Album artwork courtesy of the label
On the turntable
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Dinner MusicNo. 21 of the Continental 100See the full list →
Love Is the Thing
Nat King Cole · 1957
The warmest baritone in American music, wrapped in Gordon Jenkins's strings.
Why it matters
Cole was the finest pianist of the three great male vocalists of his era and the least concerned with proving it. Here he simply sings, beautifully, in front of an orchestra that could not be more lush if it tried. Unfashionable for twenty years; entirely correct again now.
The Continental setting
A winter dinner, candles going low, no one in a hurry to move to another room.
Start here
- 01Stardust
- 02When I Fall in Love
- 03Ain't Misbehavin'
