Customer Reviews

L-O-V-E

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nat King Cole recorded the hit title song for this album in June of 1964. Following its success on radio and as a 45rpm single, Capitol decided to frame an album around it. The remaining tracks (save for the final 5 cuts on this CD, which are bonus tracks) were recorded in San Francisco, where Cole was performing a two-week engagement at the Circle Star Theater, on December 1, 2, & 3, with an orchestra under the direction of Ralph Carmichael.

It was on December 1st, 1964, just prior to the first session, that Nat King Cole was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Ignoring the Hotel Fairmont house doctor's order to cancel all further plans and return home to his own personal physician at once, Cole, perhaps sensing this may turn out to be his final recording session, decided to gather what remaining strength he had to complete the album. But he was not his usual relaxed self during these sessions, as he tried desperately to suppress his now almost constant cough. Surviving photographs show a shockingly thin, grim-faced Cole in the studio.

But despite the gravity of his health situation, he was in remarkably good voice, and responded well to Carmichael's lush / brassy arrangements on songs like "More", "The Girl From Ipanema", and "My Kind of Girl", the latter allowing Nat Cole to revisit his jazz roots one final time. Perhaps the most swinging cut of all is "Swiss Retreat", with Cole's deep, rich baritone gliding along effortlessly over Bobby Bryant's trumpet. An early thirties Guy Lombardo hit, "Coquette", is given a definitive reading as well.

The bonus cuts Collector's Choice generously included on this CD reissue are gems to be savored. "Marnie", the theme-song of the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same title starring Sean Connery, was given the lush, romantic treatment a ballad of this nature deserved. "My True Carrie, Love" was a mild hit as a single and on radio in the early part of 1964. Cole also featured it as his opening number on what turned out to be his last TV appearance, as host of the ABC variety series "The Hollywood Palace", in March of 1964. "Silver Bird" is unusual in both lyric and arrangement, but nonetheless stays with you from the first time you hear it.

Bottom line, from a collector's stand-point, this is a must have album, even if only for the obvious reason of it being NKC's final record (save for a 45 rpm single that was recorded during the last session and released only in the UK at the time). From a music stand-point, while there are certainly better Nat King Cole albums, L-O-V-E is still an exceptional effort throughout. A tribute to the determination of a man with the knowledge his life was slipping away, and evocative of the multi-talents of this musical genius who was known as a "king" among his peers, and not just by surname.

As a post-script, Nat performed his final concert at the Circle Star Theater on December 6, returned home to Hancock Park, and entered St. John's hospital in Santa Monica on December 7th, where he would remain, save for a brief New Years Eve trip home, until he tragically lost his life to the lung cancer on February 15, 1965, at the youthful age of 45. This album was released just prior to his passing, in January of 1965.

I still enjoy the restful style of Nat King Cole. This was is just that.

These sessions were recorded in December 1964, not long before Cole's passing.

* Nat King Cole - vocal

* Ralph Carmichael - arranger, conductor

* TRUMPETS: Bobby Bryant, Don Fagerquist, Uan Rasey, Shorty Sherock, Tony Terran, Renauld Jones, Larry McGuire, Al Porcino, Ray Triscari

* TROMBONES: Kent Larson, Murray McEachern, George Roberts, Tommy Shepard, Robert Knight, Fred Mergy, Wilbur Sudmeier, Bob Fitzpatrick, Ernie Tack

* SAXOPHONES AND OTHER REEDS: Buddy Collette, Paul Horn, Jack Nimitz, Bill Perkins, Bud Shank, Wayne Dunstan, Charlie Kennedy, Dan Patiris, Modesto Brieno, Jr.

* VIOLINS: Victor Arno, Emil Briano, Harold Dicterow, Dave Frisina, Alex Murray, Erno Neufeld, Stanley Plummer, Jerome Reisler, Isadore Roman, Albert Steinberg, Joseph Stepansky, Sheryl Coltrane, Jimmy Getzoff, Leo Kailin, Lou Klass, Alexander Koltun, Robert Konrad, Mischa Myers

* VIOLAS: Joe DiFiore, Ray Menhennick, Gary Nuttycombe, Robert Ostrowsky, Stanley Harris, Harry Hyams, Rocco Curcio

* VIOLONCELLI: Margaret Aue, Edgar Lustgarten, Emmet Sergeant, William VandenBerg, Paul Bergstrom, Anne Goodman

* PIANOES: Paul T. Smith, Ken Hildebrand, Jimmy Rowles

* GUITARS: Bob Bain, John Collins, Eddie Duran, Paul Milier, Juvenal Amaral

* BASS: Joe Comfort, George Butterfield

* DRUMS: Leon Petties

THIS ALBUM IS OUTSTANDING AND SO WAS THE PRICE. THE MAN'S VOICE GOES ON AND ON FOR MANY YEARS BECAUSE THEY JUST DON'T MAKE THEM LIKE THAT ANYMORE. HE IS A LEGEND UP THERE WITH BING CROSBY,PERRY COMO, FRANK SINATRA,AND DEAN MARTIN. BEAUTIFUL VOICES FROM PAST YEARS AND THOU THERE ALL GONE YOU JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LISTEN AND IT WILL TAKE YOU BACK TO THOSE GREAT TIMES. THANK YOU AMAZON FOR A PRICE NO ONE COULD COMPETE WITH AND MOST OF ALL THANK YOU MR. NAT KING COLE FOR A NEVER ENDING ENJOYMENT OF A GREAT SINGER

"L-O-V-E" may be the single most joyous album Nat King Cole ever recorded. It may not be the deepest examination of love ever put on record, but it is nothing sort of exhilarating to listen to. Most of the tracks are the up-tempo swing he mastered in the late 1950s, and Cole is abetted here by arranger/conductor Ralph Carmichael, who very nearly matches the high level set by Nelson Riddle for vocal arrangements. The album mixes standards from the 1920s and 30s like "Three Little Words" and "Coquette" with then-popular hits like the title track, "More," and "The Girl From Ipanema." There are just enough ballads to keep things from boiling over, and the whole album swings even more than Cole's records with Billy May.

The bonus tracks are a little bizarre: "Marnie" is an attempt to fit a not-too-inspired love lyric to one of Bernard Herrmann's best movie themes, which makes for a disconnect between words and music (especially if you know the film), while two other numbers push Cole towards folk music. But "L-O-V-E" is a great album by a great singer, and is simply a ball to listen to.

This is one of his bounciest CDs and is filled with salsa-style, hum along tunes. I love it!