I was
listening to Nat “King” Cole the other night and had to stop what I was doing
when Unforgettable started playing. That’s a sign. There are songs I
stop to hear for one reason or another at any given time, and then there are
songs that I stop to hear whenever, wherever, every time. Unforgettable
is such a song.
It takes me
back to dancing with my dad in my parents’ living room; swaying and stumbling,
really, because I never learned to dance, but it felt so good to be in his arms
while he crooned along with Nat and I tried not to cry. I dunno, maybe that’s
when the song became so precious to me, but in truth, I loved it before then. I
must have, because I was vexed when the Ford Motor Co. used it to sell
Thunderbirds. That was when David Foster got the brilliant idea to have Natalie
Cole sing along to her father’s recording and started the trend of duets with
dead people, no disrespect intended to those who went before.
I don’t
know if Unforgettable was Nat’s signature tune; he recorded so many
beautiful pieces that it’s hard to name them all, so I’m lucky to have an
actual favourite. I love Mona Lisa and Nature Boy and Autumn
Leaves and Stardust, but Unforgettable trumps them all. I can
sing most of it before I start to choke; the last two lines will always make me
cry:
That’s
why, darling, it’s incredible
That
someone so unforgettableThinks that I am unforgettable, too.
It's not difficult for me to understand why someone who works with words would be so affected by someone who works with melody - two branches of the same tree, as it were. I loved that very same album as well; 'Red Sails in the Sunset' having a small edge over your favourite. 'Unforgettable' got a fair bit of play, between The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Martin Denny (of all people!). Another gift for which I can thank Mum and Dad: appreciation for various types of music. You ever hear a song called 'Sand' played on a Hawaiian steel guitar? :-)
ReplyDeleteOMG, Martin Denny - I forgot about him!! I've blanked most of the Hawaiian stuff from memory, but Dad definitely instilled in me a love of the crooners, maybe because Dad himself can croon with the best of them. Mum gets credit for show tunes!
DeleteI envy musicians because I can't imagine hearing an unborn melody before it's played aloud. The trick escapes me. It's easy for me to paint a scene with words, or even with crayons (Christmas cartoons are crude evidence of that), but music? That's a whole other mystery.
"Sand"? *shakes head* Bro, if it was played on a steel guitar, it's buried in the back of my attic.
I *love* Nat. I went through a phase where he was all I listened to. It's a magically romantic song.
ReplyDeleteI know - I adore him. His Christmas album has been one of my favourites for years!
ReplyDelete