Doing This One Kind Of Smooth

Connie Francis: Siboney
from Connie Francis Sings Spanish and Latin American Favorites (MGM 1960)

Nat "King" Cole: Blame It On My Youth
from After Midnight: The Complete Session (Capitol 1956)


Just a quick addendum to the last post. Two songs that were either in the film 2046 (the former) or had some roundabout ties to the film (the latter). The first song, Siboney, is featured in the 2046 film in two forms, a Xavier Cugat orchestrated piece and the one I present here, Connie Francis' version. One of the bigger female pop stars of the late 50's/early 60's and blessed with a strong, expressive voice, Francis was able to cross over into many genres pretty effortlessly. One of her biggest claims to fame was her ability to successfully record albums in many different languages as is evidenced here. In his films Wong Kar Wai likes to use spanish songs and this one with it's slithering melody and underscored percussion works well in his impressionist style of cinema, where the women slink around in beautiful cheong-san dresses.

The second song, while not in the film 2046, is included here because of the use of Cole's spanish songs in Wong Kar Wai's previous film, In The Mood For Love, and it's also included because it just happens to be one of my favorite Nat Cole songs. Returning to his jazz roots, the album After Midnight was his response to his many critics who rebuked him after he found pop success. His husky, articulate voice is in peak form here and it's almost understandable (though quite a bit unfair, one discographer even went as far as reissuing his discography but cutting it short at the end of Cole's jazz career) why many jazz critics turned their back on Cole, his voice lends itself well to the pre-bebop jazz sound. Gliding over the brush of the drums and Harry "Sweets" Edisons subdued trumpet, Cole handles the song and invests it with a magic that is uniquely his. Like Al Green's Belle this is a song that I find myself constantly listening to and never tiring of.