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

Gillette and Putnam


Nat King Cole, Lee Gillette, Bill Putnam, Nelson Riddle


I liked reading this article about one of the great engineers:
Analog Ears
Bill Putnam Sr., Part 1
By Jim Cogan


Bill Putnam Sr., Part 1

Does anyone know what songs he recorded for Nat? Did he do sessions besides the fifties Chicago?

 

Dale,

Thanks for posting those great pix.

I've read pieces that claim Putnam engineered for Cole once the former moved out west. Not so. If Cole was recording in Los Angeles it was only at Capitol Studios and not one of Putnam's facilities.

The top pic of Putnam and Gillette comes from one of the June 1955 sessions. The same photo also appears in the book Temples of Sound and in it you can see Putnam's notes regarding the songs being recorded that day.

Now, by the looks of things (see the bottle) it would appear that ain't coffee in Lee's cup.

 

Still haven't been inclined to buy any of her albums.

Maybe if they'd watched Nat before impersonating him...?

 

July 10 1957

You'll Never Know

Included among the sessions that would produce the great Just One of Those Things album was one track that would remain unissued. When I first heard that track, issued some 36 years later on the The Billy May Sessions CD set, I was amazed.

You'll Never Know is a decent classic pop song with typical enough lyric and a good, fairly memorable melodic structure. Through its long life as a "standard" it's been done more times than anyone but the publisher would care to count, but this Nat Cole and Billy May version is my favorite among the many I've heard. Their rendition is wonderful.

A fluid pulsing backing opens the song, setting a pace that persists in spite of varied levels of tension and release. As is typical of the whole album, Billy May's arrangement is potently dynamic, ranging from a delicate peace underpinned by a xylophone to serpentine sax and raucous brassy accents, and insidiously, almost feverishly melodic. What a splendid arrangement Billy May created and what great musicians they have here to play it.

One of the things the album made particularly clear was Nat's continuing development as a vocalist. Not a stagnant artist, Nat. Just One of Those Things brought a certain wry biting edge to the fore, which had been developing in the prior few years and now found an ideal expression in the ironic, spitefully swinging context of this project. This manner proved to be an essential item in his vocal toolbox from the mid-50s on.

If his vocal evolution is discussed, mention is sometimes made of a deterioration of his voice. Through the last 15 years or so there's a definite change from his more youthful, more pliant and supple voice to a more jagged and raspy voice, due in part to smoking and the effects of wear. But one should also note those changes were accompanied by a deepening expressiveness in both range and effect as well as evolving tastes toward longer lines and deliberate use of the "rough edges" as it were for contrasting expression.

Now when he sings:

You said goodbye now stars in the sky /
refuse to shine /
Take it from me /
it's no fun to be alone /
with moonlight and memories

each section of that lyric is masterfully expressed. There's an edge to "stars in the sky" that probably would have been voiced in a softer, smoother, more polite manner several years before; we wouldn't have this extra layer of wry tone speaking of these dear things with the voice of the disillusioned. We can "take it" from him.

A fine example of a quality in his vocals which was a constant through his career is also to be found here, that of his timing, as Sinatra so keenly complimented. While stretching "stars in the sky" and "take it from me" to the point he just finishes in time to have the lyrics swept into the band's following measures, he also punctuates the word "re-fuse" and the phrase "take it from me" subtly but very effectively with a slight emphasis and pause respectively. The result lends more potent and persuasive expression of what the protagonist is living with. It's a more relatable personification to otherwise pretty cliche lyric. The work of a master.

How could this be left completely unissued? At the time it seems to have been somewhat customary that at least one extra song would be cut for an album project in order to give them the luxury of an extra choice in case one or more turned out underwhelming. An extra track had been recorded for Love Is The Thing (unissued and evidently lost). Likewise there were 13 tracks recorded for Just One of Those Things. When one considers the album track by track, it may be seen that You'll Never Know didn't quite weave in as effectively as all the other selections did, and that pretty much explains its absence on the original albums. But why then could it not be on a single, an EP, or a B-side at least? The sheer volume of quality songs Nat and company recorded gave them the luxury of leaving such fine tracks in the can.

What seems odd to me is that it took Capitol 36 years to get back to it, and that it hasn't been included as a bonus track for any reissues of Just One of Those Things. Instead 3 tracks from a later album were included (an album worthy of its own dedicated release, which Capitol never did), leaving You'll Never Know to appear on compilations. Unfortunately it doesn't appear on the LP reissue Steve remastered either, due to the licensing situation. Never the less, we Nat fans fortunate to be around since 1993 are the more fortunate for being able to know this wonderful rendition of You'll Never Know.

Notes about sound. Because it wasn't issued on the original mono vinyl and missed Steve's task list for the stereo vinyl reissue, we don't have an authentic or model release for this track sonically. Too bad since, like the rest of Just One of Those Things, it's a good one to play pretty loud. The Billy May Sessions CD (not the best I've heard from Larry Walsh; re-processed by someone else?) is dry as a bone in more ways than an absence of reverb. The Spotlight On... CD is a Bob Norberg job featuring fake digital reverb, more reprocessing than a model on a magazine cover and more digital ice than Mummy 3. The Stardust Bear Family set by Jurgen Crasser takes The Billy May Sessions sound, raises the levels and adds compression. If it exists the mono master has never been issued.

 

Great piece of writing. Thank you.

 

I think it is amazing also. I enjoyed your post on the song You'll Never Know. Didn't he make it sound fresh?

I recently collected five pieces of sheet music for Nat King Cole songs mostly as memorabilia. I thought they were interesting representations of the covers used for sheet music in the forties, fifties and sixties.

This one also represents a favorite recorded by the engineer in my recent post -- Bill Putnam at Universal Recording Corporation in Chicago, on June 7, 1955 with Nelson Riddle.

 

Earlier this evening, I posted a portion of this in the Neal Hefti, RIP thread.

Destination Moon
Nat King Cole with Neal Hefti, 1950

I received this 45 record in the mail today, which reminded me that Nat King Cole was one of the first to record with Neal Hefti. The next year, 1951, Cole first recorded with Nelson Riddle & then Billy May a month later.

This hit song was recorded December 11, 1950 probably in New York.

It opens with:

"Come and take a trip
in my rocket ship"​

It is on the Mosaic set (1991) and the Capitol compilation Nat King Cole: The King Swings, 2001.

A couple of lines in the song foreshadow the Atomic Basie which Hefti produced.

"Now the time is due to call for you
In the modern atomic way."​

Believe me, this thing still swings, as you would expect with Cole + Hefti.

As Will Friedwald said in 1991 for Mosaic:

I think it is a fun song. I believe Ben mentioned in Part 1 that it was on his list of favorites from 1950. It is a great chart by Neal Hefti.

For me it is the swingingest song Cole had yet recorded with a band. Even after all the other great swingers he recorded later, Destination Moon still moves me--I mean in the toe-tappin' way.

As Nat sings

"Leave your cares below,
pull the switch, let's go!"​

 

Clark: Thanks so much for all of these great photos. I love that photo of NKC with JFK. Apparently they got along very well, and when JFK died Nat was just devastated and wept in front of his TV in his living room as he watched the news reports.

 

Wow. What a great story about one of my all time favorite songs. It's amazing how much Johnny Mercer did in the translation...

 

Another *great* essay by Apileocole about this fine song. I can't wait till we get to Apileocole's essay on St. Louis Blues. I love that album!

 

Thanks Ben, Ian, Dale, for the props.

St. Louis Blues? May be a bit yet, Ben. Ah so much good stuff to cover, so few lives.

A few things to add. Hopping back ten years to 1947, I've just finished improving the page for (what I feel to be) Nat's first album project, King Cole At The Piano, if it's of interest. Correct cover, more commentary, even some track-by-track.

Also of Trio-era note, I've added some coverage for the first Trio comp, The King Cole Trio, Volume 1. The tracks aren't discussed in any detail yet; they will hopefully be covered as I go over that period in more detail for a sessionography page someday.

Perhaps of more interest, there's also a page about an autographed edition of that comp I spotted on ebay. Did anyone here score that album by chance?

 

THE GREAT FILMS AND SHOWS

I have been looking quite awhile for this. Is it rare, or was it common in its day?

Maybe this is the set you were dreaming about.

Mentioned in Leslie Gourse's book on Nat, her discography is a bit odd and for the album in question she didn't even mention who put it out or what the catalog number was. But she did devote 2 1/2 pages to it, listing each track.

The set is Nat King Cole: The Great films and Shows. 4 CDs, 1989. EMI CDS 793207 2. Made in UK. Compiled by Vic Lanza, engineered by Ron Hill.

I finally found a mint copy from Barney's CDShop in England.

There are 86 songs from 1952-1964, all listing the shows and films with which they were associated. The sound is good, but Bear is better. There are 10 or 12 songs that come before the Bear boxes, and those I found the most interesting.

Take a difficult case, but a favorite, 1953's Return to Paradise. The sound is so much better than the Classic Singles or even an old LP of mine. Love it.

Here are my snapshots of the cover and layout showing the 1989 bonus: a 20 track cassette !! with a separate program for the "in-car tape."

 

That's a pretty cool box set! I never heard of this set. Is the 20-track cassette just the highlights from the four CDs -- or are the cassette tracks different from what's on the CDs?

 

The 20-track cassette is just some of the highlights from the 4 CDs. Now I will have to find a car with a cassette player.

 

Followup post: From the 4 CD set Nat King Cole The Great Films and Shows, I assume the mastering on When I Fall In Love is the same or similar to the 1987 British single, which reached #4. In 1957, the song reached #2 on the UK chart.

Do you think that is some sort of record? The same song reaching the top ten twice, 30 years apart, must be worth a footnote.

How many other recording artists have done that?

 

UK boxed sets.

Wow - I used to have that set - it contained the first complete version of the My Fair Lady album on CD. I'm assuming most of the masters for this set came from those Alan Dell worked on for the 20 LPs Capitol-EMI reissued from about 1985 or so - although My Fair Lady was not amongst them.

There was a Sinatra set too themed in the same way around films and shows - again - I assume - taken from the masters Alan Dell worked with for his 'Sinatra never sounded better'(!) digital LPs from 1983/4 onwards.

Ah, the memories!

 

Very interesting set Dale. Kudos to EMI UK. Another fine idea to add to that formidable "why didn't Capitol US...?" list.

Also interesting they'd include a cassette. A forerunner of the "LP plus download" angle?

All I heard over here at the time was that remake, which I felt to be tasteless compared to Nat's version. They wailed away in a faux-soul duet over a sea of synthesized sound. Seems like more folks in the UK enjoyed rediscovering Nat's version instead. Reflects well on UK tastes (or media?).

It occurs to me that Nat had at least one other remarkable instance of having a track return to mainstream pop charts in the UK. But I don't recall the particulars beyond that it was one of the two duets Nat did with Nellie Lutcher. Great to see in any event.

Likely the old tape dubs Capitol sent EMI back when.

 

Wow. Looks like a great set!

 

Nat King Cole at the Movies - an alternate take?

Going a little out of order here, but I think I may have stumbled upon another alternate take.

I'm refering to the 1992 comp, a good one, that Capitol put out of Cole's movie material. I don't actually own the disc, never picked it up, but tonight I found myself listening to clips of this album on itunes.

Now it was only a 30 second clip, but I would swear that the final song, "Smile," is an alterante. It is the 1961 remake and it is mixed here from the original 3-track. I'm eager to hear the thoughts of those of you who own the disc? Apileocole?

 

Gracious. Yes, it's an alternate take.

It's funny but I'd never once played that track on that CD, preferring to play the earlier recording on the Capitol Masters box. May never have played it! The vocal on this alternate seems a bit softer at times, a bit more resigned.

Indeed it's from the 3-tracks since there wouldn't be an original stereo mixdown, being an alternate, and moreover Bob Norberg usually did use the 3-tracks to get the best sound before proceeding to deliberately change it anyway. But how is it possible to physically find an alternate from the session and then not know...? Especially when the person who (poorly) remastered The Nat King Cole Story from the 3-tracks using the correct take was also Bob Norberg, a short time before. There was also the swapped takes of Unforgettable I think we had discussed going into the Bear set, where the incorrect take of that was used on The Nat King Cole Story CD iirc. Two odd accidents, or did Bob Norberg feel as free to swap takes without notice as he felt at altering sound production? I double checked and saw no mention of Smile being an alternate in the At The Movies booklet, either in Will's (excellent as usual) liners or the track specs. Of course there was no mention of having used an alternate of Unforgettable in The Nat King Cole Story booklet either. Odd!

Here I was hoping someday to replace all the Norberg jobs from my Colection. Arr!

Congratulations on discovering yet another surprise, Jordan.

 

Jordan, What good ears you have, and from such a long distance too. Some of us just dream about getting away from it all...

Great find!

 

A question for apileocole.
Mo Asch(of Folkways records fame) owned the Disc label back in the forties. He staked the whole company on what he figured was gonna be a huge hit by NKC. The record needed to be out before Christmas, but ended up sitting in a warehouse for lack of distribution resulting in Disc's going out of buisness and Asch swearing off pop music forever.
My question, what was the record? Was it the original Christmas Song?

 

No, that was Jazz At The Philharmonic. Nat played straight jazz piano at the first concert in what would become a major jazz event/tour for years. That was in 1944. Some draw comparisons to the 1938 Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall concert in that it took jazz to a new level as a live event, with more artistic cred, and we have the additional good fortune of it having been recorded.

There was a big legal problem. Nat had signed exclusively to Capitol by 1944 and was taking off. While he wanted to play jazz piano at the event he wasn't legally able to as "Nat King Cole" Capitol artist, so he did it under a nom de plume. Seems to have been an "open secret" that it (Shorty Nadine?) was Nat. Now releasing the recording... that presented a problem. Mo's label at the time attempted to clear Nat's name to market the records. By the time this came around it was 1947 and Nat had then been a headliner, seller of numerous hits and poll winner for a few years; they reportedly paid $15,000. No idea if Nat did or could have had anything to do with the legal and business stuff. Upshot was, the label folded from financial pressures.

It's one of those things that turns out good though. The recordings survived, were issued (on Clef then eventually Verve, iirc) and are available now on numerous CDs including public domain labels (can suggest Verve CD Jazz At The Philharmonic: The First Concert 314 521 646-2) with Nat's name being no secret. Mo soon formed Folkways which led to greater things than he might likely have done sidelining in jazz, while the organizer of the JATP event, Norman Granz, was able to capitalize on the recordings eventually and of course became among the greatest figures "behind the scenes" in jazz.

The Christmas Song was a Capitol based project. Recorded first without then later with strings etc, but by Capitol.

All this is "as I recall" so is subject to error.

 

Thanks, Dale. Yeah, I decided to take myself an extended vacation. I'll be flat broke when I get back, but oh well.

 

Unforgettable alt

Thanks for the comments above, apilecole.

See, now I thought we determined that the take used on the CD was the master, the same as on the LP, that the alternate that appeared on the Bear Set was a mix from the 3-track, if/where it had been previously released I don't recall.

But, "Unforgettable" did give me a few more headaches. I refer to this back-and-forth I had with Steve earlier this year. Start at post #939 and continue to the next page :http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=132106&page=47

The "Unforgettable" on the DCC sounds different to me than what I believe is the master used on the LP/CD/Bear. I was less sure about this than "Smile" but still not quite convinced by Steve's explanation.

Back to Norberg, though. It is truly surprising that you go back to the session reels, select a take which is probably clearly not marked master, then put it on the disc and say nothing. Although, Capitol has been known to mis-label things over the years. Same thing happened with "I Don't Want to See Tomorrow" on Bear #2. Jay Ranelluci mixed the song from the 3's, but when I first heard it it was clear it was an alternate and not the take used on the single/LP.

I've always believed there to be more NKC in the vaults than Capitol actually realizes. Finds like "Smile" only confirms that for me. Hopefully, someone, someday will simply scour all the session reels and once and for all see what is contained. I think we'd be presently surpised.