SH Spotlight Nat King Cole "LOVE IS THE THING" (1956) in new multi-channel SACD & 45 RPM LP from Analogue Prods.

That really sucks.

 

I was listening to an old CD-R in the reject pile I had of the "Hold" reel outtakes from LOVE IS THE THING again today. This is the only outtake reel in existence for this album and it survives because (as I've mentioned), Lee Gillette had the engineer mark "HOLD" on it in red grease pencil, so it survived all the vault purges of 1959, '69, '79, etc. Why he did that? Probably for the cute little segment that I put on the 45 RPM version of "I THOUGHT ABOUT MARIE."

Sadly, it will sit in the vaults forever, most likely, nothing on there of any musical interest, just false starts, etc. but it impressed me again during the little sections of "WHERE CAN I GO WITHOUT YOU" that Nat Cole was right there, listening intently as Gordon Jenkins adjusted the arrangement slightly, asking Lee if it sounded better like this or like that and then they would do a few bars and instead of Nat just lounging in his chair, he sang right along every time. Normally, the recording engineer would stop tape during this fiddling, but the three-track machine was a pain to restart (had to get up to speed and three record buttons had to be pushed) so they left it running (probably preoccupied with trying to get the main microphone patch to sound right.)

So the orchestra fiddling was kept on this one tape. Hearing it was impressive to me. Lee and Nat really cared about the album, the arrangements, everything.

And Gordon Jenkins cared about every little note, the volume that each string player used during each bar, the blending of the drums/bass/guitar/harp/piano with the giant string section, everything. And this was after his arrangements were already on paper. Lee Gillette (from the vantage point of the control room, listening to how it sounded AFTER the reverb, EQ, mic levels, etc. were added during the live recording) was the final word on what it sounded like in relation to the vocal. The conductor never had (or has) the last word in these sessions, the A&R man (now we call them Producers) always had the last word.

It is safe to assume that they perfected each and every song on the album in the exhausting way over a two day period until all were happy.

Professionals, not just phoning it in, but giving it their all in real-time, live in the studio. We will never see their like again.

 

No problem.

It's rare from this middle 1950s era that we can really listen to the "struggle" of making an LP with a large orchestra. What's remarkable is that the issued takes themselves don't have any edits in them except for one song on the entire album, and that was only due to a technical glitch.

In other words, the conductor and producer relay the instructions to the orchestra and they do it, first time.

 

No one saved that stuff back then (or probably now). It was considered expendable. There would have been (counting the mono and stereo versions) about 35 to 40 separate reels just for the one LP of LOVE IS THE THING. Imagine if they saved everything for every session ever done at Capitol? It would have filled up half of Hollywood. They kept what they felt was essential, and we're glad they did.

 

Time to play "Love Is The Thing" right now.

 

Aw, give it a shot.

 

Can I ask you to copy the matrix info for me on the mono lead out?

 

40? Amazing.