Like a fool I went and stayed too long, now I'm wondering if your love's still strong, ooh baby, I'm...(eight days) late again....
While I am certain I had heard this week's tune a time or two before, my real introduction to it was when this week's artist's daughter (Natalie Cole, who I wrote about in Vol. CLXX) released her loving cover of it in 1991. Whilst I definitely enjoyed that latter version, like many things in life there is nothing quite like the original and in the years since my love of this week's song has done nothing but grow and grow....
Nat King Cole dropped out of school in 1934, and at the ripe old age of fifteen began his musical career. He started out as a jazz pianist and formed a group with his brother. In 1940, a patron demanded that Cole sing during a performance, and he sang "Sweet Lorraine" as it was a song he knew. People quickly warmed to Cole's vocal talents, and he would spend the rest of his career making hit record after hit record. Cole would eventually sell over fifty million records, win a Grammy Award, and get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well as the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. Cole was in numerous movies and TV shows (usually as himself, but hey, a gig's a gig) and was the first African American to host a national TV show with his The Nate King Cole Show from 1955-57. For his career, Cole released twenty-eight studio albums, one live album, too many compilations to count, and one hundred and twelve singles. Sadly, Cole, a lifelong heavy smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer in September of 1964, and by February of 1965 had succumbed to the disease at the very young age of forty-five.
Fun Fact: Because at one time in his career Cole did not refuse to play for segregated audiences, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said of him, "All Cole needs to complete his role as an Uncle Tom is a banjo." Yikes! Stung by this and other criticisms of his neglect of his race, Cole turned it around and took a very active part in the civil rights movement, played a role in planning the March on Washington, and would eventually consult with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson on civil rights.
"Unforgettable" was released in 1951, and appeared on his deviously entitled 1952 album, Unforgettable. The single would peak at #14 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, as would his daughter's version forty years later in an incredible instance of kismet. I could find no listing of what position the album reached on the albums chart, but its sales hit platinum, so my guess would be somewhere around "very high" on the charts....
Start with some sparse but lovingly played piano, add in a touch of xylophone (and how cool is that) and a lot of lush strings and let them all embrace the gift from the Gods vocal talent that Nat King Cole possessed, and you have three minutes and eleven seconds of an amazingly glorious love ballad. And that, my loyal readers (all three of you), is all that needs be said of this week's tune.
Lyric Sheet: "That why, darling, it's incredible/That someone so unforgettable/Thinks that I am unforgettable, too..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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