ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Bob Marley - Uprising
ADVERTISEMENT
Bob Marley - Uprising
ADVERTISEMENT
Bob Marley - Uprising

‘Unforgettable’: Dinah Washington Joins Nat King Cole In Grammy Hall Of Fame

Dinah’s version of the already beloved song gave it a whole new lease of life in the closing months of the 1950s.

Published on

Dinah Washington - Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Dinah Washington - Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Few songs live up to their title like “Unforgettable.” Written by native New Yorker and Duke Ellington collaborator Irving Gordon, it will forever be most closely associated with Nat King Cole, but another classic rendition was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame just a year after Nat’s, by the great Dinah Washington.

Jazz Appreciation Month
Jazz Appreciation Month
Jazz Appreciation Month

The revered vocalist from Tuscaloosa, Alabama was still in her 20s when Cole recorded the first of his two versions of “Unforgettable” in 1951. He went back to it a decade later, and then of course it became a favorite of a later generation when Cole’s posthumous electronic duet with his daughter Natalie became a smash in 1991, winning both the Record and Song of the Year Grammy Awards.

Click to load video

Several other interpretations of “Unforgettable” were recorded and released during the 1950s, including one in French, “Inoubliable,” by the traditional pop singer Yvette Giraud. Dinah cut hers at the age of 35, only four years before her sad demise from a drink and drug overdose, and gave the song a whole new lease of life in the closing months of the 1950s.

Listen to the Jazz Giants playlist, featuring Dinah Washington and dozens more jazz greats.

A few days before her new release made its singles chart debut, Dinah Washington and her band opened an engagement at New York’s Village Vanguard club. In that august setting, they performed “Unforgettable,” the flipside “Nothing In The World” and several blues numbers, including material from her Sings Bessie Smith album.

Click to load video

Dinah’s single joined the Hot 100 at No.94 on October 5, 1959, in the week that Billboard reviewed her new album The Queen! with the admiring words: “For those who are fond of wonderful phrasing and sensitive vocal nuance, here it is.” The song climbed to No.17. In 2000, Cole’s recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, to be followed there by Washington’s rendition a year later.

Buy or stream “Unforgettable” on the Dinah Washington compilation Gold.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. keith archie

    October 7, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    THE FINAH DINAH

Comments are temporarily disabled and will return shortly.
The Cranberries
The Cranberries
No Need To Argue
30th 2LP Deluxe
ORDER NOW
DAngelo
D'Angelo
Brown Sugar (2LP)
Honey Sugar and Burnt Sugar Vinyl
ORDER NOW
OneRepublic
OneRepublic
The Collection LP
Zoetrope Limited Edition
ORDER NOW
Breakfast Club
Various Artists
Breakfast Club
OST 40th (LP & 7inch)
ORDER NOW
John Williams
John Williams
Jaws (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Shark-Infested Water-Filled LP
ORDER NOW
Yusuf/Cat Stevens
Yusuf/Cat Stevens
On The Road To Findout
Greatest Hits Limited Edition 2LP
ORDER NOW
uDiscover Music - Back To Top
uDiscover Music - Back To Top