Unforgettable

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 unforgettable
Thinks that I am unforgettable, too.