NAT "KING" COLE - Year by Year - Part 2

I bet that Pathe Marconi is a great sounding LP. Various other Pathe titles I own have good sound and good pressings.

Pretend has been one of my favorites also, and it has to be the Nelson Riddle version for the sound of his orchestra and the sound of Nat's voice rec. 12-30-52. I am hooked on that version.

As a compilation, Unforgettable just works as a vocal release. The title helps as opposed to something like 8 Top Pops. Unforgettable was used by Longines and Reader's Digest for their compilations long before the famous duet. I think it is interesting to see how Capitol has marketed the song and the album over the years. Unforgettable probably shows up with nearly every label and logo change.

BSN Pubs lists the 10" track lineup as you have given it.

 

Sure. Two reasons though. One, the few Spanish-speaking folks I've spoken with who knew Nat had a fond regard for these albums; as the album was principally for Latin America their opinion trumps mine. Secondly, sad to say, from Capitol LA in the '50s that was about the best Latin album one could expect. Some of the other attempts by the mainstream here in the '50s to "go South of the Border" can get pretty cheesy in comparison.

Yeah think it went missing. Think I'll write a page on it. A "grade" for it in the meantime:

1954 Unforgettable
B. A comp with little glue, a lack of cohesion and consistency is more than compensated for by bringing together a group of "heavy hitters" among Nat's early recordings as a popular vocalist.

(spoken in the voice of that owl from Sword in the Stone)

"And I, most certainly, agree."

 

I think your grades make more sense than mine. I had a bit too much grade inflation in there...

 

...just a tad Benjamin!!! We'd expect nothing less from such a fan...

for me his whole career is one big A+, i just ignore the novelty duds and latin vocals and its a big fat A+

I have to say, i've been following this thread but I dont really get a sense we're doing album by album......still always a great read and so much information and amazing images.

this might be the best Hoffman thread for information and content.

though I'm so sad today about Blossom Dearie passing away. I ADORE her, so today is about her...anyone else here in Nat land a Blossom fan?

 

I've hear the name, but I have to confess I don't really know who she was. Can you post a link to a youtube video or something?

If perhaps we've gone a bit off track I suppose it's partly my fault. I've been swamped at work. Then we had two power outages at my house that each lasted more than a week--first Hurricane Ike and then a mega ice storm two weeks ago.

I guess we're all free to post on whatever album or any NKC topic at any time, but maybe we should get back to the year by year approach too. I've lost track of what disc were on, but how about we try disc 6--the one with St. Louis Blues and The Very Thought of You. I can't seem to get my computer to copy the track list for this disc from anywhere. But all of us who have the set know what's on it.

And why don't we figure try to move on to disc 7 next weekend. In other words, let's see if we can pick up the pace a bit to a disc a week for a while...

 

check out this clip of Eartha Kitt in St. Louis Blues

First, though, she gets some women with her funny "hair-raising bomb" on Batman in the mid 60s. Then it cuts to the music from 1957:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPYVlUV_xk4&feature=PlayList&p=9CB6811112B4B7CB&playnext=1&index=49

 

I think the holidays slowed everything down too, from about Thanksgiving to the end of January's winter blues period, there were fewer posts I noticed. I think we left off with somewhere in Disc 5 of the Stardust set. Disc 5 includes:
Disc: 5
1. Send for Me
2. Let's Make More Love (I Want Your Love)
3. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
4. Song Is Ended (But the Melody Lingers On)
5. You'll Never Know
6. Just for the Fun of It [Alternate Take]
7. Song of Raintree County
8. Who's Sorry Now? [Mono Version]
9. Who's Sorry Now? [Stereo]
10. These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)
11. Once in a While
12. Just for the Fun of It
13. Just One of Those Things
14. I Should Care
15. Party's Over
16. Cottage for Sale
17. I Understand
18. When Your Lover Has Gone [Mono Version]
19. When Your Lover Has Gone [Stereo]
20. There's a Gold Mine in the Sky
21. Around the World
22. Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair)
23. Fascination
24. How Did I Change?
25. It's None of My Affair
26. Angel Smile
27. Nothin' in the World

I will try to catch up to you speed demons as you go along.

I recently posted about the album Just One of Those Things but I want to go back a few days and comment more on the Song of Raintree County. I just acquired a promotional record of that which has a spoken introduction which I haven't even listened to yet.

Also, I want to talk about the Around the World recording session with Nelson Riddle on Disc 5. I don't remember if anyone has written about those four? songs.

So many things to cover ...
Dale

 

Whenever I think of Blossom Dearie, I think of her version of It Amazes Me. It is from 1958 and her Verve releases. I think she really gets inside that song. I have it on LP, but it is on Verve CD 1992, Once Upon A Summertime.

 

Yes, I love her version of that song and it's one of my favorite albums by her.

Benjamin, do yourself a favor and check her out. I think you will love her and this album is a great place to start. A sublime jazz trio record with great performances and such a divine album cover.

A very unique and one of a kind voice, much like Nat. You hear one note of her singing and you know it can only be Blossom Dearie. I think you will love her.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T_yRQ_FouY&feature=related

 

I'll look into her. Thanks.


Here's the track list for St. Louis Blues, a wonderful concept album done with Nelson Riddle.
1. Overture (Introducing Love Theme)/Hesitating Blues - Nat King Cole, Riddle
2. Harlem Blues - Nat King Cole, Handy
3. Chantez Les Bas - Nat King Cole, Handy
4. Friendless Blues - Nat King Cole, Handy, W.C.
5. Stay - Nat King Cole, Handy
6. Joe Turner's Blues - Nat King Cole, Handy
7. Beale Street Blues - Nat King Cole, Handy
8. Careless Love - Nat King Cole, Handy, W.C.
9. Morning Star - Nat King Cole, Handy
10. Memphis Blues - Nat King Cole, Handy
11. Yellow Dog Blues - Nat King Cole, Handy
12. St. Louis Blues - Nat King Cole, Handy, W.C.

The third person responsible for this album is, of course, W. C. Handy. He's an interesting guy, this "father of the blues." He was a well trained musician who consciously and self consciously decided to make music, fame, and money from African American folk music. This was not really "his" music to a large degree--but he soaked it up like a sponge whenever he heard it played, added his own professional gloss to it, and made it work--and made good money doing it. The article on wikipedia in his life is pretty good.

The opening rather operatic instrumental devised by Riddle starts to this album in a way that reminds me of JC Superstar.

The first song, hesitating blues, is great:

"Procrastination is
The thief of time
So otherwise I'll say
One stitch in time
Will save nine
Tomorrow's not todays..."

At least I think that's how it goes. A melancholy song, but a peaceful a and wistful one--or at least that's how it strikes me.

 

Nice stuff...Thanks. I like...

 

Not a bad track on this album, in my opinion, but I do have some favorites. Friendless Blues is some deep low down blues, about when you don't even really have a friend. Ouch. But again, it's sung and played with such beauty, peaceful melancholy and acceptance. Morning star is a haunting and lovely song about the love one can get from a parent, but to me it's seen in retrospect--when Mom is gone and you only have the memory of the star of love that she had in her eye for you.

And then there's the epic and nearly apocalyptic--at least when done by NKC and Nelson Riddle--St. Louis Blues. I heard a version of this song by the great Louis Armstrong and, well, it didn't do that much for me. It was a long, slow song that lasted about 5 minutes and just didn't seem to have any punch at all. Here are the original full lyrics:

I hate to see that evening sun go down,
I hate to see that evening sun go down,
'Cause my lovin' baby done left this town.

If I feel tomorrow, like I feel today,
If I feel tomorrow, like I feel today,
I'm gonna pack my trunk and make my getaway.

Oh, that St. Louis woman, with her diamond rings,
She pulls my man around by her apron strings.
And if it wasn't for powder and her store-bought hair,
Oh, that man of mine wouldn't go nowhere.

I got those St. Louis blues, just as blue as I can be,
Oh, my man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me.

I love my man like a schoolboy loves his pie,
Like a Kentucky colonel loves his rocker and rye
I'll love my man until the day I die, Lord, Lord.

I got the St. Louis blues, just as blue as I can be, Lord, Lord!
That man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me.

I got those St. Louis blues, I got the blues, I got the blues, I got the blues,
My man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me, Lord, Lord!

NKC and Riddle cut out about have of these words, changed it from many to woman and gal, and made it into something epic, even at only around two minutes. On that final line when you hear Nat sing out all in one breath,

"I'll love that woman ...til... the ....day... I....diiiieeeeeeee!"

It's a pretty intense moment, and you feel like he really means it.

They took the meandering, folk music quality of the original, and hyped it up to and epic and smoothly polished diamond of a song. I imagine that some who knew the earlier versions of this first may have been scandalized by this version of the song, which takes out quite a bit of the original, but to me this is the greatest version of this famous song ever done, and a peak moment in the career of Nat King Cole.

 

The other album on this disc is The Very Thought of You. Apileocole has a very nice little essay on his website on this album, I hope he doesn't mind if I put a copy here with thanks to him:

"The Very Thought Of You
album_cover

Recorded 5/2,6&8/58

Nat Cole - Vocals
Gordon Jenkins - Arranger
Lee Gillette - Producer
Capitol W-1084
Capitol SW-1084
Capitol EAP-1084

1. The Very Thought Of You
2. But Beautiful
3. Impossible
4. I Wish I Knew The Way To Your Heart (Notorious)
5. I Found A Million Dollar Baby (In A Five And Ten Cent Store)
6. Magnificent Obsession
7. My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart?)
8. Paradise
9. This Is All I Ask
10. Cherie, I Love You
11. Making Believe You're Here
12. Cherchez La Femme
13. For All We Know
14. The More I See You

"It's the audio equivilent of a distillation of romantic ardor in a bottle."

Following their previous collaboration Love Is The Thing, Nat and arranger Gordon Jenkins stepped up from starry-eyed romanticism to add a stronger mix of romantic and sensual bliss to the mix. Gordon supplies lush string arrangements with emphasis on tension and release, while Nat gave some of his most sublime vocals in perhaps his finest vocal showpiece. It's the audio equivilent of a distillation of romantic ardor in a bottle.

If Love Is The Thing established that fact of love being the desire, this is about achieving that state. About being in that position at The Very Thought of You. It's an exhulation in the resultant romantic high and some of the lingering effects this can have on one's emotional view both during and, possibly, after. Making Believe You're Here, a superb ballad of lost love and longing, is just such a statement of after. Even here of course, love is the thing which creates this state as surely as it inspires the bliss of Paradise or the praises of The More I See You. The experience informs the reflections of the fellow later on in life as shown in This Is All I Ask. It can be a Magnificent Obsession conjuring to mind the greatest flights of man, or grounded in the simple memories of meeting your Million Dollar Baby (In A Five and Ten Cent Store). If this all reads like one may imagine the original liners might, well that's only fitting. One can't do this sort of record any better than Nat King Cole and the folks at Capitol did here. This is the specialty, a realisation of what their talents and focus were ideally suited to.

Nat's vocal qualities in this album are beyond mere excellence. Only Nat would sing out "Each night when I sit down to dine" quite so overwhelmingly and suddenly turn the following phrase "you're in the chair across from mine" quite so quietly personal and, as a result of the contrasts, make it all the more affecting. And he makes it seem as if it were only natural, the only way it ought to be sung.

Years later, Nat and Gordon Jenkins would be reunited for one last time. The resulting album was a literally dramatic contrast: Where Did Everyone Go? One might say it completes a three part cycle; the first album looking ahead and into love, this album being within it, and the third telling of the tragedy of a disillusioned and longing afterward.

John Krauss is the chief engineer on this and numerous other recordings Nat made at the Capitol Tower. He did a magnificent job."

 

13. Make It Last
14. Thank You, Pretty Baby
15. Looking Back
16. Just as Much as Ever
17. Do I Like It?

Looking back over my life
I can see where I caused you strife
But I know, oh yes I know
I'd never make that same mistake again
Looking back over my deeds
I can see signs a wise man heeds
And if I just had the chance
I'd never make that same mistake again
Once my cup was overflowing
But I gave nothing in return
Now I can't begin to tell you
What a lesson I have learned
Looking back over the slate
I can see love turned to hate
But I know, oh yes I know
I'd never make that same mistake again

This was a top 5 hit, I think, half a century ago. He really sings back more like "ba-a-ack," which some how work. The most painful part of this song is how looking back over the slate he sees love turned to hate. Painful.

The remake of this, for The Nat King Cole Story, is more powerful. He sings the words with greater truth and bitterness there. And the stereo sound on the remake works better for me too. Good song.

The rest of the songs here, though, as much as Nat tries to want us to "make it last! Make it last!" I just sometimes wish he'd "Make it end! Make it stop!" That's a little too harsh, I suppose. I like NKC so much that I even find the weak songs listenable, but to be honest between two fine albums on this disc there was some that were close to drek. ("Do I like it? Do I like it?" No, I don't.)

 

Stardust The Complete NKC 1955-1959, disc 7

Stardust - The Complete Capitol Recordings CD DISC 7:
1. Cachito
2. Noche de Ronda
3. Maria Elena
4. Lisbon Antigua
5. Acercate Mas (Come Closer to Me)
6. Tu Mi Delirio (You Are My Obsession)
7. El Bodeguero (Grocer's Cha Cha)
8. Come to the Mardi Gras
9. Te Quiero Dijiste (Mucho, Mucho) (Magic Is the Moonlight
10. Arrivederci Roma (Goodbye to Rome)
11. Quizas, Quizas, Quizas (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps)
12. Las Mananitas
13. Adelita
14. Acercate Mas
15. 1 (Come Closer to Me) (Spanish)
16. There Is No Greater Love
17. Magnificent Obsession
18. Cherie I Love You
19. Impossible
20. But Beautiful
21. For All We Know
22. Too Much
23. Lovesville
24. Cant' Help It
25. I Got Love
26. She's Funny That Way
27. Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere
28. I Want a Little Girl
29. Mood Indigo

As always, of course, feel free to comment on things from before and after this disc. I see that quite a bit of The Very Thought of You is on this disc. Boy, it is a shame they didn't keep the albums together on these Bear Family sets. It's kind of aggravating. But, don't look a gift horse in the mouth--these are still amazing sets.

One of the total cornball songs on this disc that I kind of like is Lovesville. Sickly sweet as cotton candy, and just as insubstantial, but still a pleasant experience if you're in the mood for that much sugar all at once.

We've already commented on the Spanish album, I think, and so I may move on to disc 9 in a few days unless there are objections. I realize I'm going fast, but at this point I think a lot of people have said what they have to say on many of these tracks. Apileocole has filled out his site and has some nice commentary on most of the albums from this era it looks like...

 

For the most part, I agree with your assessment here, Ben. I do think "Just as Much as Ever" is effective, particularly when Nat belts out ..."for I am still the same old me..."

Not his greatest session by any stretch, though. But the thing that fascinates me is how quickly Mr. Cole can do a musical 180 - just days after recording what many believe to be one of his finest albums ( for me, his high point with Riddle) he surprises us with this R & B - ish session, the faults of which are not Nat's, but owe more to material and arrangements (He would demonstrate such musical dexterity a few years later when he would record Where Did Everyone Go? a mere two days after Ramblin Rose, two projects absolutely opposed yet proving to be no obstacle for Nat).

Also of some interest, it appears that Nat recorded his Rheingold Beer jingle, set to the tune of "Little Girl," right around this February 1958 session.

 

I agree--Just as much is ever is better than some of the others here.

You're right, Nat could turn on a dime and do another song in an entirely different genre.

 

Quizas

Is it a good song? Perhaps...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ltF-1n-hhM&feature=related

I like this one well enough, I suppose. Even though his accent isn't very good, often people who speak Spanish are fairly forgiving about that. At least he gave it good college try and was not afraid. He captures some of the mood of love and of the songs, if not always the accent.

Look at the some of the comments in Spanish under the Youtube clip. If I'm understanding them correctly I think most of them are positive.

 

If I may, a couple of updates at my NKC site.

Prompted by recent discussion of the original Unforgettable compilation, I've written a bit more on that.

Second, a basic article concerning Anita Boyer and The King Cole Trio. Odd I should chose this for a subject perhaps, as to be blunt their recordings seem to be more likely to be skipped over on the limited issue they've received, but my hand was prompted by the appearance, perhaps temporary, of a clip on YouTube showing Anita and I hope it's of some interest to Nat fans.

 

Didn't previously know Anita Boyer, but she's quite enjoyable. Thanks for the clip.

The essay on the Unforgettable comp is very useful.

Here are a few quotes I want to comment briefly on:

"With his vocal standing clear like a column among musical surroundings that evoke classical Venetian surprisingly well, should we be so indulgently descriptive (oh my, we were) Nat muses at or about a lady's nature not entirely unlike a viewer observing a painting whose reputation had preceded it..."

Comparing Nat's voice to a column is great here. Somehow he holds up this rather unlikely song and makes it work.


"Being popular, sentimental and extensively covered by all kinds of bands and soloists for many years, Red Sails In The Sunset seems to have been regarded with some derision among those annoyed by the often highly sentimental if not mawkish renditions often given it. I've seen it referred to as Red Snails In My Swimsuit or something to that effect. This is mentioned here since you'd never know it from this recording. It's highly sentimental to be sure, but Nat and company here make straight for the heart of it. Even with orchestra and chorus, imagine that. Pete Rugolo's painterly skills with orchestration give every bit of the obligatory pretty picture for a backdrop, but more artfully than one might expect. Likewise Nat, his voice seeming to take on complimentary hues, manages to avoid the stiffness of many prior vocalists with a more intimate approach to both words and music."

I agree with you completely here. Nat makes this such a visual, cinematic song: I can "see" the sunset in my mind every time I hear this one. I've heard others sing Sunset and it really does become snails in the swimsuit--cold and slimy somehow. It's corn with Nat, but somehow it works and becomes a bit wistful.


"Reaching for an epic scope in stating a private hope, Make Her Mine may not be among his greatest, but it has its moments and Nat is an ideal, perhaps the ideal singer for it. His was not a voice in the wilderness, to paraphrase the lyric, yet Nat's knack for feeling like one's internal voice makes lines such as that or the plea "oh heaven above me" work in a surprisingly disarming way. Anything but simple, Nelson's arrangement again attempts to take a literal approach to some of the lyrics (a shimmering effect in the strings for "make the river deep" that elevates for "the mountain tall" to sweep silkily down like a breezy sky behind "the cornflower blue as the summer sky" being a keen example) and attempts making quite the epic drama at times (the dramatic rolls leading to the final phrase perhaps a bit too overtly climactic for Nat, at least at this point). It is admittedly hokey, but I appreciate that a number of Nat's songs in this era seem to have been trying to tie the conventional love song sentiments with a wider range of themes, and moreover I'm just a sucker for this song."

This essay is nice, but I'm afraid I think Make Her Mine is a bit of a clunker. There's many a clunker in the Cole canon (is it in the canon if it's a clunker? hmmm...) that I like, but I'm not sure this is one of them. After Apileocole's essay I'm ready to give it another try. I generally enjoy these rather silly songs, but this one's a stretch.

Thanks again for your excellent NKC site....

 

Nat King Cole in thin tie does Mona Lisa, c.1961

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxEmnxiUz8w

To go with Apileocole's perceptive essay on this song...

And here's For All We Know in the 1958 version on the album The Very Thought of You:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHf_nOROZA0

 

We just got a dog we rescued from the shelter, a border collie mix that weighs about 30lbs. Sweet dog. We named him Flyer. Suddenly I remembered this song by Nat King Cole:

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


Midnight Flyer
by Nat 'King' Cole
1959 - R&B
Chart Info & Lyrics
Lyrics by: Robert Mosely *, Mayme Watts *
# Debut Chart
51 Aug '59 Hot 100
12 Aug '59 R&B
Lyrics

Midnight Flyer
Take me to L.A.
Midnight Flyer
Take me to L.A.

There'll be a whole lot of kissing
When I jump off that Santa Fe

Midnight Flyer
Roll on down the track
Midnight Flyer
Roll on down the track

The quicker I get there
The sooner I'll get her back

A pocket full of money
A heart full of pain
I won't be myself
Until I see her again

Midnight Flyer
Take me to L.A.
Midnight Flyer
Take me to L.A.

There'll be a whole lot of loving
When I jump off that Santa Fe

A pocket full of money
A heart full of pain
I won't be myself
Until I see her again

I got a whole lot of dust
On my dancing shoes
And I've got a lot of loving
That I haven't used

Midnight Flyer
Midnight Flyer
Be on your way

 

Hey, apileocole and everyone: I've been so sidetracked with other things for so long that there are all sorts of posts I haven't really replied to, including this one.

I do love the part of the country that you live in. I *really* do. But without a job there, I never will live there again, I guess. And here in Louisville houses are less expensive than they are in California--even after the California crash. My house, ten years ago, cost 140k. That's what art history profs can afford. It's worth about the same now, after the crash. Don't think you'll find even a tiny cottage in your neck of the woods for that price. But I sure miss those ocean breezes. When I was an undergrad at Santa Cruz in the mid 80s, I lived by the sea and loved to go jogging there, even during epic storms. Esp during those storms, I guess. Didn't have a thought about Nat King Cole in those days, although I suppose I'd heard a few songs.

As you say, the religious songs angle with Nat King Cole seems significant. From the bios I've read, he was a religious man and a something of a sinner (whatever that means) all in one.

I remember one poignant story from one of the bios I read long ago. If memory serves--and it may not--it goes like this:

Nat was deep in the sickness unto death in late 1964, as cancer was eating his body and the radiation treatments were destroying the rest. He lost most of his hair, and what remained turned white. He was being rolled around in a wheel chair by a nurse who didn't know who he was, and maybe didn't connect Nathanial Adams Cole with Nat "King" Cole. He struggled to speak to her, and she asked him what he needed. He said, rather out of it, something like, "I am Nat King Cole." All she heard was "King," and she replied, not really understanding, "Yes, your majesty, where would you like to go?"

In my imagination that's the end of the bio pic movie about NKC that will probably never be made, as L-O-V-E swells in the background and the credits roll Nat, gaunt with white hair, is rolled out to look at the California sea...