wonder why Nat didn't have better opportunities in some areas at some times. The oft-cited matter of race is a formidable aspect, but far from the only one. MGM's approach to Nat for this song may remind us that things we find so compelling about Nat, his distinctiveness and massive talents, could also be a limiting factor at the time. Perhaps largely due to cultural conservatism. That's a factor that is still quite pervasive in a lot of media today.

Thanks. Wow that'd be great to see. I like Ginger too.

 

Nat King Cole's use of time or timing has always been one of the important factors in my love of his work.

Here, Mel Powell seems to be saying how important the use of time is in jazz. And I don't think he is limiting it to the use of odd time signatures.

Mel Powell, jazz composer and arranger with Benny Goodman, later a classical music professor, is discussing twentieth century music in Gene Lees' book, Arranging The Score: Portraits Of The Great Arrangers, 2002.

I believe that Mel Powell was with Benny Goodman the same time that Peggy Lee was. [Gene Lees below in 1959; unfortunately, Nelson Riddle wasn't covered in this book]

 

This was new information for me. Nat King Cole is in a new 2008 Ace Records anthology, Always Something There: A Burt Bacharach Collectors' Anthology 1952-1969. Bacharach's first recorded composition was by Nat King Cole.

"...his first recorded composition was Once in a Blue Moon, courtesy of Nat King Cole on his Penthouse Serenade album of piano instrumentals released by Capitol Records in 1952. Burt wrote the number - actually an adaptation of Anton Rubenstein's popular 'Melody in F' - while still at college. With the chart-topping 'Mona Lisa' and 'Too Young' not long since to Cole's credit, Burt must have thought he was on his way, but there would be a three-year gap between 'Once in a Blue Moon' and his next recorded song, 'Keep Me In Mind' by Patti Page."

 

Thanks for this info on Billy Lee. Interesting.

Quite off topic, I know, but check out this blend of U2 and Hitchcock's Vertigo. I'm teaching a seminar on Hitchcock this semester and somehow came across this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5xv5iQ2gpY

Best, Ben

 

Was Orange Coloured Sky ever released as a single ?
Regards
Jake

 

Jake,

It was released on single # 1184 b/w "Jambo". Both tunes were recorded with Stan Kenton's Orchestra.

 

Love is the Thing

Here, from his great website, is apileocole's review of Love is the Thing:


"Love Is The Thing

Recorded 12/19/56 & 12/28/56

Nat Cole - Vocals
Gordon Jenkins - Arranger
Lee Gillette - Producer

1. When I Fall In Love
2. Stardust
3. Stay As Sweet As You Are
4. Where Can I Go Without You?
5. Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much
6. Love Letters
7. Ain't Misbehaving
8. I Thought About Marie
9. At Last
10. It's All In The Game
11. When Sunny Gets Blue
12. Love Is The Thing

"In case any had doubted, Nat King Cole the vocalist proved his vocal arts had reached the pinnacle of the craft in this massively popular, lushly orchestrated set of ballads."

The title says it. In case any had doubted, Nat King Cole the vocalist of popular song proved his vocal arts had reached the pinnacle of the craft in this massively popular, lushly orchestrated set of ballads. Gordon Jenkins scored his trademark soaring strings for a dramatic and atmospheric orchestration to underscore and envelop, not merely accompany, the exquisite vocals of Nat.

There's no brass section and no choir, only strings. This frees Gordon Jenkins to do some of his best work, distilling his style to its essence as the songs and Nat's vocals distill the subject of love to a romantic ideal. Here is love looked towards as an ideal and as something one is in; later, Nat and Gordon would be reunited to take this theme to the next stage with The Very Thought of You.

Despite how easily such work treads the line from romantic to schmaltz, Love Is The Thing proves incredibly successful and consistent. After fifty years and numerous recordings by other artists, the performances here of Stardust and When I Fall In Love are still definitive. There's a magic ambiance that just can't be recaptured by anyone else. Those two tracks would have made the project worthwhile, but there are still more wonderful moments, including a particularly enchanting When Sunny Gets Blue and a surprisingly good rendition of Fats Waller's normally quite upbeat Ain't Misbehavin' as a slow ballad.

It's All In the Game was a remake of a standard perhaps most popularized by Tommy Edwards, both before and again after Nat's recording. One example of Nat's way with a lyric and melody can be found in a lesser-known track, Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much. In the lyric 'Maybe with a love so great / and a love so small' he phrases the first instance of the word love with an emphasis that intuitively would befit the word great, but melodically works on love; the actual effect brings the listener's musical emphasis to love and attention to expression drawn to the softer-spoken great, the listener intuitively carrying over his emphasis from the word love. And he goes right on to enlarge the word small, which again has a counter-intuitive effect to the listener. It all sounds quite instinctive to him, rather than calculated. Whichever it was, it is a sign of a master.

The title song may be the weakest of the lot, but it perfectly sums up the album's theme. Or thing?"


This is an excellent review. I agree with all of it, except for one thing. I *love* the title track. It is my second (or third?) favorite song, after Stardust on this album. Am I the only one that feel that way? Hmmm. Maybe so. Anyway, I love this song because it says it all--with all the complications and ambitions in life, it comes down to love. Love is the Thing. That's it. And reaching that moment and realization is a wonderful thing. It doesn't mean you have to give up your other desires and ambitions, it's just helping you think about what comes first. And it's so beautifully sung by Nat. But there are so many other good tracks on this album. I can see why it went to number one in 1957.

 

Ben, isn’t it great when a particular song speaks to you and becomes a favorite? If I had to pick my top two or three from Love is the Thing, right now they would be Stardust, When I Fall In Love, and When Sunny Gets Blue.

I was interested to see that there is a connection of sorts between the composer of Love is the Thing, Victor Young, and the song Stardust, which was written by Hoagy Carmichael.

“But he [Victor Young] really made his mark with the Isham Jones band when, on 16 May 1930 he rearranged a Hoagy Carmichael up-tempo instrumental piece as a ballad with his own romantic violin solo. So it was really Victor Young who gave us Stardust in the form it has been ever since.” This was written by Arthur Jackson, May 2004.

 

In the current thread, What's The Longest You Have Had To Search For Something You Wanted?, DaveN recounts the 25 years he searched for the LP Wild Is Love by Nat King Cole.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=3755097&postcount=11

And JasonK recounts how a certain Mr. BenjaminHuf sent him the Capitol EP of the 1953 Christmas Song, that Jason lost when he was 10.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=3756645&postcount=26

 

Dale,

It seems fitting that it would be Victor Young who reconfigured the tempo of "Stardust," establishing it as a piece best done slowly, a piece best done, arguably, by Nat Cole on Love is the Thing.

About a quarter of the album is devoted to Victor Young's music, Young himself being a good friend of Nat's. I can't help but feel this was done as a nod by Cole and Jenkins to the recently deceased Young. Cole would also devote one of his earliest TV shows as a tribute to Victor Young and many times when performing "When I Fall in Love" in public he would introduce it as a Victor Young tune - something he rarely did and I suggest speaks to the respect Nat had not only for that tune, but Young himself.

 

The Forgotten Years -- King Cole Trio.
1979, Giants of Jazz label, LP

Clark Kauffman asked the question back on page 6, post #114 if anybody had this recording.

Well, Clark, here is a late response to your question. I bought it around 1988, but dug it out recently.

The cover says live performances never before on record. Among others, it has a rare track, a bizarre track, and the first & second appearances of the Trio on the Kraft Music Hall with Bing Crosby including some chatter. They all appear to be from 1945-1946.

DINAH SHORE HOSTS THE KING COLE TRIO -- 1945
The rare track is a 2:45 version of their radio theme, The Man On The Little White Keys, written by Cole. Has anyone ever seen it on another compilation? I mean a full version. They play it so fast, I wondered if the speed was correct.

So I looked on the internet and found that show #132 must have been in 1945, inferring from the info below.
Armed Forces Radio Services (AFRS)

MAIL CALL #128 (1-24-45) w Martha Mears, Cass Daley, Lauritz Melchior
1. Accentuate the Positive
2. More and More
3. One Meat Ball (w Melchior)

MAIL CALL #138 (3-28-45) w Bette Davis, Barry Fitzgerald, Leo McCarey,
Jack Benny, William Frawley
1. Swinging on a Star
2. You Belong to My Heart
3. Too Ral Loo Ral
4. Ida (w William Frawley)

Dinah Shore introduces Nat and the Trio. At the end of the piece she says: “Grand,-- King Cole Trio. That was really groovy.”

Miss Thing composed by Count Basie has better sound than The Macgregor Years transcription version.

There are two more versions of Sweet Georgia Brown to add to the Capitol version, the Macgregor Years transcription, and the Live At The Circle Room CD. One is a version from the Trocadero night club and another from Bing Crosby’s show.

There is a fine Frim Fram Sauce from a AFRS Jubilee show. Nat’s Frim Fram is introduced by Lena Horne. This Frim Fram Sauce was recorded in 1946, several months after the commercial recording. The Capitol recording, as much as I like it, is done in a rather laid back tempo. Rather like a stroll. The accompaniment is often either single note or small chords. The Frim Fram Sauce of 1946 radio is a bit different. The tempo moves a little more into swing territory. There are a lot more block chords and Oscar Moore plays along picking some of the same block chord notes unlike the Capitol version. And there is a neat little figure that I like on the radio version, chords between each word of -- Frim [chord] Fram [chord] Sauce [chord]

The bizarre track is another Jubilee show, where the notes say that Oscar Moore had entered the hospital that day for an operation, so Nat appears only with Johnny Miller on bass on Sweet Lorraine.

I thought it was fun to hear the introductory chatter when the Trio first appeared on Bing Crosby’s show, The Kraft Music Hall in 1945. I have read that Bing’s shows were huge when radio was king. Here is the chatter that I jotted down:

Bing Crosby: “They got big by being great, they are great instrumentalists, they are great singers, they have great ideas and great style. What with the theater, night clubs, and pictures, they’re working the full 24 daily. Doing all these things at once, how do you boys feel?”

Nat: “Beat”

Bing: “You’re really working plenty, huh?”

Nat: “Yeah, sometimes, I feel just like the nursery rhyme.”

Bing: “Nursery rhyme? Meaning--

Nat: “Old King Cole”

Bing: “Old King Cole. Is it a solid fact that you cats can beat your chops, lace the boots, knock the licks out groovy as a movie, whilst jiving in a coming on fashion. Hmm?

Nat: “That is precisely the situation.”

Bing: “I see what you mean. You know even the long hairs snap their caps when you boys are having a ball. They say that you particularly have remarkable glissandos and very noticeable cadenzas.”

Nat: “Is that good?”

Bing: “Is that good? Man, that not only is good, that is murderistic.” How’s for hitting us with Paper Moon. Hmm?”

There are 4 songs from a Mutual radio network feed from the “King Cole Room at the Trocadero in Hollywood“.

Side One
1. The Man on the Little White Keys
2. Frim Fram Sauce
3. If You Can’t Smile And Say Yes
4. The Trouble With Me Is You
5. Sweet Georgia Brown
6. Satchel Mouth Baby

Side Two
1. Miss Thing
2. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
3. Sweet Lorraine
4. Paper Moon
5. If You Can’t Smile And Say Yes
6. Sweet Georgia Brown

On the AFRS broadcast recordings, it sure sounds like applause tracks are used. If that is true, and if tape was not available in 1945 and 1946, how did they put in the applause?? Had radio already devised the applause and laugh track before tape?

Here are the images Clark put in his post:

 

Dale,

Thanks for the review! I love that LP. I did a needle-drop of it and combined the material from that album with the other live radio performances collected on those two CDs on the "Cole-letibles" label. (See my post on Page 4 of this thread for a detailed review of those CDs.) Between this LP and those two CDs, you get a very nice sampling of live club recordings by the trio.

Clark

 

After a bit of a breather, the focus of updates at my Nat website continues upon the 1950-1954 period. Courtesy of the generous assistance of Jordan Taylor, Clark Kauffman and other Nat enthusiasts here at Steve Hoffman forums, I'm able to compile more detailed session coverage, beginning with 1950. Some commentary should be added in future and such updates will be noted, but at this time the focus is on providing the information. The updated 1950 session page is here.

Comments, corrections etc always welcome.

 

Dale: thanks for the great review of "The Forgotten Years."

Thank you kindly. Beautiful, as Dale said, when something can speak to one like that.

I also feel that way. Nat also recorded Around The World, which is a song derived from a major theme written by Victor for his last (and spectacularly popular) effort, the score of Around The World In 80 Days, an extravagant film which landed Victor a posthumous Oscar nod iirc and spent a long time kicking around in theaters through '56-'58.

 

Back on page four, when you all were discussing disc 9 of the Mosaic set, Jordan mentioned a song he wished Nat would have sung:

I found my original 1977 Columbia LP THE PEACOCKS with Jimmie Rowles and Stan Getz which has the above mentioned song: "I'll Never Be The Same". Thanks for pointing out this great version, Jordan.

With the recent posts on Victor Young, I got to thinking about one of Young's songs I wish we could have heard Nat sing or play: "My Foolish Heart". I suppose Nat didn't do it out of deference to his fellow singer, Billy Eckstine, who had a million seller with it in 1950. Oh, well, we did get to hear Bill Evans, a player influenced by Nat, play it. And what an emotional version that is.