Nat "King" Cole Very Thought Of You CD

Nat "King" Cole's voice is the very essence of irresistible musical seduction on this 1958 set of romantic classics. Accompanied by Gordon Jenkins's sumptuously arranged strings, Cole invests such songs as the gorgeous "But Beautiful," "Cherie," and the title track with an impeccably realized combination of fragility and sensitivity, transforming oft-repeated sentiments into unique and passionate declarations of love.

Nat "King" Cole met the distinguished arranger and songwriter Gordon Jenkins for his most ethereal album ever--no reeds or brass, just dramatic yet highly economical settings for voice and strings. The opening title tune is perhaps the finest version yet of one of the loveliest songs ever written, originally introduced by the '30s English crooner Al Bowly. Tellingly, some of the other songs ("Paradise," "I Found a Million Dollar Baby") are indelibly associated with other singing idols from that decade like Russ Columbo and Bing Crosby. Beyond this, most of the other material is relatively unknown, including Steve Allen's "Impossible" and Jenkin's own philosophical "This as all I Ask." This slighty anonymous aspect lends the session an air of romantic spirituality, a particular quality the angelic Cole was famous for. Perhaps his greatest album.

The Very Thought of You, Nat King Cole's second album-length collaboration with arranger/conductor Gordon Jenkins following the chart-topping Love Is the Thing (1957), was one of his major LPs of the 1950s. Jenkins and his orchestra were given credit on the album's front cover, and they earned it. Jenkins' signature sound -- lush, swirling strings in arrangements set at slow tempos -- was very much in evidence, and Cole smoothly intoned the lyrics in solemn yet soaring fashion. If there was anything that marred the collection, it was that not all the songs were memorable. As usual with this sort of album, the singer and his arranger delved into the Great American Songbook for songs to reinvent for the 1950s, going all the way back to 1926 for Lillian Rosedale Goodman's "Cherie, I Love You," and to the '30s for the title song, "I Found a Million Dollar Baby," "Paradise," and "For All We Know." (Two other '30s songs, "Don't Blame Me" and "There Is No Greater Love," were recorded at the album sessions but left off the original LP release. They were added to the 1987 CD/cassette reissue and are included on this even lengthier reissue, which also boasts yet another '30s copyright, "Farewell to Arms.") "But Beautiful," "My Heart Tells Me," and "The More I See You" all date from the '40s. There are standards among these titles, notably "But Beautiful" and "I Found a Million Dollar Baby," both associated with Bing Crosby. Among the lesser-known and more recent compositions, Jenkins' own "This Is All I Ask" went on to become a popular song, as did talk-show host Steve Allen's "Impossible." Other songs have remained curiosities, such as "Making Believe You're Here," which was written by the estimable team of Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen, and Fred Karger and Frankie Laine's "Magnificent Obsession," which probably was written as a promotional song ("for exploitation only," as the saying went) for the 1954 film of the same name, although it was not actually used in the picture. Cole and Jenkins treated each song, good or bad, with the same reverence, which tended to equalize them, and that was just as well. The original LP contained a generous 14 tracks at a time when 12 was standard, and ran an unusually long 50 minutes, leaving no room at the time for "Don't Blame Me" and "There Is No Greater Love."

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Recorded at Capitol Tower Studio, Hollywood, California in May 1958. Includes liner notes by Pete Welding.

Personnel includes: Nat "King" Cole (vocals); Gordon Jenkins (conductor).

Personnel includes: Nat "King" Cole (vocals).