Chords for George Benson's "Unforgettable" Tribute to Nat King Cole

[F] _ _ _ _ _ [B] Welcome back.
Soul star George Benson's had an extraordinary career,
spanning half a century, working with Miles Davis in the 60s,
singing with Aretha Franklin and turning out hit after hit in the 70s and 80s.
Generations have grown up listening to his music, and now he's released an album.
But [F] it's dedicated to [E] his musical hero, Nat King Cole.
George [N] is here this morning, and it's lovely to see you.
Thank you.
It's good [Gb] to be here.
I'm going to talk to you in just a moment.
First, let's have a listen to the music.
Here we go.
[A] [E] When I fall in love
It will be [A] forever
_ _ [E] Or I'll never [Db] fall _ [Gbm] in love _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ [Em] If you [E] ever [B] plan to motor [F] [A] west
[G] [E] Travel my way, it's the highway [G] that's the [B] best
[Em] _ [Em] Get [Am] your kicks [Ab] on Route [G] 66
[Eb] _ [Bbm] _ [Bb] Unforgettable, _ [Db] [Bb] though near or [Abm] far
[Am] _ [Bb] _ _
[Ebm] _ Like a [Gbm] song of love that [Db] clings to me
[B] How the [Bb] part of you [Ab] thus [Eb] clings to me [Bbm] never _ [E] before
[Eb] Has [Bbm] someone [E] been more
George, just listening to [Ab] that sample just sounds dreamy.
[N] It just makes your backbone just shift down a gear in the nicest possible way.
I really had a nice time doing this record.
Of course, it was a dream of mine.
I wanted to do it many years ago.
My managers were not convinced that [E] I could do it.
And I said, oh, man, nobody loves Nat King Cole more than me.
What do you mean they said you couldn't do it?
In what respect do they think you couldn't do it?
That's always been a challenge [Ebm] to me, and I've always seemed to come up to it, whatever it was.
[E] Why is Nat King Cole such a major figure in [Ebm] your musical life?
You mentioned a minute ago about me having hit after hit after hit.
Nat Cole had hit after hit after hit.
Choice of songs _ surrounded by the greatest musicians of its time,
the greatest arrangers and the greatest production, so forth and so on.
Those are the things that made my career successful.
And you have worked with some huge, huge people.
I mean, you're a huge name in music anyway, but you never got to meet Nat King Cole.
No, unfortunately.
He passed away too soon.
He was only in his mid-40s when he passed away.
I remember that day, 1965, when that happened.
I was so distraught.
I left the band I was in.
I said, no, I'm finished.
I'm going home and start my own thing, you know.
And my career actually came up after that.
_ [Bb] Nat Cole has [Eb] always had an influence on the way I think.
And I always wanted to be like him in the sense that everybody loved him.
I always used a joke.
I said, if you go to China and say Nat Cole,
they go, oh, [Gb] Nat King Cole.
We love him.
But it's true everywhere in the world.
You've been in the business a long time.
In fact, I was quite surprised to discover how long you've been in the business.
You demonstrate that on the album because the first track is of a young boy
singing not entirely perfectly a song by Nat King Cole.
And it's you at the age of eight.
How did that come about?
You got into a recording studio that young.
I won a singing contest, and the reward was [C] that they would take you into a studio and record you.
Now, that was a gigantic thing in [Ebm] those days.
And unfortunately, the studio was not a great one.
But I did put me behind glass and turned on the mic, and I had my ukulele.
It was a lot of fun.
I'm glad my mother saved it.
You chose a Nat King Cole song to sing.
Of course.
There were two great artists during that period who I admired greatly,
Nat Cole and Mario Alonzo, [E] the classical [Ebm] singers.
I used to win contests by singing songs by either one of them.
But this was before Mario Alonzo because this was in the early 50s.
[E] It's interesting that you say that your [Ebm] management team said,
[Gb] you can't do this, the Nat King [E] Cole.
I mean, he had such [Eb] a distinctive voice, didn't he?
[A] And you have [E] a very distinctive voice as well.
There's a difference, a pretty big one, too.
He was a natural baritone, and he [Ebm] had suave throat, a beautiful, velvety throat.
I'm a tenor.
You hear me singing all those songs way upstairs.
_ _ [E] _ Nothing's going to change my love.
That's my voice, my natural voice.
Don't let me stop you. _ _
You bring your own Benson element to these songs.
When I fell in love with you singing, there could almost be Nat King Cole,
the timbre, but you bring, of course, the Benson treatment, which is the scat.
It was a great [Ebm] challenge to try to get down to that range,
and I was kind of caught in the middle of things.
But I wanted to bring attention to Nat Cole's suaveness
and what he brought to the music industry was [F] incredible.
The songs, Mona Lisa and Route 66, [Ebm] and the other duet in the album is Too Young.
We turned it into a duet, so it came [Bbm] out very beautifully.
That's nice.
[Ebm]
When I listen to you singing, the scat,
[Em] what we call the Scooby-Doo stuff, so to speak, I'm sorry,
but that's putting it very [Abm] basically.
[Gm] Do [E] you do [A] the same [E] [C] expression every time you sing the song?
Do you have [Cm] to have all the da-ba-da-da-do-do [Am]-do's in the same place?
Are they like the lyrics?
No.
The great [Bb] thing that jazz [Am] taught me [Eb] [G] was to improvise,
and I think that's been my strength in all my [Am] songs.
[Ebm] When I do the song on Broadway, [Gm] I improvise.
I didn't know what I [E] was singing until I heard it being played back,
and I was knocked [B] out by it.
I said, [Ebm] Why did I go there?
I'm glad I went there, but I didn't know.
So no two renditions of yours are ever the same?
Not on record, no.
I have to learn some of those after the recording
because people say, It's not the same song.
_ Is it too [Gb] early for you this morning to sing?
Is there a time in the morning when you don't and when you do?
Because when you sit down, I just want to go, doom, [Dbm] doom, da-da-doom.
Sail in the arm lights are bright on Broadway.
Do-be-do-do-do-do-do-do.
I love it.
That's just the best.
You're touring as well, aren't you?
We just came from Morocco.
[E] And when they first asked me to bring the Nat Cole show,
which is live and we have a big orchestra,
I said, They don't know Nat [Ebm] Cole in Morocco.
I'm not going to go.
Then they called back and said, We do know and we love Nat Cole
and we want the show.
So they sprung for all of the moolah and rocked the whole show.
And they hired the greatest orchestra.
I was knocked out by the [E] Royal [Bbm] [Ebm] Symphony Orchestra.
And they were just great musicians.
They loved the show.
[Gb] Inspiring place to get your own music from Morocco, though,
because the light and the color and everything is just fantastic there, isn't it?
It really is.
Beautiful.
They've done great [Ebm] infrastructure in the city called Rabat.
And I was there six years ago, but this time I was really impressed.
Well, we're very glad to have you from Morocco and here, George.
And we thank you very much.
And singing a bit of on Broadway as well.
There's an experience.
George, it's lovely to see you.
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