The albums that
Nat King Cole,
Frank Sinatra, and other classic pop singers made in the 1950s usually consisted of standards from the golden era of pop songwriting in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. For this album,
Cole had the idea of putting together a set of newly written songs in the classic style, with typically sympathetic arrangements by
Nelson Riddle. "Personally, I hear the magic in all these selections,"
Cole wrote in the liner notes. "It will be interesting to see whether I'm right." The magic listeners hear today is in
Cole's voice, not in the songs, all of which are as forgotten as most of the songwriters. (There are a couple of ringers, such as
Johnny Burke, Sammy Cahn, and
Paul Weston, but they're not at their best.) ~ William Ruhlmann