FASCINATION (Nat King Cole)

(From Wikipedia): "Fascination" is a popular waltz song with music (1904) by Fermo Dante Marchetti and lyrics (1905) by Maurice de Féraudy (English lyrics by Dick Manning). It featured in the 1933 film The House on 56th Street, starring Kay Francis, was adapted for the soundtrack of the 1946 film, The Diary of a Chambermaid, starring Paulette Goddard, and then popularized in the 1955 movie The Grand Maneuver by René Clair. The theme was also used prominently in the b&w French film version of Gigi (1949) by Jacqueline Audry. Lastly, it also gained international renown when used in the 1957 movie Love in the Afternoon by Billy Wilder. A recording by Jane Morgan was released by Kapp Records as catalog number 191, which proved to become her signature song. It first reached the Billboard magazine charts on September 9, 1957. On the Disk Jockey chart, it peaked at #7; on the Best Seller chart, at #12; on the composite chart of the top 100 songs, it reached #11. It was also recorded by Dinah Shore, Dick Jacobs, Nat King Cole, Earl Grant and David Carroll, all of whose versions, except Grant, made the charts.

RELEASE ME (Engelbert Humperdinck)

(From Wikipedia): "Release Me" (sometimes rendered as "Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)"), is a popular song written by Eddie Miller, Robert Yount, and James Pebworth under the pseudonym Dub Williams, published in 1946 . Miller wrote the song in 1946 but could not get anyone to record it for years, so he recorded it himself in 1949. Shortly afterward it was covered by Jimmy Heap, and with even better success by Ray Price and Kitty Wells. Subsequently a big seller was recorded by Little Esther Phillips, who reached number one on the R&B chart and number eight on the pop chart. A version by Engelbert Humperdinck reached number one on the UK Singles Chart. The Engelbert Humperdinck song has the distinction in the UK of holding the number-one slot in the chart for six weeks during March and April 1967, and preventing The Beatles single, "Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever", from reaching the top. "Release Me" was also the highest selling single of 1967 in the UK, recording over one million sales, and eventually became one of the best selling singles of all time with sales of 1.38 million copies.

I WHO HAVE NOTHING (Shirley Bassey)

(From Wikipedia): "I (Who Have Nothing)" (sometimes billed as "I Who Have Nothing") is a song originally released in English by Ben E. King in 1963. "I (Who Have Nothing)" is based on the Italian song "Uno Dei Tanti" (English: "One of Many"), with music by Carlo Donida and lyrics by Giulio "Mogol" Rapetti.[1] "Uno Dei Tanti" was released by Joe Sentieri in 1961. The English lyrics for "I (Who Have Nothing)" were written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who also produced the Ben E. King record using the backing track from Joe Sentieri's record (orchestra conducted by Luis Enriquez Bacalov). The song was included in the musical revue Smokey Joe's Cafe. The original English Ben E. King version was released in 1963 and reached #29 on the Billboard charts. Other versions which reached the Billboard charts were performed by Terry Knight and the Pack in 1966 (#46), by Liquid Smoke in 1970 (#82), by Warhorse in 1972 and by Sylvester in 1979 (#40). The most popular version in the United States was by Tom Jones, peaking at #11 in Cash Box and at #14 in Billboard in the fall of 1970. Jones lyp-synched to the hit recording on a highly rated Raquel Welch television special that summer. Shirley Bassey released the song (produced by George Martin) in September 1963, reaching #6 on the UK charts. She performs the song at almost every live concert she gives, and it is on many of her compilation albums, including I Am What I Am with the London Symphony Orchestra, and her 1989 album La Mujer where she sings it in Spanish ("Hoy No Tengo Nada"). She has also been instrumental in making Donida's music known to English-speaking audiences through arranging for translations from the Italian, having performed with the composer conducting his own music on Italian television.