Nat King Cole - Whom It May Concern (Bonus Track Version) (1959/2015)

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.)