NICOLAS KING “ACT ONE: CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF RECORDINGS”
VIRTUAL ALBUM RELEASE PARTY
Click to listen or purchase "Act One" here!
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CLUB44 RECORDS celebrates the new Nicolas King album Act One: Celebrating 25 Years of Recordings with an all-star online release party event. Nicolas will perform several songs with Mike Renzi at the piano. His friends will drop in to congratulate him, including Carol Burnett, Tom Selleck, Fran Drescher, Norm Lewis, Linda Lavin, Connie Francis, Linda Purl, Michael Feinstein, Jane Monheit, Billy Stritch, Veronica Swift, Max Von Essen, Christine Pedi, Clint Holmes, Richard Jay-Alexander, Charlie Calello, Mark Sendroff, and Angela Bacari, and special surprise guests.
Act One: Celebrating 25 Years of Recordings looks back with a lively history of King’s already multi-decade career. The album boasts guest appearances from stage and screen luminaries Liza Minnelli, Tom Selleck, Jane Monheit, and Norm Lewis. The recording also features musical contributions from two-time Grammy Award nominee Mike Renzi (renowned pianist and music director for Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, and Mel Tormé) and Charles Calello (arranger and producer for Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles). Music legend Connie Francis provides liner notes. The album’s leading single is “What a Wonderful World,” a duet with Broadway leading man Norm Lewis. An all-new Nicolas King album will be released in 2022.
Label co-owner Wayne Haun adds, “When I was first introduced to Nicolas, I was mesmerized by his ability to put across a lyric and the way he effortlessly holds the audience in his hand. It feels fitting to release this collection as we prepare to enter the studio for an all-new studio album. We’re thrilled to take the journey with Nicolas as he continues his trajectory as one of the most exciting young vocalists of his generation.”
The album is a compilation of sparkling new studio tracks, selections from previous solo albums, and vintage archival gems from early in his career. The album opens with a spoken live introduction by Liza Minnelli, a memento from the decade Nicolas toured the world with her. New selections include a lushly orchestrated version of “But Beautiful,” performed with jazz singer Jane Monheit. “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby,” a charming duet with Tom Selleck, taped onstage when they appeared together on Broadway in A Thousand Clowns when Nicolas was just 10 years old.
“I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together” - the classic TV theme to “The Carol Burnett Show” - is heard with “My Shining Hour.” The track is dedicated to Ms. Burnett and her late daughter Carrie Hamilton. Other highlights include a jazzy rendition of the Four Seasons hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and a pensive interpretation of the Irving Berlin classic “How Deep Is the Ocean,” accompanied only by upright bass. Nicolas’s take on the “Sesame Street” favorite “Sing” swings with a driving big band arrangement. He also makes sure to present new songs written in the classic style, including “Looks Like They’re in Love” (Alex Rybeck & Bob Levy) and “The Only One” (Tracy Stark).
The entertainment anthem “There’s No Business Like Show Business” provides a fitting coda to the album. The track, merges an early recording with a brand-new studio cut, showcases both his roots as a young budding showman and his present-day musical intelligence.
Will Friedwald - noted author and Wall Street Journal scribe - perhaps said it best: King “is a compact dynamo, a whirlwind of a performer who balances incredible excitement and high energy with restraint and nuance. He gets the crowd in his pocket within the first 30 seconds of walking out on stage and keeps them there for the rest of the night.”
NICOLAS KING - hailed as a “precociously polished crooner” by The New York Times - has been performing since he was four years old. He was in three Broadway productions (Beauty and the Beast, A Thousand Clowns with Tom Selleck, and Carol Burnett’s Hollywood Arms, directed by Hal Prince) before the age of 12. He has appeared in many national TV commercials, including award-winning “Oscar Mayer Lunchables” commercial. King has appeared on TV talk shows, such as “The View,” “The Today Show,” “Sally Jesse Raphael,” and twice on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. He is the recipient of the Talent America Award, the Julie Wilson Award, the Bistro Award for Outstanding Performer of the Year, the AMG Award for Artist of the Year, and the Legends Award for his contribution to the preservation of the Great American Songbook. He's performed alongside Tony Danza, Andrea McArdle, Lainie Kazan, Donna McKechnie, Faith Prince, Billy Paul, Jennifer Holliday, Debby Boone, and Linda Lavin. At age 11, he began touring with Liza Minnelli as her opening act and was a mainstay on her tour for 10 years. He has played at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Birdland, 54 Below, and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.
www.TheNicolasKing.com