Capitol Records took
This Is Sinatra!, a compilation album, into the Top Ten in early 1957, which probably prompted the label to assemble a similar collection,
This Is Nat "King" Cole, later in the year. Consisting of tracks not previously issued on a
Cole LP, the disc contains seven recent Billboard singles chart entries among its 12 selections -- "Too Young to Go Steady" (which reached number 21), "Forgive My Heart" (13), "Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You" (72), "To the Ends of the Earth" (25), "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life" (57), "Someone You Love" (13), and "Never Let Me Go" (79) -- while an eighth song, "That's All," was the B-side of the 1953 Top 20 hit "Lover, Come Back to Me!" "Too Young to Go Steady," which peaked in April 1956, turned out to be all that was really heard of a stage musical intended for Broadway, Strip for Action, with songs by
Jimmy McHugh and
Harold Adamson, which closed out of town. "I Just Found Out About Love" and "Love Me as Though There Were No Tomorrow," two more songs from that ill-fated show, are among the previously unheard tracks unearthed for this compilation. "I Just Found Out About Love" is the only uptempo number on the LP, with all the others being dreamy ballads.
Nelson Riddle arranged and conducted throughout, as well as co-writing another of the previously lost songs, "Annabelle."
Cole as usual gives warm, confident readings of all this material, and fans welcomed the packaging of some songs previously available only on singles, taking the LP to number 18 in the fall of 1957. But with the possible exception of Bob Haymes and Alan Brandt's "That's All," there aren't any memorable compositions here. ~ William Ruhlmann