Nat King Cole THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU SACD/45rpm from Analogue Productions

Interesting. Why the heck did they drop it then? Was this indicated in the session notes that it was to be the opening cut? Was it Lee's idea?

 

lol

 

what a great album , the whole series is something very special

was uncanny how real it sounds compared to the excellent SACD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byyPvkuhN_w

 

Are you saying that Gillette had Jenkins write that cello intro in the arrangement in say April or May (whenever he wrote the chart), knowing that he wanted it as the lead cut when the album was released in the fall? Or that because Jenkins wrote a cello intro, ala "When I Fall in Love," Gillette thought it too would make a choice lead in?

 

The latter seems a helluva lot more plausible to me. That's an awful lot of forethought to give an arrangement and an album only to leave the thing off in the end.

 

I just got this SACD in the mail yesterday and my ears were completely virgin to it. It is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. I have no problem admitting I teared up after hearing Nat's The Very Thought of You for the very first time.

-Robert

 

I know what you mean. His voice hits your emotions hard when it first jumps out of that center speaker.

 

The mono mix. The orchestra is a lot more colorful. I want to be able to here every single instrument in the orchestra. I feel the same way about JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS. The more marimba the better.

 

Excellent timing on this thread coming back to life. Just recently took delivery of this and Love is the Thing. Both put Nat in the listening room, as does Welcome to the Party. Planning to collect the lot.

 

Steve,

My favoring of the mono mixes on these NKC releases is not a reflection of your work. I'm not a fan of the early stereo recordings on Capitol. Period. In my opinion, it wasn't a perfected system yet. The early stereo mixes of Sinatra's Capitol albums are sub par to my ears as well. I feel like the engineers were simply experimenting..."Let's put this mic here and that mic there." Call me naïve but that's just the way I feel.

Now by the early sixties, they had gotten it right. Stronger separation in the channels, maybe closer mics on the instruments. The presentation of the instruments had come a long way in a short time, to my ears anyway.

 

Nat's take on this song is really great but it kills me when he doesn't rhyme leisure with pleasure in the opening verse! Nat was such a brilliant man...surely he knew those words were designed to rhyme in that song. Plus the man who wrote the song also arranged and conducted the session...why didn't Jenkins correct Nat. It sounds so wrong when leisure and pleasure do not rhyme...

-robert

 

Just listened to the 45 version last night and forgot what a great record this is! The vocals are mesmerizing.

 

This has been on my wants list for too long , I really must get a copy . It almost sounds delicious!

 

On the stereo mix of "Magnificent Obsession", there's an artifact in Nat's vocals on the word "treasure" at 2:54. It sounds like there's a half syllable missing; a slight cut that affects the pacing. Was there a piece of damaged tape that needed to be discarded, or am I hearing something else? Unless I'm hearing things, I think it's on the mono mix too, but less noticeable.

I love your stereo mixes, Steve. Much more natural than the wimpy, poo-poo EQ'd versions on the original stereo LPs. But, as I mentioned in a related thread, the inclusion of the mono mixes are what sold me on the SACDs. Otherwise I would've been content with the heavy records.

 

So THAT'S what it was...it always sounded like a sloppy tape edit to my ears...

 

Yeah, that's what I thought too.