One King

Retailing at around $90 for less than three hours of music, this Japanese import seems designed to test the most die-hard King Crimson fan. That's not the half of it, because the truth is, it's also a very good set, up to a point. The most notable element here is the presence of the first decent body of concert work by the early 1972 lineup of Boz Burrell-Mel Collins-Ian Wallace, which was the band that most fans ever got to see, among all of the early incarnations of the group. Add on the presence of a killer early performance by the John Wetton-Bill Bruford band, and one of the earlier extant shows of the group's original lineup, from the Marquee Club, and the package seems unbeatable – and pretty much, it is…

Just One of Those Things is a theme album comparable to one of Frank Sinatra's uptempo swing albums of the same period (Come Fly with Me, etc.), and employs the same arranger/conductor, Billy May. Nat King Cole is a bit less effective than Sinatra at uptempo material; he tends to undersing these sprightly standards, and May saves his dramatic horn charts and percussion shots for moments when Cole is away from the microphone. Even so, by the fifth track, "These Foolish Things Remind Me of You," May has retreated to ballad time, and though his embellishments threaten to break out behind the singer, Cole gives an assured, unhurried performance…