Nat King Cole - the one and only thread

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

amazingly there's no Nat King Cole thread on ILM (unless the search function is broken). I've been listening to him alot in the past few weeks, mostly the greatest hits, & oh my god THAT VOICE is just one of the greatest sounds in music. an absolutely perfect confluence of velvetty and gravelly. it's completely unique & perhaps one of the most distinctive voices ever.

of course he was also an incredibly important figure politically in the states through being one of the first prominent african americans on TV, with his own variety show. he has received some flack for not being militant enough in terms of the civil rights movement - i'm not going to talk about this simply because i don't know much about it, instead i'm going to put on "stardust" for about the 10th time this morning and *melt*.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 13 August 2006 12:30 (6 years ago) Permalink

I don't know his music in detail, but yes, he had a fantastic voice.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 13 August 2006 12:55 (6 years ago) Permalink

Check out his trio days from the 30s and 40s. Straighten Up And Fly Right, Sweet Lorraine and Route 66 come to mind. He was a pretty slick customer on the piano.

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 13 August 2006 13:18 (6 years ago) Permalink

Colin, do you have the "Love is the Thing" album with "Stardust," "Stay As Sweet As You Are," "When I Fall in Love," etc.? It is indeed to melt for.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 15 August 2006 22:51 (6 years ago) Permalink

Jim W OTM on his jazzy stuff. My favorite version of "Route 66" bar none. IIRC he smoked liked a furnace and died of lung cancer, but you sure can't hear it in his voice. The Capitol box is worth the $$$.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 15 August 2006 23:08 (6 years ago) Permalink

Who died and made him Nat King, huh?

― Domenico Buttez (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Tuesday, 15 August 2006 23:26 (6 years ago) Permalink

I remember reading that Nat King Cole was Chuck Berry's favorite music artist. I'd like to see Rolling Stone, Vh1, etc revise everything so that everything Rock and Roll now starts with him!

― Cunga (Cunga), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 01:38 (6 years ago) Permalink

Aw. Is this the best we can do? The guy worked his ass and balls off (in L. Bangs' formulation re Bob Seger, who was on Capitol within a few years of Nat) and was a player in the civil-rights struggle on many levels whether he wanted to be or not. Great singer and pianist, all-around smooth guy and he had a TV show that's worth seeing. (It was on BET's jazz channel within at least the past few months; may still be. Nat offered everyone from Eartha Kitt to a Norman Granz-curated jazz show to Joe Bennett and the Sparkletones.)

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 07:53 (6 years ago) Permalink

Cole's style of jazz piano was very individualistic, modernistic to a degree but not really owing anything to the swing-into-bop fashions of the period; with the very notable exception of Oscar Peterson, has he had much subsequent influence on jazz pianists (Marian McPartland, maybe)?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:05 (6 years ago) Permalink

Krall, maybe, but she's got no rebop. (Sorry for second Bangs reference.) Of course, pianistically speaking, she seems to have gotten whatever she does have from Peterson.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:37 (6 years ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

This is a sadly inadequate thread on one of the best vocalists ever, and a pretty damn fantastic pianist, too. I just scored the complete Capitol Records sessions, 18 discs worth. I'm only a tiny way through it, but there's just nothing bad to say about this man. When he sings, "I'm a shy guy / Wish I was a sly guy," I buy it in spite of the fact that he's clearly more sly than he's letting on. When he sings, "I get sentimental over nothing / Imagine how I feel about you," I am moved enough to immediately send it to my girlfriend. As far as pop vocalists go, Nat moves me more than even Sinatra, and in terms of jazz vocalists, he's still top-tier. And like I say, plays a helluva piano.

How does this man get so ignored? It's not like he ever turned to total schmaltz, just a bit of pop. He got huge with white people without even changing his game that much.

― kenan, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 06:09 (6 years ago) Permalink

Some of the later big pop singles are a little hard to take, but I'll go back and see if I can hear through those awful vocal choruses. I'm thinking of things like "Rambling Rose" and "Those Lazy, Crazy, Hazy Days of Summer." Kenan's right, though -- Cole had a giant smash with "Nature Boy," a pretty offbeat song for its era. I also love the rock-era "Looking Back," co-written by Brook Benton.

Search: the [i]After Midnight[/i} album, which paired a reunited Trio with guests such as Sweets Edison and Stuff Smith in 1956. Really marvelous.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 07:09 (6 years ago) Permalink

Yes. That's in this box, plus outtakes and stuff. That was my first Nat album.

― kenan, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:18 (6 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

the greatest

― jed_, Thursday, 25 November 2010 01:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

I dig some of those early Ray Charles tunes where he just shamelessly cops Nat's vocal style.

― m0stlyClean, Thursday, 25 November 2010 02:11 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Totally re-digging him. Little sly touches in all the small band stuff, very zen piano lines, and he sure knew how to sing the hell out of a song. Shame that he thought that cigarettes gave him his voice; turned out to be a very bad long-term strategy.

― Display Name (this cannot be changed):, Sunday, 29 January 2012 22:07 (1 year ago) Permalink

he is amazing. i've got one of those cheapo proper 4CD box sets and it is wonderful thorughout.

― tylerw, Sunday, 29 January 2012 22:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

what happend to that first half of the century songs poll (1900-1950) that was discussed after Johnny Fever's 50's poll? Am I imaginging this?

Anyway, Nat King Cole would own that list (with Nature Boy and The Christmas Song at least) even if he was really at his peak later.

I wish this period of pop music was discussed more often. the rock-and-rol-is-the-beggining-of-great-pop-music paradigm is long dead but you wouldn't know it from studying "greatest songs/artist/albums/compilations" list that are being created all the time.

― gospodin simmel, Monday, 30 January 2012 17:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

*list

― gospodin simmel, Monday, 30 January 2012 17:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

*lists dammit!

― gospodin simmel, Monday, 30 January 2012 17:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

Me on Nat's 20 Golden Greats: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/nat-king-cole-20-golden-greats.html.

― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Wednesday, 3 October 2012 12:28 (8 months ago) Permalink

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.