Customer Reviews

Best of the Nat Cole King Trio

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I love the Nat King Cole Trio. But save your money on this one, folks. While the songs are great, the recording quality is not. Lots of white noise ruined this CD for me.

Having crossed path with the Nat King Cole Trio just changed my whole approach to music. To put it simply, every single track recorded by the classic trio during the forties is a genuine masterpiece. Cole is a world class virtuoso and his guitarist Oscar Moore displays harmonies in an incredible way. Forget Presley, forget The Beatles, this is the greatest popular music ever recorded in the 2Oth century and this comes from a fan of Van Halen and AC/DC. No other music has been so much blessed with grace. Sweet Lorraine is a song to die for

This all too short CD of twelve of the hits from the Nat King Cole Trio leaves quite a bit to be desired. After all, there are much better quality recordings of these very same tunes out there. I am left wondering why these tracks were never digitally remastered and why we only get twelve tracks on this CD.

To be fair, you get some pretty sharp numbers. Nat sings his best for "On The Sunny Side Of The Street;" "Straighten Up And Fly Right" and the mighty tune called "The Frim-Fram Sauce." Nat sings his best.

Nat sings his best, that is, when you can hear him. These recordings have so much surface noise the whole effect is ruined. The piano becomes far less audible; and the other instruments are not as enjoyable to hear as they should be.

The liner notes are sparse as well. What a disappointment!

My advice is to save your money and buy a box set like the import set entitled Cool Cole or any other remastered CD by The Nat King Cole Trio.

What a shame that these fine artists didn't get their due on this album!

I am in total agreement with the reviewer who advises you to save your money on this one. Not only does the sound reproduction leave much to be desired, the one feeble page of background notes is an insult to a star of such magnitude, and they did not even fill out the compilation with hits. And this in one they boldly title "The Best Of The Nat King Cole Trio!"

It isn't as if there aren't plenty of Trio hits to choose from since they had 25 on what passed for the R&B charts from 1942 to 1950, nine of which crossed over to the Pop charts and, in addition, they had six others that made only the Pop charts. So, all in all, 31 selections from which to choose.

The first three here pre-date the Harlem Hit Parade [now R&B charts] and, since they did not make the Pop charts either in 1940, none are technically hits, although Sweet Lorraine is certainly regarded as one of their all-time recordings for obvious reasons. But then again, none among tracks 6, 9, and 11 were either R&B or pop hits for the Trio in 1944.

Six that would have helped this one live up to its label are: I Can't See For Lookin' - the flip of Straighten Up And Fly Right and a # 2 R&B/# 24 pop in 1944; Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You - # 1 R&B and # 20 pop in 1944; You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love) - # 10 pop in 1946; Meet Me At No Special Place (And I'll Be There At No Particular Time) - # 3 R&B in 1947; Nature Boy - # 1 pop [for 8 weeks] and # 2 R&B in 1948; and Put 'Em In A Box, Tie "Em With A Ribbon (And Throw "Em In The Deep Blue Sea) - # 30 pop in 1948.

Scout around. There are other King Cole Trio compilations much better than this pathetic issue.