Nat King Cole - Where Did Everyone Go (1963) [2010 SACD]

Where Did Everyone Go? is a 1963 studio album by Nat King Cole, arranged by Gordon Jenkins. This was the fourth and final album that Cole and Jenkins recorded together. The initial Billboard review from April 13, 1963 commented that "Here he is in a superb collection of ballad tunes, many of them in a lonesome, blue mood, with standout backing provided by Gordon Jenkins…Great mood wax for buyers and spinners".

This collection to feature the team of Nat King Cole and Gordon Jenkins (arranger). Their earlier collaborations yielded the uniformly superior chart-topper Love Is the Thing (1957) and follow-up The Very Thought of You (1958). As the moniker suggests, there is a perceptible poignancy and longing weaved throughout Jenkins' arrangements. The opener "Where Did Everyone Go?" possesses a solitude accentuated by responsive instrumentation that supports, yet never intrudes. Cole's practically conversational delivery of pop standards – such as Irving Berlin's "Say It Isn't So" or Johnny Mercer's "When the World Was Young" – become musical soliloquies with the score as a sonic subtext. His rich and cozy baritone carries the ache of "Am I Blue?" and the slinky "I Keep Goin' Back to Joe's" into an understated, almost plaintive blues. Here he perfectly demonstrates a boundless capacity as a melodic interpreter of song. "No, I Don't Want Her" finds Cole's voice gilded with an intimacy that virtually takes the listener into the singer's confidence. As he had done on his previous outings with Cole, Jenkins supplies one selection. Suitably "That's All There Is, There Isn't Any More" is the last track on the album and certainly provides a lovely contrast to Judy Garland's arguably more familiar reading.


Tracks:

01. Where Did Everyone Go?
02. Say It Isn't So
03. If Love Ain't There
04. (Ah, The Apple Trees) When The World Was Young
05. Am I Blue?
06. Someone To Tell It To
07. The End Of A Love Affair
08. I Keep Goin' Back To Joe's
09. Laughing On The Outside (Crying On The Inside)
10. No, I Don't Want Her
11. Spring Is Here
12. That's All There Is
13. A Farewell To Arms
14. Happy New Year