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.

Emerging as a great pop vocal stylist in 1954, Nat King Cole enjoyed a string of hit singles and albums thereon, but Unforgettable is perhaps the singer at his early peak. With romance as the watchword, Cole slides through some of his most familiar ballads, include the title selection, "Portrait of Jennie," "Mona Lisa," and "I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)." There are quite a few lesser known, but attractive songs, plus a small handful of standards ("What'll I Do?" is a keeper) that round out this interesting collection. The very artistic, near surreal three-dimensional white, charcoal black, and royal blue-hued front cover may be the best part of this reissue, as it reflects a time period defined by its simplicity and yet its increasingly technological, superimposed modernity.

Cole Porter was one of a handful of American musical colossi. He had the genius to conjure up improbable rhyming lyrics to catchy melodies delivering not only a single song but as often or not a whole conundrum of numbers collected within the sphere of a show. This collection of 40 songs exemplifies the talent of Cole Porter and is a testament (tribute) to his longevity in musical history. Wit, humour, sophistication, rhythmic and key changes are small change to his ability.Who else could win a challenge to produce 'Miss Otis Regrets' after questioned whether he could write lyrics from the next words he heard? The cast of star celebrities in this collection say it all. Sinatra, Bennett, Crosby, Ella, Billie, Nat, Marlene, Judy to name a few. Also, the bigger bands of not so long ago, Nat Gonella, Jack Hylton, Geraldo. These need preservation orders and what better than endorse the master composer Mr Cole Porter? Add this to your collection.

This is an essential package! Whoever put this together obviously knew what they were doing, and all is placed in chronological order. Discs 1-3 are a terrific compilation of material from the MGM years, consisting of commercial recordings of soundtrack materal. If no recording was commercially released, the original soundtrack is used-great for such numbers as "Hoe Down" with Mickey Rooney! But the last disc makes this package essential-here is a pristine soundboard recording of Judy's final performance at the Palace Theater, MYC-2/24/52! She was concluding a 19-week engagement, and the atmosphere is electric. Fantastic stuff!

On the surface, the title of Michael Bublé's tenth studio album, 2018's Love, announces a swinging collection of standards and originals all thematically centered on themes of romance, fidelity, and desire. That said, it could also speak to two heart-wrenching years leading up to Love, during which time the singer's then three-year-old son was diagnosed with liver cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Prior to the release of Love, Bublé even intimated in an interview that, in light of his son's illness, he might be ready to retire. All these notions of love and the stakes that drive our passionate emotions are redolent on the album, whose brightly swinging and upbeat production via longtime mentor David Foster belies the personal turmoil of Bublé's private life.

For Carly Simon, Film Noir is a way to explore traditional pop classics. Using smoky saloon songs like "Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye" as a blueprint, Simon and producer Jimmy Webb create a seductive, intimate atmosphere. Simon's vocals aren't naturally suited to this material, but she acquits herself well, and the two duets – one with Webb and one with John Travolta ("Two Sleepy People") – are charming additions to an ingratiating album.

After returning to the spotlight with Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, Frank Sinatra continued his comeback with Some Nice Things I've Missed. As the title suggests, the bulk of the album consists of songs that became popular during Sinatra's brief retirement, including hits by Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, Jim Croce, and Bread. By and large, the material is adapted for big bands, with a couple of tracks featuring slight contemporary touches, like folky acoustic guitar. The majority of the album is arranged and produced by Don Costa, who must bear some of the blame for the failure of the record. Most of the songs he had to work with were too simple to withstand substantial orchestration and rearrangement, but Costa's charts are overwhelmingly trite and unimaginative, underscoring how unsuited the material is for Sinatra.

Anne Murray's time with Capitol Records was running out when she recorded "Croonin." Her singles were no long charting and her album sales had dropped off significantly. The public was no longer buying the pop-rock-country formula that had served her so well for twenty-five years. What to do? Record an album of American standards. Why not? "Old Cape Cod," "Secret Love," Hey There," "The Wayward Wind" "Teach Me Tonight" – these were the tunes she listened to on the radio while growing up in Nova Scotia. They fit her middle-register voice like a glove. They were in her DNA. In a way, "Croonin" is the answer to "Where Do You Go When You Dream" (the title of an earlier an album). You sing the songs you truly love. And sings them she does, with all the dignity, sincerity, polish, and professionalism that distinguished her long career. Anne Murray was always a class act.

Vocalist Cassandra Wilson has used her 15 years at Blue Note to explore the interpretive range of her voice, whether singing tunes by Van Morrison, Robert Johnson, Lewis Allan, Miles Davis, or Hoagy Carmichael. In many ways, Wilson has offered a new view of the standard by using classic rock and Delta blues tunes in her live and recorded repertoires. That said, Loverly is her first offering comprised almost completely of American songbook standards since Blue Skies 20 years ago. Wilson produced the recording in Jackson, MS, and surrounded herself with old friends: guitarist Marvin Sewell, bassists Reggie Veal and Lonnie Plaxico, drummer Herlin Riley, and labelmate and pianist Jason Moran.

Pianist/vocalist Diana Krall pays tribute to the Nat King Cole Trio on her Impulse! set. In general, the medium and up-tempo tunes work best, particularly such hot ditties as "I'm an Errand Girl for Rhythm," "Frim Fram Sauce," and "Hit That Jive Jack." Krall does not attempt to directly copy Cole much (either pianistically or vocally), although his influence is obviously felt on some of the songs. The slow ballads are actually as reminiscent of Shirley Horn as Cole, particularly the somber "I'm Through With Love" and "If I Had You." Guitarist Russell Malone gets some solo space on many of the songs and joins in on the group vocal of "Hit That Jive Jack," although it is surprising that he had no other opportunities to interact vocally with Krall; a duet could have been delightful. Bassist Paul Keller is fine in support, pianist Benny Green backs Krall's vocal on "If I Had You," and percussionist Steve Kroon is added on one song. Overall, this is a tasteful effort that succeeds.

For only the second time in her career, jazz pianist and vocalist Diana Krall deviates from her tried, true m.o. of covering easily identifiable jazz standards. On Glad Rag Doll she teams with producer T-Bone Burnett and his stable of studio aces. Here the two-time Grammy winner covers mostly vaudeville and jazz tunes written in the 1920s and '30s, some relatively obscure. Most of the music here is from her father's collection of 78-rpm records. Krall picked 35 tunes from that music library and gave sheet music to Burnett.

Tony Bennett’s first album of celebrity duets (2006's Duets: An American Classic) featured an impressive cast of superstars answering the call from the dean of pop vocalists, but the arrangements were overly safe – virtually all of them ballads with soft strings or brassy finger-snappers. Duets II follows the first by five years and features, surprisingly, a cast just as star-laden, but also arrangements that are much more dynamic, and suitable for each song and its participants. (Marion Evans, a veteran whose career goes back nearly as far as Bennett's, handles the charts for a few of the best here.)