Nat King Cole More

Sweet and nostalgic Christmas album with two golden voices that are not with us any more. Nat King Cole and Dean Martin take turns and sing 22 xmas classics. Listen to O Tannenbaum, Adeste Fideles, Silent Night with Nat, Let it snow, Rudolph the red nose reindeer, White Christmas with Dean and feel like a little child again. Not much need to be said. Just a small masterpiece.

Nat King Cole's album 10th Anniversary proved to be an interesting watershed in his career. First finding fame as a popular jazz pianist leading a trio, Cole gradually added more and more vocals until he had pretty much left jazz behind for a full-time career as a singer. This compilation, issued on LP in 1955, drew from unreleased recordings from both his jazz and easy listening sessions. One can hear Cole's growth as a singer in his jazz tracks, scatting a bit in his "Lulubelle," though it is his impressive piano that dominates another original, "I'm an Errand Boy for Rhythm." "Peaches" is a rather pedestrian affair with the heavy-handed bongos of Jack Costanzo proving to be more of a distraction than a benefit. The easy listening vocals are a mixed bag. "Too Soon" is overwhelmed by Nelson Riddle's strings, though Dave Cavanaugh's campy Western satire "Rough Ridin'" fares better. Liner note writer James Ritz sings praises for Les Baxter's scoring of the ballad "The Story of My Wife," though the bland arrangement and melody bring to mind the prevailing attitude among other arrangers of the '50s ("The less Baxter, the better!").

Nat King Cole possessed one of the most accessible and appealing voices of any singer in the 1950s. This ballad-oriented set puts the emphasis completely on his voice (there is no piano playing or any hint of his jazz-oriented past) and features Cole accompanied by Gordon Jenkins' sweet arrangements for a string orchestra…

The Jazz Club series is an attractive addition to the Verve catalogue. With it's modern design and popular choice of repertoire, the Jazz Club is not only opened for Jazz fans, but for everyone that loves good music.
For a mild-mannered man whose music was always easy on the ear, Nat King Cole managed to be a figure of considerable controversy during his 30 years as a professional musician. From the late '40s to the mid-'60s, he was a massively successful pop singer who ranked with such contemporaries as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. He shared with those peers a career that encompassed hit records, international touring, radio and television shows, and appearances in films…

10 CD box set containing twenty-two original albums from the great singer and pianist Nat King Cole. It includes many hits and some rarities that show the extraordinary skill of this iconic musician.

Capitol Records took This Is Sinatra!, a compilation album, into the Top Ten in early 1957, which probably prompted the label to assemble a similar collection, This Is Nat "King" Cole, later in the year. Consisting of tracks not previously issued on a Cole LP, the disc contains seven recent Billboard singles chart entries among its 12 selections – "Too Young to Go Steady" (which reached number 21), "Forgive My Heart" (13), "Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You" (72), "To the Ends of the Earth" (25), "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life" (57), "Someone You Love" (13), and "Never Let Me Go" (79) – while an eighth song, "That's All," was the B-side of the 1953 Top 20 hit "Lover, Come Back to Me!" "Too Young to Go Steady," which peaked in April 1956, turned out to be all that was really heard of a stage musical intended for Broadway, Strip for Action, with songs by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson, which closed out of town. "I Just Found Out About Love" and "Love Me as Though There Were No Tomorrow," two more songs from that ill-fated show, are among the previously unheard tracks unearthed for this compilation.

In 1954, Capitol Records released the 10" LP collection Eight Top Pops, compiling eight songs that had appeared on singles by Nat King Cole during 1952. The first two, "Somewhere Along the Way" and "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," were the biggest hits, both reaching number eight in Billboard. "Because You're Mine," Cole's cover of the Mario Lanza movie song (done in a far more relaxed style than Lanza's, of course), was also a major hit, reaching number 16. "Faith Can Move Mountains" and "The Ruby and the Pearl" were somewhat less successful, but still lodged in the Top 30, as did the B-sides "Funny (Not Much)" and "I'm Never Satisfied." The only one of the eight songs not to earn a chart placing was "A Weaver of Dreams," the B-side of the single "Wine, Women and Song." In 1963, Capitol expanded Eight Top Pops into the 12" LP Top Pops by adding two tracks at the end of either side of the original release. These four songs all came from an EP recorded by Cole in 1954, on which he covered hits by other performers, including Doris Day's "If I Give My Heart to You," the De Castro Singers' "Teach Me Tonight," and Perry Como's "Papa Loves Mambo".

Nat King Cole's collaborations with Gordon Jenkins rank among the finest from either artist or arranger. Cole's first stereophonic long player, 1957's Love Is the Thing remains the epitome of the pair's undeniable compatibility, and it topped the album charts for eight weeks. The opener "When I Fall in Love" is considered by many to be nothing short of definitive; the restrained orchestration perfectly adapts to the singer's verdant vocals. Similarly, "Stardust" sparkles as a flawless musical alliance is formed with Cole's warm and inviting narrative weaving over Jenkins' intimate score. Simply stated, both songs are unmitigated masterworks - and we're only two cuts into the dozen-song LP…

Boasting incredible sound quality and an impressive track listing, 1947, Vol. 3 is a wonderful collection of some of Nat King Cole's finest recordings from the late '40s. Despite his amazing piano playing, Cole's charming voice is the real star of this album. His smooth croon makes overplayed standards like "Dream a Little Dream of Me" feel fresh again. With minimal accompaniment and only one self-penned track (the humorous piano showcase "The Geek"), the arrangements had a lot of potential for failure. But instead these are some excellent renditions of songs that have mostly fallen out of the American public's interest. Anyone looking for a quality collection of Cole's performances, or even a good collection of classic vocal jazz, should definitely try to give this album a listen, as it really is quite good.