Like a song of love that clings to me

Continuing my trip back through the 1965 album charts.

23/05/65 : Unforgettable - Nat King Cole


Before we get to this, I have to report on an album that defeated my attempts to track it down - allthough I have to admit I didn't try too hard because I didn't feel a desperate need to hear The Lucky 13 Shades of Val Doonican featuring such classics as "Delaney's Donkey" and "Paddy McGinty's Goat". People did back then though because it spent twelve weeks in the top five peaking at #2, only kept off the top by the slightly cooler Beatles.

Which brings us to our first visit with Mr Cole, but somewhat bizarrely our second visit with this album  - Johnny Mathis and Natalie Cole re-recorded it as a tribute to Nat in '83. And in my review, I noted that Nat died in '65 so I suspect that might have had something to do with its appearance here. 

And he really did have a lovely voice - "Unforgettable", "What'll I Do?" and "Mona Lisa" show it off best for me, but they're all pretty smooth renditions of classic oldie tracks. Yes, it sounds a bit dated, but its nicely dated (and some of the tracks are really quite old) so it all just slides past nicely. 

We're at #15 in the charts this week on his second week of a three week run, which was his third run, with it having peaked at #11 during its second run earlier in the year. The top five this week were Bob Dylan (what? Not TSOM?!?), The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Mary Poppins and TSOM (phew!) and there was one new entry for Tony Bennett (#20 - it's a shame we'll miss this).

Wikipedia has a whole two sentences on the album - it was originally issued as a 10 inch LP in '52, and then came out in a 12 inch version in '54 (the oldest song on the album is "What'll I Do?" which was published in '23). Checking out his entry to pad things out, he lived quite the life, despite dying at the age of 45 from lung cancer - his career started in the late '30s as a jazz pianist, before he transitioned to become a solo singer in the '50s, hosting The Nat King Cole show on NBC which was the first national TV show fronted by a black American. He also holds the record for the longest time taken for a track to make it into the US top ten - "The Christmas Song" got to #9 in '22, some 62 years after it was released.

"Customers also listened to" a million other albums by him and a couple by Sven-Bertil Taube, who is, quite obviously, a Swedish actor best known for playing Henrik Vanger in the original The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - I love the randomness of these things at times. This was an enjoyable visit - it's not something I'd check out often but his voice is just so smooth it's a pleasure to experience.

16/05/65 - Another debut album
30/05/65 - Surprisingly enjoyable

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