Nat "King" Cole - Unforgettable [Capitol Compilation] (CD)

All Music Guide

Confusingly, Capitol Records, Nat "King" Cole's label from the mid-'40s until his death in 1965, has released several albums titled Unforgettable, starting with a 10" LP first issued in 1953 and reissued in expanded 12-inch form, and including a compilation on the budget-priced CEMA label. (To make matters worse, there are Cole albums on less prominent labels also called Unforgettable.) And that isn't even counting the ones called The Unforgettable Nat King Cole or some other variant. Well, here's another one, an all-new CD compilation of remastered tracks apparently prepared as a collection of love songs to mark Valentine's Day, 2000. (A sleeve note from the Cole family says the disc is "like a musical Valentine filled with sunshine and moonbeams and love.") A delay seems to have caused the album to miss the holiday by a couple of weeks, but the intention remains clear. Covering recordings made between 1943 and 1963, the lengthy disc collects indelible Cole performances of many of his... ballad hits, including "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," "Nature Boy," and "Mona Lisa," plus a clutch of standards such as "Tenderly" and "Almost Like Being in Love" originally recorded for albums like Nat King Cole Sings for Two in Love. Of course, both the original version of the title song and the 1991 duet version with daughter Natalie Cole are included. Since Cole was primarily a ballad singer, the album functions as a good sampler of his best work as a vocalist. - William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read more Less