Customer Reviews

The Classic Singles

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Nat King Cole was one of the top performers of the 20th century, but it seems like only Capitol fails to realise that. They are the guardians of his musical legacy, the ones that have the responsibility of making his music live on well into the 21st century, and what do they give us? Compilation after compilation of previously released material (when hundreds of unreleased tracks still lay dormant in their vaults),and when they finally come up with an interesting project, they mess it up with average sound quality!

I wouldn't quite agree with the notion, expressed by another reviewer, that Capitol should leave the Nat Cole material solely in the hands of their Capitol Jazz label... Capitol Jazz has excellent releases, liner notes, packaging, etc. (The 'Billy May sessions' 2-CD set, for instance, is brilliant), but it doesn't mean that plain Capitol isn't capable of equaling that quality, even surpassing it, given the right budget and an able team of archivists and reviewers (the 'Complete Capitol Singles' by Sinatra is a case in point). Only problem is, Sinatra sells more than Cole, and so they refuse to invest the same amount of money on an artist that is not so "cost-efficient"...

What a disgrace that they forgot where they come from... Capitol Tower, the symbol in their logo and headquarters for more than half a century, was described at its creation as "the house that Nat Cole built", referring to the huge popularity of his Trio recordings that gave the label its biggest revenue in the 1940s.

The Nat King Cole catalog on Capitol has been artificially divided between the two labels. Why not leave the Trio era recordings to Capitol Jazz and the later, solo recordings to the main label? After all, they are exactly in the same vein as the Sinatra recordings of the same period!

As for this here collection, I still dream of two separate singles sets: 'the Trio years'containing all Trio single sides, and 'the Solo years', covering the second half of his career. Stereo recordings whenever possible, all the sides (there were quite a few, but real fans would agree to pay a little more for it). Not only Nat deserves this, but his fans do, too... and the 21st century music listeners deserve to discover the legacy of one of the most extraordinary vocalists and pianists of all time.

If you're a die hard collector of Nat "King" Cole recordings you may look at the contents of this collection and fantasize about finally having stereo versions of some of his 60's material that has NEVER been released on LP or CD in stereo. Well, forget it. Only two tracks on cd four ("Let There Be Love" and "Dear Lonely Hearts") are in stereo. Not even "Stardust" and "When I Fall In Love" which were among the first tracks recorded by Capitol in stereo are in stereo here! In all fairness it should be mentioned that they did go back to the original masters for "You Made Me Love You" and "Let True Love Begin" instead of using the putrid David Cavanaugh rhythm track versions we've been stuck with since Mr. Cole's death but they're not in stereo. In fact, that in itself is ironic because the notes include a picture of the stereo EP that contained "You Made Me Love You"! As for the rest, you probably have everything on cd one because you probably have the Mosaic box. There are 4 or 5 nice rarities on cds two and three but you've got everything else. When oh when will Bear Family in Germany step in and do for Nat "King" Cole and Perry Como what they did for Dean Martin, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney etc.? We seem to be incapable of it in the US.

Make no mistake: Nat is a top choice for greatest "pop" and "jazz" vocalist of all time, and this set is rich in wondrous musicality sure to be a treat your whole life long! Nat is amazing and the music is delightful. That is why Nat King Cole's music deserves to be released, and in the best manner. Further, Nat was the artist most crucial to making Capitol a substantial label. Instead, he gets treatment such as this set. If you want an example of how not to produce reissues for instruction in the field, we have a marvelous example right here. Consider every angle:

Content. There has been far too many random compilations and hits packages issued of Nat King Cole's music over the decades, from horrible to great. The greatest is the lauded 1992 4-CD box set titled simply 'Nat King Cole' or sometimes 'Capitol Masters: Nat King Cole', spanning his recording career with 100 well-chosen tracks, excellent notes and good sound. Yet despite the countless compilations, Nat's many singles (45 rpm singles from the '50's and '60's) have yet to be comprehensively reissued. Capitol made a 'singles' box set for Frank Sinatra about 15 years ago. A 'singles' box set for Nat, then, is long, long overdue.

This set exploits the market for a release of that segment of Nat's catalog by using the need for a singles set to release yet another random compilation. Attempting to repeat the success of the 1992 career spanning box set, this set again spans Nat's career, consisting of some of his singles along with scores of tracks released either prior to the existence of singles or singles of tracks also included in Nat's albums. Cleverly and deceptively titled 'The Classic Singles', it is a comprehensive collection of neither the classics nor the singles and more than a few tracks that are neither.

I'll give you some specific examples:

'The Magic Song' is a children's song from 1947. Songs from before extended play records existed (1949) can't rightly be called singles. Commercial records were all 78s, simply known as, well, records. Even if you did count his 300-plus pre-1949 78s as singles, this was from a project for a packaged set of 78s, 'King Cole for Kids'. So it doesn't count as a project for singles, yet it's included here!

Another specific example is the case of 'Ramblin' Rose' and 'Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy, Days of Summer'. 'Ramblin' Rose' was a single first, and its success led to the album of the same name. You can argue whether it should be included here, as it is already available on the album. 'Summer', though, was a theme to an album of the same name that was also released as a single. It was intended for the album, so you'd think getting it on its album would be the way to go. You wouldn't need it here. If you're being super complete, fine, but where then are other singles that weren't on any album?

If, then, the point was to make a collection of "classics", well, as mentioned, it fails there too. A specific example is 'A Boy From Texas - A Girl From Tennessee', which is among the few weak Nat King Cole Trio songs ever. Out of hundreds of wonderful Trio songs we pick that one? With so many of his songs stuck in the vaults, we didn't need another grab bag like this.

Sound quality. With countless numbers of good sound engineers on this planet, somehow Capitol found one that evidently has no idea what instruments or good recordings sound like to entrust with the transfer of Nat King Cole's masters. Yes it sounds passable in a cheap-electronics way, but putting use on the original source tapes and discs just to get a low resolution result like this ought to be forbidden. A large operation like Capitol should be able to find better staff. I can't imagine the waste of time and money that was spent ridiculously over-processing the sound to "improve" what sounded far richer before it met their misguided remastering engineer.

Packaging. It's pretty. Fairly handsome. The notes are all right, but naturally not critical of the obvious failures in the compilation, like, oh, missing a load of the singles. Still they managed to go wrong. The package doesn't even safely store the CDs, which are, after all, kind of important to a CD set. Be careful buying a set if used and do so only if you can return potential defects. Not that I can suggest you buy it at all for anywhere near the asking price.

If one wants a retrospective, I recommend the aforementioned other 4-CD set titled simply 'Nat King Cole' from 1992 - it is well compiled, containing more prime cuts, including many of the finest here - and even rates a somewhat nicer, richer sound quality. It has recently been reissued and is less expensive to boot! In fact, all but a dozen of the 103 cuts on this set (that I know of, probably less) can better be collected elsewhere.

It should have been very easy to make the set that was needed. Since the albums are going to be reissued on other CDs (right, Capitol?), compile the tracks issued only on singles. On suitable equipment, play back the already well-recorded open-reel session tapes, which require little mixing or processing, to your CD master. Get someone knowledgeable and appreciative to write some notes. List the info for the tracks. Make a package that's stylistically appropriate and attractive. Obviously, see that the package stores the point of it all, the CDs, safely. Release. How easy can it get?

Despite the useful ratings received, this review has been edited for better articulation to be more useful to any perspective buyer, and to politely temper the disappointment this release causes. A Verve masters series reissue this is not, but the failing is larger than the work of the Capitol staff or the Cole Estate on this issue alone; so much time has passed, and so much of Nat's recorded work is still not available, that this sort of release just isn't good enough to spend anyone's time on.

If Capitol and the Cole Estate honestly wanted Nat's music out there and being enjoyed in the best way possible, they'd insist on recalling or burying this embarrassment, make his music available in comprehensive compilations, carefully account for and archive all his working materials, and of course find good engineers (such as Steve Hoffman) to transfer. They might also note what we should know in all humility: time is on nobody's side. On the project list should be a real set of, imagine, all Nat's classic singles. What does the current Nat catalog say of them? Well it's not flattering, but they've had 20 years to work on it.

Meanwhile, Capitol's owner/partner in England, EMI, has, in this very same month, finally finished issuing the last of Nat's original albums to be issued on CD (for the UK audience) - something the company Nat recorded them for, Capitol, still has not managed to approach despite having had twenty years to do it.

As time is passing, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Capitol and the Cole Estate are delivering less than the measure this great man's life's work deserves.

-CJ

First a little background on this set. Beginning with the stereo era in the late 1950's and early '60's, record labels including Capitol began offering most albums in both stereo and monaural, until stereo proved more popular and monaural was phased out altogether in the late 1960's. The same held true for 45 rpm singles, but most teens purchased the mono 45rpm records, since they were cheaper, and closer to what they heard on AM transistor radios. For the monaural releases, most record labels either mixed down the stereo versions into a flat mono track, or simply pulled the right or left stereo channel, and ran it straight on the 45, leaving a much different sounding version that the stereo versions. Capitol did both. Nat King Cole: the Classic Singles, offers us those monaural singles, for the most part as they sounded as 78 and 45 rpm single records. Monaural recordings can sound very good, if done correctly. For the first three discs of this set, that is the case. Some of the mastering on the early to mid 50's singles with Cole and Nelson Riddle, really sparkle. However it's the fourth disc with which I have the problem. The producer, despite his oath in the booklet to find the best source material possible, has chosen to use the mono mixes of all of Cole's material, even tracks that were originally recorded in stereo. There are many reasons why he/she may have done this. Perhaps to stay with the "singles" theme and keep the songs sounding as they did when released on vinyl. If that's the case, why did the producer choose the stereo versions (and bad ones at that) of Let There Be Love, and Dear Lonely Hearts? Judging by the research that went in to the booklet that accompanies this set, I hardly think ignorance played a role in this. I'm sure the producer knew full well that there were stereo mixes of these songs out there. Contrary to what another reviewer said here, the point of purchasing a 70-dollar CD set *IS* to get the best sounding material available. While it's interesting to hear how some of these songs were mixed to mono, those tinny, shallow, flat recordings are not what I want to hear, and not what I expect from a release of this caliber. Some of these songs, When I Fall In Love, and Looking Back for instance, sound completely different than they did on stereo lp or previous CD releases. This set is certainly not alone in that respect. EMI CD releases from England have been substituting Mono masters for Stereo ones on Cole albums for years. Why, I have no idea. Considering Nat Cole recorded prolifically for Capitol for more than 20 years, I find it sad that so little of his work remains in print. In the past 20 years Capitol and EMI have reissued nearly all of Cole's albums on CD at one time or another. But many including "Love", "Ballads Of the Day", "St Louis Blues" "To Whom It May Concern" and "Wild Is Love" were deleted from Capitol's catalog within months of release, and to date nearly all are completely out of print. "Night Lights" released just five years ago, is also out of print. I hope that Collector's Choice Music leases the Cole masters and turns out a complete, album by album release of Cole's monstrous catalog, as they did for Dean Martin recently. That way we won't have to suffer through any more piecemeal releases from Capitol EMI.

I suppose, for the true audiophile, that a CD produced in this day and age with some background hiss is quite unforgivable, and for that reason I can appreciate some of the negative comments. On the other hand if, like me, that is not an issue (unless the background noise is unbearable), then don't let that stop you from getting a copy of this box set.

Nor should you be dissuaded by the number of "hit singles" omitted. This does not, after all, purport to be his "greatest hit singles" but, rather, "classic singles" - a definition which, I admit, is open to argument and different interpretation. Sweet Lorraine, for example, was a failed single release by The King Cole Trio, and yet today is regarded as one of his classics. Much like, in the Country field, where Hank Williams' I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry never charted as the flipside of My Bucket's Got A Hole In It in 1949, and yet, not only would no Hank Williams compilation be complete without it, I daresay it's better remembered than the hit side.

I also have to wonder at the reviewer who says "songs from before extended play records (1949) can't rightly be called singles..." I'm not sure what he is driving at, but extended play (or E.P.) records had nothing to do with single releases. These were 45rpm [rarely, but sometimes, 33 1/3] records with two songs per side - at times three - with picture sleeves, sort of like mini-LPs.

Once in a while a selection from an EP [or even an LP] would enter the singles charts based upon demand for air play. Elvis did this a few times, and where Nat is concerned just one EP cut made the Billboard singles charts. That was Stardust (# 79 Billboard Pop Top 100 in 1957) which formed part of Capitol EP 824 "Love Is The Thing," also containing When Sunny Gets Blue, Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much, and It's All In The Game.

Aside from such exceptions, true singles were always the one-song-per-side records - whether 78 or 45 rpm. Using the example of Kee-Mo Ky-Mo (The Magic Song), this became a # 10 hit on what then passed for the R&B charts in 1949 b/w Rex Rhumba on Capitol 15240 so, in every respect, this was not only a single, but a hit as well.

For the record, just 18 of the cuts in this 102-song set were not "hit" singles, but in just about every case you could make an argument for them as Nat "King" Cole classics. Such as his renditions of Tenderly, Dreams Can Tell A Lie, and When I Fall In Love.

Along with Bing Crosby & Frank Sinatra,Nat King Cole was,hands down,one of the greatest American singers of the 20th century-I read a very positive review of this anthology in Goldmine magazine & decided to purchase it-This collection starts off with the recordings he made with his King Cole trio-Disc 2 features the songs that made his solo career memorable-Four of the songs on this disc were #1 in Billboard:"I Love You For Sentimental Reasons","Nature Boy","Mona Lisa",& "Too Young"-Some of the other standout tracks include "Walkin My Baby Back Home","Unforgettable","Smile",(written by Charlie Chaplin),"Pretend","Ramblin Rose","That Sunday,That Summer",& that perennial favorite,Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song"-The accompanying booklet has a great essay on Nat's career as well as an extensive discography,listing chart positions,which were taken from the weekly charts of Billboard magazine-For the hard core Nat King Cole devotee,this is definitely the collection to own.

I was quite disappoited with this package. Upon opening, I noted the disks were held in place with some sort of solid, semi-soft plastic. Once removed, there were nearly impossible to re-seat in a firm manner. One of the four disks had cracks around the center hole, seemingly from being forced on this poorly designed material.

Much more importantly was my disappointment with the sound quality. I was hopeful that this remastering would produce something beyond what has previously been available. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. As an audiophile, with a system approaching $40,000 in value, I search long and hard for well recorded material - and I know it when I hear it. Regrettably, this doesn't make the grade. I compared it to my DCC gold disc (mastered by Steve Hoffman) called "Nat King Cole - The Greatest Hits". It wasn't even close. Steve's mastering created a spacious stereo soundstage, with well placed images, and an inviting warmth and tone in Nat's voice. These disks were flat, compressed, and edgy in comparison - all that is despised about poorly engineered CD's by audiophiles.

While my single DCC disk could not begin to cover the fuller catalog that these four do, I find this release to be unlistenable. In almost 40 years of buying music, I have never returned a record or disc. This will be the first.

If you are concerned with quality over quantity, this is not the package for you. (Unfortunately, the DCC release is out of print, but they can sometimes be found used on eBay or AudiogoN. They are very prized by audiophiles, sometimes going for $200+)

A single, to me, is a collection of 2 songs (usually taken from an album, though in the days when LPs and EPs didn't exist yet I would say a 78RPM that one could buy individually, rather than in an "album" package, would also qualify.) I would EXPECT this set at the least to be a collection of all Cole's BEST singles..at least that is implied by the name. At most, I would expect a comprehensive set of everything singled by the man who built Capitol Records' early success. This set fails miserably by either standard.

WHAT'S MISSING:
If we're talking about a complete set of all Nat's singles, we're not even close here. Between 1950 and 1966 alone, Nat released 87 singles. We'll be nice and say that singles only mean those promoted as "A" sides..or those that received airplay. By that token, there should be 104 songs on this collection. There are 101..and even then the 101 songs here are not always the A sides...even in cases where it was not the "B" side which was the charter. (Case in point:"Because of Rain" was the B side to "Song of Delilah". Neither charted. Why was "Because" included? Was it the compiler's aesthetic determination that "Because" was a 'better' song?)

Of course, we know that Nat did NOT record only from 1950 on. There are plenty of songs from the Trio years released on single that don't make it onto here.

If we're talking about his "best" singles, explain to me why "Kee Mo Ky Mo" makes it but "Can I Come in for a Second?" doesn't. Nat, never a 'bluesy' vocalist, singing "I Almost Lost my Mind" instead of "Embraceable You"? "Open Up the Doghouse (Two Cats are Comin' On)" is a nice novelty duet with Dean Martin that misses the cut.

Packaging is also a big minus here. The spindles inside the case do not sturdily hold the discs in. Many, many times I open the case and the discs fall to the ground, getting scratched on the floor, or sometimes, they've been rubbing together in the package: another no-no for disc longevity.

BOTTOM LINE:
There is still no good comprehensive collection of all the material Nat singled during his (too short) lifetime. The best box set overview of his musical legacy remains the 1992 box set Nat King Cole. Get that one instead.

This is 2003, the era of high resolution CDs, SACDs and DVD-Audio. Today labels claim to be feeling the effects of file swapping via mp3s. To help discourage going the mp3 swapping route, CDs over the last 5-10 years are finally coming to offer a resolution that is noticeably degraded by converting to low bitrate mp3. Even Columbia has wizened up and offered high quality reissue audio, something nobody would have believed they could do judging from their '80's garbage. Columbia!

But not Capitol. No, this set sends me right back to the '80's. Capitol mastering still has their '70's, '80's boys playing with signal processing toys. "Gee whiz! Isn't it cool sounding when out of phase? The tape hiss is gone!" Of course, things like tone, textures and colors are severely damaged too. And of course, the well engineered magnetic session tapes never had harmful levels of hiss to begin with. They've been getting in the way of really great sound for far too long. That Capitol has been letting these people handle and use the original sources is frightening.

Capitol's idea of upgrading was to use 24 bit mastering for the same sound. Garbage in, garbage out! CDs like this aren't hurt appreciably by converting to the 128-bitrate mp3s popular in file swapping, which is where many will be getting these tracks, I have a hunch. Were the original Capitol high resolution tape sources from the '50's and '60's well transferred, the loss would be obvious. The artificial-sound Capitol mastering approach is not helping discourage any piracy, let's put it that way.

Of course that Capitol's artificial sound mastering is more a detriment than an asset to the listening experience should go without saying, but I guess it has to be pointed out anyway.

I'm copying this set (for private use only) and selling it. I suggest buying new Nat CDs from Capitol Jazz, which does better sound, and getting others used or borrowing.

Capitol: get people who are serious about musical sound, not people playing around with audio. It is past time to quit playing with your recorded treasures and get serious.

Nat King Cole is the most beautiful and expressive popular vocalist in history. Period. His piano is also a must. He's first rate there too. This isn't a good set of his classics. You want the "Nat King Cole" "Masters" box set. This isn't a good set of his singles. There are many other songs on it and many singles are missing. There are [still!] no CDs of all his singles. The songs not on other CDs could have fit on part of one CD. I don't know why they did this thing. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd also like to hear his real voice without all the digital monkeying. The music is the point that matters, so I'm sorry to tell you the criticism I'm seeing is on the mark. I guess people are finally noticing these record people fiddled around to long. Don't you bother. Pray for a real single set. Get Nat King Cole. Other CDs of Nat King Cole. You'll love and cherish them. The King rules.