King Cole Comments No 22

The Legendary Nat King Cole

In KCC 21 I asked if any of our American friends could supply details of The Legendary Nat King Cole CD because it supposedly contained Many Rare Performances. Merrill Tritt of Tamarac, Florida has kindly sent me a track listing for this CD, but it seems to contain the usual Cole standards - Too Young, Unforgettable, Nature Boy, Pretend, etc, the rarest songs being If I give my Heart to You, and That's All There is to That.

Thanks for all your help Merrill.

The Unreleased LP

I mentioned in a recent KCC some notes I made on hearing the tracks Capitol sent over for the unreleased Nat King Cole album and which I'd sent out in the days before King Cole Comments was born. Somebody phoned for a copy and I've mislaid their name - so if that person would like to let me know, I'll make sure he gets a copy. Just ask

The Best of the Nat King Cole Trio - Vocal Classics 1947-1950

No rare songs on this new 22 track Capitol Cd (CDP 7243 83357222) but some nice sounding, digitally remastered, songs from Nat and the boys including If I Had You, Don't Let Your Eyes Go Shopping For Your Heart, Little Girl, 'Tis Autumn and I Miss You So.

Under Western Skies

In my recent book I noted that in her book, Nat King Cole - Singer and Jazz Pianist Marianne Ruuth mentioned a film that Nat King Cole appeared in called Upon Western Skies and I pointed out that no-one had any knowledge of Nat appearing in this film.

As many of you know the film was shown on Channel 5 [UK TV channel] and of course there was no appearance by Nat.

It reminds me of the time when I purchased a video of the film Stormy Weather because David Meeker in his book Jazz in the Movies said Nat sang That ain't right in the film. Again it was wrong information.

New "Twofer

Well it's here. Nat King Cole's third Twofer - Dear Lonely Hearts/I Don't Want To Be Hurt Anymore. Following the two previous issues Sincerely/The Beautiful Ballads and Tell Me All About Yourself/The Touch of Your Lips, this release further emphasises the legacy of wonderful music that Nat King Cole left us. These two Albums are taken from the latter part of Nat's career with Dear Lonely Hearts being recorded in November 1962, and I Don't Want to Be hurt Anymore (Nat's penultimate album) being recorded in May 1964.

It's amazing that in spite of there being 400 to 500 CDs released by Nat King Cole over the last 10 years there are still hundreds of his recordings yet to be issued on Compact Disc. This is because the same old faithfuls - Stardust, When I Fall in love, Mona Lisa etc - are trotted out on CD after CD. This EMI Twofer series has shown before, and shown again now, that other recordings by Nat King Cole can arouse the buying public's interest. On this CD, twenty out of the 24 tracks have never before been issued on CD in this country, and for fifteen of them, it is also a CD debut.

Probably the most well known tracks here are the title tracks You're my everything, Who's Next in line, and Near You, but my own particular favourites are I'm all Cried Out and Was That The Human Thing To Do?.

The CD plays for almost an hour and has a first-class stereo sound. There's also a nice note with the CD from Joe Brooks and Mike McNally thanking the readers of KCC for phoning them with their suggestions for this and other CDs by Nat.

So here's to the next one.. What's it going to be? Well, why not take advantage of Jo and Mike's attitude and give them a call? Tell them if you liked the issues so far, and tell them what you would like to see presented next. There's a list of the outstanding LPs in KCC 20 and Jo and Mike's phone number is +44 171 605 5000.

Oh, and don't forget while your're phoning, to remind them of Night Lights - still the only unissued album by Nat King Cole and a certain best seller.

The Very Thought of You

As with Love is Is The Thing DCC of America have re-issued The Very Thought of you on 180 + Pure Virgin Vinyl and on 24 Karat Gold.

The LP contains the original fourteen tracks while the CD has There Is No Greater Love and Don't Blame Me added to make sixteen tracks.

Issue numbers are CD: GZS - 1119 and LP: LPZ- 2047.

Both the LP and CS contain the original cover and sleeve notes plus some nice observations by the late Pete Welding.

Nat King Cole with Woody Herman

New UK CD on the Jazz Band Label (EBCO 2134-2) by Woody Herman titled Heard with Friends features 3 tracks (11 minutes) by Nat Cole with Woody. The tracks are Yes Sir, That's My Baby, We Got New for You, and How High The Moon and are taken from a broadcast from the Rendevous Ballroom, Balboa Beach, Califonia on 23rd July 1949.

Other artists featured with Woody on this 17 track CD include Jo Stafford, Jerry Lewis, Mildred Bailey, and Anita O'Day.

Recent CDs by Nat King Cole

Nat Cole's Kings (Or Should It Be Queens?) - No. 7 - Natalie Cole

Natalie Cole ws born to Maria and Nat King Cole on 6th February 1950 in Los Angeles and was the second of their five children (Carole, Natalie, Kelly, Casey and Timolin).

She started her career in show business at the age of five by appearing on a children's TV show in the US and at eleven she was appearing at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, in Nat King Cole's production of I'm With You. Natalie started her recording career with Capitol in 1975 with a hit single This Will Be and a hit album Inseparable. This later earned her a gold disc and two Grammy awards, one being for best new artist. Her 1976 album Natalie also won a gold disc and her 1977 albums Unpredictable and Thankful both won platinum awards and she finished the 1970's with a third Grammy and two more gold albums.

Through the early 1980's Natalie did very little recording due to matrimonial, drug and personal problems.

In 1987 she returned to the recording scene with the album Everlasting and hit singles Jump Start, Pink Cadillac (No. 5 in the UK), Everlasting and I Live For Your Love.

In 1989 she had her biggest single hit so far with Miss You Like Crazy (No. 2 in the UK), taken from the album It's Good To Be Back.

Following the success of the reissue of Nat King Cole's When I Fall In Love in December 1987, and the knock-on effect this had for Nat King Cole's recordings worldwide, Natalie decided to record an album of her father's songs including her singing a duet with Nat's recording of Unforgettable.

This album had phenomenal, almost unbelievable success. It went to No. 1 in the American charts, sold multi-millions of copies and won seven Grammy Awards including Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year.

Natalie's follow-up album Stardust contains eleven songs previously recorded by Nat including another posthumous duet with Nat When I Fall In Love plus the inclusion of Nat's original organ solo on Let's Face The Music And Dance.

Apart from the two duets mentioned the only other recording Natalie made with Nat was Ain't She Sweet recorded on 3rd February 1954 with sister Carole Cole and Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra. Ain't She Sweet has so far only been released on an obscure budget LP in America.

Nat King Cole Sings Great Romantic Favourites

It's amazing the things that turn up. I've just found a CD with the above title issued by Readers Digest (RDCD 346) in 1991. The 14 tracks give a fair balance of Nat Cole's regular selection with the exception of two tracks: To The Ends Of The Earth, which has only previously been released on CD on the 8 CD Japanese set, and You Made Me Love You.

Night Lights

There have been many references to the Night Lights album over recent years and there have been requests to explain the facts surrounding this album.

It was the custom at Capitol to record more tracks for an album than they intended to release on it. This could be any number from 13 to 20 for a 12-track album - the actual tracks to be included would be decided later. For example, 16 tracks were recorded for The Very Thought Of You, 15 tracks for the George Shearing Album and 17 tracks for The After Midnight Sessions. This applied to all Capitol artists. 22 tracks were recorded for the Night Lights album.

The recording was made on three dates at the end of 1955 and the beginning of 1956 in Los Angeles, as follows:

Seven of these tracks (Dame Crazy, I Just Found Out About Love, My Personal Possession, That's All There Is To That, To The Ends Of The Earth, and Never Let Me Go) were released as singles and were quite successful and although all bar Dame Crazy have been released on CD, only That's All There Is To That is currently available (on the recent 3 CD Diskery set).

Another four of these 22 tracks have been released (I Got Love, The Shadows, I Promise you and The Way You Love Me) but only on obscure LPs and only I Promise You has appeared on CD (the hard-to-find Tenderly).

That leaves eleven tracks - all completely new - none of them ever released in any format - what do we have to do to get them released?

The backing for all of these recordings was provided by The Nelson Riddle Orchestra and presumably Nelson did the arrangements as well.

Why has the album never been released? The only argument that's been put forward is that in 1957 Stereophonic Recordings took over, and this being a mono album it was left on the shelf in favour of stereo ones.

Of course, in the age of the compact disc, stereo/mono considerations no longer apply - particularly in respect of Capitol Mono Recordings of the 1950's which were better than most other record companies' stereo recordings.

With Nat King Cole's - and Nelson Riddle's - legions of fans (Nat has had 400 CDs released in eight years!) there is no doubt that this album would be a sure-fire winner. With 22 tracks it was made for the compact disc format and what an ideal title for a Christmas release and a Christmas gift - Night Lights.

MFP "Favourite" Series of CDs

UK MFP have produced a series of compilation CDs by various artists with a "Favourite ..." theme. Nat King Cole appears on five of them, as follows:

On Favourite Fifties (94343) Nat sings Smile

On Favourite Sixties (94344) Nat sings Ramblin' Rose

On Favourite Male Vocalists (94345) Nat sings Let There Be Love

On Favourite Easy Listening (94349) Nat sings A Blossom Fell

On Favourite Capitol Classics (94340) Nat sings Around The World

Tenderly

Since mentioning this Entertainers Compact Disc in KCC 20 there have been more enquiries about this CD than any other. I have never seen another copy of it, neither can I obtain copies. I can, however, prove that it's not a figment of the imagination by reproducing the sleeve here.

A Portrait of the Nat King Cole Trio

UK Company Nusic Collection International has issued a budget priced (£6.49) double CD boxed set with the above title.

The 48 tracks consist of 32 Capitols, 12 Deccas, 2 Excelsiors, 1 Premier and 1 Keystone. The tracks are pretty regular Trio titles Sweet Lorraine, Route 66, For Sentimental Reasons, and The Frim Fram Sauce, and Nothing Ever Happens.

However, no matter how good it is or how cheap it is, if you have the Mosaic Set, you have most of the tracks anyway.

For those interested the catalogue number is Gale 428.

Long Long Ago

Two 3 CD sets of Dean Martin songs include the duet Long Long Ago on them although this was the B-side to Open Up The Doghouse when originally released as a single.

The two sets are UK MFP CDTRBOX 288 The Best Of Dean Martin and Memories Are Made Of This on Disky HR 883302.

Lost And Found

We now have three readers looking for the Mosaic Set so if you know of a spare copy please let me know.

Dexter Gordon

The four tracks that Nat King Cole made with Dexter Gordon in 1943 have now been released in France on The Jazz Archives label (no 93).

The title is Dexter Gordon 1943/1946 and the four tracks are I Found A New Baby, Rosette, Sweet Lorraine and I Blowed And Gone. All the tracks are around 4 to 5 minutes. No vocals of course, but great to get these four recordings on CD at last.

Alternate Take of "Stardust"

USA Capitol have reissued the original LP Love Is The Thing on CD on their DCC Compact Classics label (no. GZS 1104) but it's almost identical to the 1987 CD release Love Is The Thing (And More). This is because the And More is the same three bonus tracks taken from Where Did Everyone Go. The only difference is in the running order. The twelve tracks from the original LP are in the same order but instead of the three bonus tracks being intermingled as on the 1987 CD, this time they are put together at the end of the CD.

The CD is issued on 24 Karat Gold and comes with an 8-page booklet containing the original artwork, but the most interesting aspect of this new CD is that 13 seconds after the last (15th) track, Lee Gillette, the record producer, ammounces an alternate take of Stardust. This take is slightly different and is a few seconds shorter than the original.

The surprising thing is that this alternate take, which could well be a good selling point, isn't listed in the booklet, the packaging or on the CD itself.

The original LP has also been reissued on a 180+ Pure Virgin Vinyl LP (catalogue no LPZ 2029) but with only two bonus tracks and without the alternate take of Stardust.