Nat "King" Cole - All-Purpose Thread (was "year by year") - Part 5*

Wow, makes him look like he’s full of lesions. To think someone actually approved that.

 

Serving lithium in the art department.

 

Not official, but this one has always freaked me out a little.

 

He looks like something from "Star Trek " both covers.

 

As bad as it is, I think this one is worse. The Hollyridge Strings - The Nat King Cole Song Book (Asian release). Nat looks like he's barely escaped a nasty fist fight.

 

Cole, though handsome, sometimes photographed poorly. This also occurred with Johnny Hartman. Mr. B, with his matinee idol looks, never took a bad picture.

 

A rare clip of Nat in color.

 

Wow. Very nice. My only issue is the arrangement seems a little too upbeat for the material. Not used to hearing this with horns. As always, though, an incredible performance.

 

Even though the Jenkins arrangement is the way most of us know this song, he was doing this chart live for over year before finally recording the studio version.

 

Portrait in red clay.

 

So damn cool.

Too bad they couldn't have filled out the sheet more completely.

 

Anyone ever listen to "Stardust" on this 1995 compilation? Can't be the stereo LP mix. Sounds too nice. I wonder if it was remixed from three-track specifically for this release, or if it was already remixed for another project by that time. All tracks sound decent - transparent with nice textures and very little (if any) NR.

Edit - whoomp, there it is ... NR on The Four Freshmen track, but it's subtle, and it doesn't suck everything up into a vacuum yet in 1995, apparently.

 

Norberg remix?

 

Yup. Is it a remix? My ears say it has to be.

 

Yep. Definitely one of the coolest things I've seen in awhile.

 

I would think so with Norberg.

 

I wish the resident mastering engineers of other major labels of the 90's went to the trouble of remixing for various compilations. That's a primo MO.

 

I haven't heard Larry's remix so I can't compare, but that is plausible.

 

Yours is still king, but this is the best I've heard otherwise.

 

This compilation is also the first domestic* issue of Nat's "How Little We Know" according to the track list, which declares it to be 'previously unreleased'.

Nice package of Carmichael tunes, although I don't care for a few of the artists. Glad to have two from Nat, and one from Mags.

*edit

 

Not so. Possibly the first domestic CD release, but it had been issued at least twice on LP in the '80s, in the UK and Venezuela respectively. But I can forgive the folks at Capitol in 1995 for not knowing that.