You (didn't) ask for it!! Nat King Cole Capitol matrix and take numbers, misc.

Thanks. Now for today's exercise in pedantry...

I thought the mono master was primarily 8 with a bit of 4 at the end?

 

I've been scouring the old threads, will try and find the info again.

 

From the LOVE IS THE THING thread:

 

Dude tends to get a little too mixed up at times for my taste.

 

Steve,

Can you confirm the take numbers for "Unforgettable" and "My First and Last Love." Other sources list those as both being take 9.

 

Very much, thanks. Your initial post had take 6 for "Unforgettable."

 

No need.

 

What is Nat referring to at the end there?

 

Was that something he altered based on a comment from Gillette, or did his approach evolve on its own from that first take?

 

Interesting. I would have assumed he knew it was Gordon's tune - he did always reserve a spot for a Jenkins composition on their subsequent albums together.

 

That I don't know. You may be right.

It's been alleged by Ralph Carmichael (Nat's arranger/conductor in the 60's) that Gordon was the original choice to arrange Cole's Xmas album, and at least one factor working against Jenkins was his insistence that he receive co-composer credit with Nat on all of the PD tunes, as was the arrangement two years earlier when they did the album of spirituals in Chicago. Ralph, in his words, was very young then and really had no idea about material in the public domain. And if you notice on the label of the Xmas album, virtually of the songs are "adapted" by Nat and Edith Bergdahl, which was the maiden name of Lee Gillette's wife. Again, Carmichael doesn't know if this has anything to do with why got the job -- that he didn't know any better to assert a claim -- but it is something he says he heard years later.

 

@Steve Hoffman:

Couple questions about the tape box for the above two songs (seen below):

1. "Wild is Love" is listed as Take 14 (the red square). Beneath that, though, there is a note (with another red square) that I can't quite make out but says something about Bar 49 or 69. Presumably, this indicates the edit that appears in the coda on the stereo master. Is that edit from Take 15 (the second red square) or someplace else?
2. "Hundreds And Thousands of Girls" looks like Take 3 is circled in red, but you've got Take 2 on the list in the initial post. Can you confirm the take?
3. Is there an name on the box, or if not, can you confirm that to be Kraus' handwriting? He's been credited on this album, via a Grammy nomination, but again, just looking for confirmation.

 

These are from your mastering session and are posted at Acoustic Sounds. I thought you might have retained the info.
http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=page&PID=477