Welcome to the Club/Tell Me All About Yourself

By the time 1959 s Welcome to the Club (also known as Big Band Cole ) and 1960 s Tell Me All About Yourself were released, Nat was so identified as a singer of standards that, to a good portion of his record-buying public, his previous connection to jazz was tenuous indeed. With these two releases, then, Nat sought to re-cultivate his jazz roots by teaming up first with the Count Basie Big Band and then with Capitol s in-house jazz guru Dave Cavanaugh. Predictably, neither record was among the larger commercial successes in his catalog, but one can tell by listening that they were among the most fun for him to make; this vocal pop superstar was a jazz musician to his core. This reissue of Welcome to the Club includes a bonus track, Madrid , that was recorded for the album but was yanked at the last minute.