專輯英文名: The Very Thought of You
專輯中文名: 我是真的想你
歌手: Nat King Cole
音樂風格: 爵士
資源格式: FLAC
版本: [SACD 24bit/96KHz]
發行時間: 2010年08月02日
地區: 美國
語言: 英語
專輯介紹:

★納京高演唱生涯最經典的一張專輯，用深情無比的嗓音融化您的心！

★錄音大師 Kevin Gray 與 Steve Hoffman 聯手精心後製，確保最佳之音質表現！

在這張 1958 年的專輯中，納京高與當紅的編曲家 Gordon Jenkins 二度合作，延續上一張 Love Is The Thing 的絕美風格，以豐厚的絃樂烘托納京高的迷人嗓音，美到無以復加！美國當代錄音大師 Kevin Gray 與 Steve Hoffman 聯手精心後製，音質之佳、聲音密度之高，音響迷測試人聲的最愛！

Nat 「King」 Cole enjoyed great success as a jazz piano player fronting his own trio, but in the late 』40s he began to focus more on singing. He eventually became one of a handful of superior singers of romantic ballads. 1957』s Love Is the Thing cemented Cole's new persona with such massive hits as 「When I Fall in Love」 and 「When Sunny Gets Blue.」 Countless artists have recorded 「When I Fall in Love,」 but Cole's version is always the first to come to mind. The orchestrations by Gordon Jenkins utilized strings, brushes, and bass. The album was recorded for Capitol Records, which had just installed stereo equipment in its studios, and Cole's set became one of the first to be released under the banner 「Capitol Stereo: The Full Spectrum of Sound.」

The success of Love Is the Thing cried out for a sequel. So in 1958 Capitol released The Very Thought of You, once again with Jenkins and his string orchestra. And once again, the disc produced hits, including the title song, 「Impossible,」 as well as 「Magnificent Obsession,」 「For All We Know,」 and 「There Is No Greater Love.」 Cole is arguably at his very best in these landmark sessions. His voice had lost the slight roughness of the previous album (and perhaps a little edge as well), and he was a long way from the damage of smoking that would claim his life in 1965 through lung cancer. (According to iographies, Cole smoked Kool cigarettes heavily and would always puff on a couple before recording sessions, as he believed they enhanced the sound of his voice).

The Very Thought of You sessions were recorded in both mono and stereo, with a three-track master tape also being produced. Analogue Productions, usually quite thorough in its transfer of earlier recordings to SACD, has provided all three formats for a total of 32 indexed tracks. There have been a few compromises due to the space limitations of SACD (perhaps Analogue Productions will look into Blu-ray Disc for future releases). The CD layer offers only the stereo mixes, without any mono, and the SACD stereo layer presents those same stereo mixes plus the monaural ones. The multichannel layer offers the three-track masters. My player defaulted to these, and they ended up being my own personal default as well. With the strings arranged across a wide stage behind the singer and the center channel carrying Cole's vocals and the brushed drums, with just enough bleed into the left and right to avoid the compartmentalized feeling of multitrack mono, these tracks offer ultimate clarity, and they best present Cole's sumptuous vocals with all their subtleties. The multichannel tracks also have more bass, which is well focused and has appealing presence without ever becoming overbearing. The ultra-realistic strings set the stage for each song, and when Cole enters it's almost like he walked into the room. You come away from hearing this disc with respect, not only for the great singer but also for the pioneering engineers who caught everything in transparent sound that has been equaled, but unsurpassed, to this day.

Be sure to listen to: Track 12, 「Cherchez la Femme.」 After a gorgeous intro for the cellos, the song settles down to Cole, the bass, and the drums in the center. The upper strings add comments left and right. Catch the presence and clarity of the vocals, drums, and bass. This is tangible sound you can wrap your ears around. In short, it's perfection.

. . . Rad Bennett
radb@soundstagenetwork.com

引用
Nat King Cole，原名Nathaniel Adams Coles，1919年3月17號出生於阿拉巴馬州的蒙哥馬利，1942年，Nat King Cole組成The King Cole Trio，並與Capitol廠牌簽下唱片合約，絲絨般擁有絕頂浪漫、至愛真誠的溫暖厚實嗓音，迅速虜獲聽眾的心，中慢版抒情的曲調叫人難以抗拒沈醉其中，一首首稱霸流行榜的浪漫情歌，金嗓傳奇就此展開。
算一算，納京高（Nat King Cole）去世的時候才47 歲，也算是英年早逝了。也難怪在樂迷心中，他的形象從來不老，因為流傳下來的照片總是那麼年輕帥氣。納京高發跡甚早，一開始是以The King Cole Trio三重奏的形式受到廣大的歡迎，1943年與Capitol唱片簽約，所推出的唱片不但是當是暢銷冠軍，同時還拯救了當時搖搖欲墜的Capitol唱片，洛杉磯的Capitol唱片大樓還被戲稱為「納京高蓋的房子」（the house that Nat built），便可知道他在當時的暢銷程度。

The Very Thought of You is a 1958 album by Nat King Cole, arranged by Gordon Jenkins. Nat King Cole possessed one of the most accessible and appealing voices of any singer in the 1950s. This ballad-oriented set puts the emphasis completely on his voice (there is no piano playing or any hint of his jazz-oriented past) and features Cole accompanied by Gordon Jenkins' sweet arrangements for a string orchestra. Many other singers might find it difficult to overcome, much less uplift this type of accompaniment, but Cole's basic and honest delivery works quite well in this setting. Highlights include "The Very Thought of You," "But Beautiful," "This Is All I Ask," "For All We Know," and "The More I See You."

專輯曲目: 

01. "The Very Thought of You" (Ray Noble) – 3:48
02. "But Beautiful" (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 3:27
03. "Impossible" (Steve Allen) – 3:09
04. "I Wish I Knew (Notorious)" (C.A. Rossi, Al Stillman) – 3:14
05. "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (In a Five and Ten Cent Store)" (Mort Dixon, Billy Rose, Harry Warren) – 2:50
06. "Magnificent Obsession" (Fred Karger, Frankie Laine) – 3:54
07. "My Heart Tells Me" (Mack Gordon, Warren) – 4:11
08. "Paradise" (Nacio Herb Brown, Gordon Clifford) – 3:13
09. "This Is All I Ask" (Gordon Jenkins) – 4:29
10. "Cherie, I Love You" (Lillian Rosedale Goodman) – 3:29
11. "Making Believe You're Here" (Sammy Cahn, Van Heusen) – 3:38
12. "Cherchez La Femme" (Bob Marcus, Lorenzo Pack) – 2:39
13. "For All We Know" (J. Fred Coots, Sam M. Lewis) – 3:15
14. "The More I See You" (Gordon, Warren) – 3:25
15. "Don't Blame Me" (Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields)
16. "There is No Greater Love" (Isham Jones, Marty Symes)

Released November 1958
Recorded May 2, 6, 8, 1958
Genre Jazz
Length 55:24
Label Capitol
Producer Lee Gillette