The Nat King Cole Greatest Hits [Capitol]

• Artist: Nat King Cole
• Rating:
• Release Date: October 18, 1994
• Total Time: 62:30
• Type: Compilation (best of)
• Genre: Vocal Music

Review

For all the resurgence in interest in Nat King Cole since 1991, when his daughter Natalie recorded a duet patching her new vocal with his from 40 years earlier and scored a gold-selling hit, Capitol Records lacked a single-disc hits collection that covered Cole's most successful singles for the label. This 22-track, 62-plus minute CD/cassette collection does the trick. Cole scored 21 Top Ten hits between 1944 and 1963, and 19 of them are here, from "Straighten Up and Fly Right" to "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer." The only ones missing are seasonal hits, "The Christmas Song" and "Frosty the Snow Man." In their places, you get the original and later versions of "Unforgettable" (neither of which, as it happens, quite made the Top Ten). You also get Cole's four number one songs, "Mona Lisa," "Nature Boy," "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," and "Too Young," along with such memorable tunes as "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," "Smile," and "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66." The non-chronological sequencing emphasizes the stylistic and qualitative consistency of Cole's work; it doesn't much matter if you juxtapose a song recorded in the '40s ("Nature Boy") against one recorded in the '60s ("Ramblin' Rose"), because you still get the same warmth and assurance in Cole's singing and the same tastefulness in the arrangements. One might have hoped for more in the way of packaging (there are no liner notes), but this is the single album to buy to hear Nat King Cole's best-known vocal performances. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Unforgettable	Irving Gordon	Nat King Cole	(3:12)
Route 66	Bobby Troup	Nat King Cole	(3:02)
Orange Colored Sky	Milton DeLugg, William Stein, Willie Stein	Nat King Cole	(2:34)
Mona Lisa (Lyrics)	Ray Evans, Jay Livingston	Nat King Cole	(3:16)
Walkin' My Baby Back Home (Lyrics)	Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk	Nat King Cole	(2:40)
Straighten up and Fly Right (Lyrics)	Irving Mills, Nat King Cole	Nat King Cole	(2:26)
Send for Me	Ollie Jones	Nat King Cole	(2:38)
Looking Back (Lyrics)	Brook Benton, Belford Hendricks, Clyde Otis	Nat King Cole	(2:27)
You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)	Con Conrad, Russ Columbo, Gladys Dubois, Paul Gregory	Nat King Cole	(3:05)
(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons	William Best, Deek Watson	Nat King Cole	(2:54)
Nature Boy	Eden Ahbez	Nat King Cole	(2:39)
Ramblin' Rose (Lyrics)	Joe Sherman, Noel Sherman	Nat King Cole	(2:50)
Pretend	Lew Douglas, Cliff Parman, Frank LaVere, Dan Belloc	Nat King Cole	(2:44)
Too Young	Sylvia Dee, Sidney Lippman	Nat King Cole	(3:13)
Somewhere Along the Way (Lyrics)	Sammy Gallop, Kurt Adams	Nat King Cole	(2:54)
Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer	Charles Tobias, Hans Carste	Nat King Cole	(2:25)
Smile	Charlie Chaplin, Geoff Parsons, John Turner	Nat King Cole	(2:54)
Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup (Lyrics)	Anna Sosenko	Nat King Cole	(2:51)
Answer Me, My Love	Carl Sigman, Gerhard Winkler, Fred Rauch	Nat King Cole	(2:38)
A Blossom Fell	Howard Barnes, Harold Cornelius, Dominic John	Nat King Cole	(2:33)
If I May	Rose Marie McCoy, Charlie Singleton, Charles Singleton	Nat King Cole	(3:04)
Unforgettable	Irving Gordon	Natalie Cole, Nat King Cole	(3:31)

Credits

Sid Avery (Cover Photo), John Kraus (Engineer), Curtis Ousley (Sax (Tenor)), Pete Rugolo (Arranger), Tommy LiPuma (Executive Producer), Hank Jones (Piano), Kenny Burrell (Guitar), Natalie Cole (Performer), Roberta Ballard (Production Manager), David Foster (Producer), Brad Benedict (Photo Research), Belford Hendricks (Conductor), Billy May (Arranger), Les Baxter (Arranger), Nelson Riddle (Arranger), Natalie Cole (Executive Producer), Nat King Cole (Vocals), Johnny Collins (Guitar), Ralph Carmichael (Conductor), Frank de Vol (Arranger), Oscar Moore (Bass), Lee Gillette (Producer), Johnny Mandel (Adaptation), John Collins (Guitar), Tommy Steele (Art Direction)