Nat King Cole - Nat King Cole (99 tracks) +Album Reviews

Indelible music but the box set has some flaws

Greg Brady | Capital City | 10/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you doubt his importance in the Capitol Records stable, consider their "stack of records" shaped office building was nicknamed "The House that Nat Built", thanks to his long run of successful singles on the pop and R&B charts. How well you think this box set summarizes his career probably depends on whether you're looking for a comprehensive take on his career from the jazzier Trio sides all the way through the late 60s...or if you mostly want the string-laden pop hits.

PROS:

With anyone who had as many Top 40 hit singles as Cole did in his career (79), inevitably you have to make some decisions as to WHICH ones make it. Otherwise you'd spend 3 of these discs on the "hits" and have about 25 (50 cuts max...box sets of more than 5 CDs have a limited market) left to get in artistically important rarities, album tracks and live material. What they settled on is 18 Top 10 hits, 10 Top 20s, and 7 lower charters. (just under half the single hits)

There was SOME attempt made to represent Nat's jazz work (his cover of Duke Ellington's "Caravan","Bop-Kick" and others), foreign language forays ("Non Dimenticar","Azure-Te") and even a gospel number ("Standin' in the Need of Prayer").

CONS:

The only huge misstep is M.I.A. #6 smash "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer". That one really should be on here. #9 charter "Frosty the Snowman" isn't here either, but you can forgive them the desire to not delve too deeply into seasonal material. (Cole's classic take on Torme's "The Christmas Song" is here and that's enough). Those are the only Top 10s that missed the set. Other than that you might quibble with their choices (I wish "You Don't Learn That in School" were here) but only "Kee-Mo-Ky-Mo" makes me cringe.

The jazz Trio work is a bit underrepresented here. (Around 13 cuts) There also isn't a whole lot of examples of Cole "working" a crowd here either.(Though "Mr. Cole Won't Rock and Roll" is a nice novelty medley, gently poking fun at "Tutti Frutti","Why Do Fools Fall in Love?","Rock around the Clock" and other early rock standards). As rarities go, they should have gotten the licensing to some of the Eddie Cole's Solid Swingers material (Nat's first recordings with his older brother) and Grammy winner "Midnight Flyer" ought to have made the cut.

BOTTOM LINE:

If you think his best stuff was the Trio stuff, you'll probably be happier with COOL COLE (ASIN B00005RT8F), a 4CD set of tunes from 1940-1950 that contains SOME of the "ballad days" material but places most of its emphasis on Nat's jazzier stuff. (If you have REALLY deep pockets opt for THE COMPLETE CAPITOL RECORDINGS OF THE NAT KING COLE TRIO (ASIN B000002TNU), which will set you back 2 G's or more.) As far as a comprehensive look at Nat's career, this one will probably satisfy MOST fans and has more to recommend it than the other Capitol boxset THE CLASSIC SINGLES. (That set suffers from a lack of completeness on what its title would lead you to believe was a counterpart to its COMPLETE CAPITOL SINGLES released on Frank Sinatra.)"

Finally, it's re-released!

James Fenos | Columbus, OH United States | 11/19/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This boxed set was first released in 1992 and then taken out of print. It languished on the shelf for ten years, now it's available again. Absolutely nothing has changed about this boxed set, nothing. The mastering was great then, I'm sure it stood the test of time. I have the original boxed set, trust me, it's well done. If you want excellent mastering and more stereo takes, purchase the masterful songbook compilations, they are presented with 20bit mastering. That technology doen't exist here. This boxed set takes us on a chronological journey starting with the mono takes from the early trio days to the mono solo era to the final stereo takes. It's a history lesson of great American music none of us should deprive ourselves."

A perfect collection of Cole - NOW RELEASE EVERYTHING!!!!

Wes | World Citizen, Earth | 12/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"That Nat hasn't received the deluxe complete box set is a travesty. Everything that he and his trio recorded for Capitol WAS released in a large box set (which I own, and is out-of-print), but it is HIGH TIME for Blue Note and Capitol to roll out complete sets, similar to Frank Sinatra with his Columbia / Capitol (Concepts) / Reprise treasure chests. Fans have had ENOUGH of the compilations - let's have EVERYTHING chronologically issued. Nat deserves nothing less. Until then, this is a very, very fine collection of Nat's smooth genius. It belongs in yours."

Not A "Best Of" As Hits Go - But Among His Best Insofar As T

James Fenos | 04/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One reviewer deducts 1 star from this magnificent box set because it omits a couple of his hit singles that he thinks should have been included. Now, no one out there is more critical than me of those releases that blare "GREATEST HITS OF" and "BEST OF" - and then fail to deliver. The only problem is, this one makes no such claim. It's titled, simply, "Nat King Cole" and what you get here is pure vintage Nat Cole.

The sound quality is excellent and inside is a 56-page booklet containing background notes under the sub-titles The Man (9 pages) by the British-born jazz pianist, composer, producer, music journalist Leonard Feather, and The Music (21 pages) by Mr. Will Friedwald, the noted author of Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices. There is also a list of the contents showing composers, recording dates, Capitol Master numbers, and orchestral back-up. All this is liberally sprinkled with great vintage photos of Nat (and The Trio), some with stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Mercer, Maria Cole, Nelson Riddle, a very young Natalie Cole, and George Shearing.

Unfortunately, ostensibly because the majority of the songs contained herein were never hit singles for Nat, they do not show chart details for the 37 included that WERE hits (disc 1 - tracks 1, 5, 10, 11, 13, 14 (The Christmas Song actually charted 5 times to 1954), 15, 19, 20, 21 and 22: disc 2 - 5, 7 to 14, 16, 17, 19, 21 and 25: disc 3 - 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 12, 13, 15, 17 (Stardust became a hit single even though it was only released as part of a 5-tracl E.P.), 20 and 25{ disc 4 - 5, 21, 23 and 24.

For the record, counting his time as part of The King Cole Trio beginning in 1943, to his untimely death on February 16, 1965 at age 47, he had chalked up 136 hit singles - all for Johnny Mercer's Capitol label - and added five more posthumously, including that 1991 overdubbed duet with daughter Natalie on Unforgettable. From the inception of the R&B charts in 1942 (then called The Harlem Hit Parade) he placed 47 there, had two make what passed for the Country charts in 1944, and following the advent of the Adult Contemporary (Easy Listening) charts in late 1961, placed another 17 there.

One of the very best Nat "King" Cole box-sets on the market and worth every nickel."

Nat King Cole... hours of enjoyment from one of the mellowe

Rich Ernst | Bridgeton, NJ USA | 09/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow, this box set is fantastic. I had forgotten how utterly flawless Nat Cole's voice was until I listened to a couple greatest hits records I forget were in my collection... and then days later this arrived in the mail from Amazon, a birthday present from a friend. Well let me tell you, when I like an artist I like to get box sets so I can completely immerse myself in their music and this is a great route to go if that's what you're looking for with the late great Nate.

Although this set is 99% geared toward those people who are mostly familiar with Nat's pop music career, there are a couple of nice pieces of him playing the piano. He really was very good. I'm surprised how many people these days don't seem to realize that his jazz piano was his original claim to fame back when he was shy about his singing voice! These piano features include a nice version of "What is This Thing Called Love" and a peppy version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" (although who in the world would ever play that slowly anyway?).

Another reviewer noted the odd omission of "Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer" which I must admit is really strange, but I already own that song on a record by the same name, so I actually didn't even realize that and it wasn't a huge loss in the big scheme of things. It also doesn't have "Almost Like Being in Love", which I thought was a fairly popular recording by him as well.

Listening to this album reminds me that he had some of the absolute best orchestral backing arrangements of any singer ever. Period. The classics-- "Nature Boy", "Unforgettable", "Too Young", "Somewhere Along the Way"-- sometimes I think we forget how beautiful these arrangements are. And then there are "Answer Me My Love", "When I Fall in Love", and Charlie Chaplin's "Smile"... honestly among the most beautiful popular recordings ever, in my opinion. His voice and the orchestra-- WOW. To me, though, the most obvious is his literally *hair-raisingly* gorgeous rendition of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust", which is not only MY personal favorite recording of the most popular and most 'covered' song ever... but it was also the favorite version of Mitchell Parish, so that should tell you something! (and not just about my taste, *ahem*) ;)

"Mr. Cole Won't Rock and Roll" is a very amusing parody of his own past recordings and a lot of the popular (though generally fairly brainless) rock-n-roll songs that were in vogue at the time. I laugh each time I listen to it, and I imagine that if you were into music in the '50s (or you pretend you were around then, like I do), you will recognize most or all of the songs he is poking fun at... sometimes he has modified his own songs and sometimes he has referenced RnR songs of the day-- or sometimes both at the same time.

There's also a fun duet, "Save the Bones for Henry Jones", which made me say... 'oops, why don't I own any albums of Johnny Mercer singing?' so keep in mind this just might make you want to buy other things. :) There's also a duet with Dean Martin, "Open Up the Dog House".

All that to say, if you really like Nat's music, this is a great great set and may even be all you ever need. (I may end up buying some of his jazz trio recordings in the future, but that's a different story...)

I can't recommend this highly enough as it really is an outstanding collection.

"

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