The two Nat King Cole sets on this shared reissue are a curious mismatch. On the one hand is the gold-plated, romantic predictability of To Whom It May Concern, complete with compulsory arrangements by Nelson Riddle, the de facto house arranger for Capitol, on which the album first appeared. So too did Every Time I Feel The Spirit, but here, for the first and only time in his career, Cole fronted a gospel choir in his adopted home town of Chicago.
Like many other black singers of the time, Cole was brought up in the church, his father a Baptist minister. Coincidentally he attended the same school in Chicago as later did his near contemporary, Sam Cooke. But while Cooke remained true to his gospel background until he slid into soul music, that religious background never identified Cole, whose work was always entirely secular.
To Whom It May Concern is interesting in that while it is concept album (all the songs deal with love), none of the songs were standards. Indeed, most were unknown at the time, although their authors – including Sammy Cahn, Johnny Burke and Cole himself – were by no means obscure.
Cole had the idea of putting together a set of newly written songs in the classic style, complete with Riddle’s lush arrangements. He saw the project as a challenge, saying “Personally, I hear the magic in all these selections. It will be interesting to see if I am right.” Well, he was, magnificently, but the magic is in his beautiful voice, not necessarily in the material.
In contrast, Every Time I Feel The Spirit promises much, but fails to deliver, the material strong, the lead voice all wrong. Cole had recorded a few spirituals before, but never a whole album’s worth. The choir itself is in fine voice, but there is little connection between their massed ranks and the, as usual, easy-going, well-articulated Cole, who is never particularly invested in the songs’ messages. He rarely sounds soulful or committed, never feels the spirit, other than on a few of the slowest numbers, notably Nobody Knows I The Trouble I’ve Seen, where at least he seems slightly reverent.
These two sets might have been recorded within a few months of each other, but they stand a world apart in their content and a continent apart between the clubs and cabarets of Los Angeles and the sanctified presence of a Chicago gospel choir in full flight. A gap too wide for this most gifted of singers to bridge?
Discography
[To Whom It May Concern] (1) To Who It May Concern; Love-Wise; Too Much; In The Heart Of Jane Doe; A Thousand Thoughts Of You; You’re Bringing Out The Dreamer In Me; My Heart’s Treasure; If You Said No; Can’t Help It; Lovesville; Unfair; This Morning It Was Summer; Give Me Your Love; Coo Coo Roo Coo Coo Paloma; Non Dimenticar; Bend A Little My Way; [Every Time I Feel The Spirit] (2) Every Time I Feel The Spirit; I Want To Be Ready; Sweet Hour Of Prayer; Ain’t Gonna Study War No More; I Found The Answer; Standin’ In The Need Of Prayer; Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep; Go Down, Moses; Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen; In The Sweet Bye And Bye; I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray; Steal Away (74.30)
Cole (v) plus (1) orchestra led by Nelson Riddle (arr, con); Los Angeles, 20, 11, 18 June, 11–12 August, November 1958. (2) The First Church of Deliverance Choir (v); Gordon Jenkins (arr, con). Chicago, 29–30 September 1958.
Poll Winners Records 27331 CD