Holly Cole
Encyclopedia
Holly Cole is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 singer, particularly popular in Canada and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 for both her versatile and distinctive voice, along with her adventurous repertoire, which spans such divergent genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

s as show tunes, rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

.

Holly Cole Trio

In 1983, Cole travelled to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 to seek a musical career. In 1986, she founded a trio with bassist David Piltch and pianist Aaron Davis. Offered a record deal in 1989, the Holly Cole Trio released an EP, Christmas Blues, that year, which featured a version of The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...

' "2,000 Miles." This was followed by their first full album, Girl Talk, in 1990.

A succession of releases followed through the early 1990s. For example, 1991's Blame It On My Youth, covered songs by Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

 ("Purple Avenue," aka "Empty Pockets"), Lyle Lovett
Lyle Lovett
Lyle Pearce Lovett is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man"...

 ("God Will"), includes show tunes such as "If I Were a Bell" (from Guys and Dolls) and "On the Street Where You Live" (from My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...

), and even remakes "Trust In Me," from Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...

's The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...

, into a strikingly sultry and sinister song of seduction and death. Also recorded in this period was a reinterpretation of Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

's "Alison
Alison (song)
"Alison" is the fifth track on Elvis Costello's first album, My Aim Is True, released in 1977. Because "Alison" was recorded before Elvis Costello and the Attractions formed, his backing band was Clover...

."

Solo career

Following 1993's Don't Smoke In Bed, the trio released a CD entirely of songs by Tom Waits, called Temptation. This 1995 release also dropped the "Trio" from the label.

Cole followed with two albums, Dark Dear Heart (1997) and Romantically Helpless (2000), which veered further from jazz by introducing pop elements to Cole's sound.

In 2001, she returned to the Christmas jazz roots of her first CD with Baby It's Cold Outside, which included "Christmas Time is Here" (from A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...

), "Santa Baby", and the title track. Swapping cold for hot, she moved to a summer theme in 2003's Shade, this time reinterpreting Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...

 ("Too Darn Hot"), Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...

 ("Heatwave"), and The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...

' Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

 ("God Only Knows").

Cole's latest album, Holly Cole (originally entitled This House Is Haunted) was released in Canada in March 2007. It was released in the US in January 2008 and was followed by a US tour.

Cole tours frequently, particularly around the holiday season, in Canada. She was also a part of the 1998 Lilith Fair
Lilith Fair
Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. It...

 tour, and her song "Onion Girl" was included on that year's live compilation album.

Discography

  • Christmas Blues
    Christmas Blues
    Christmas Blues is an EP, the first recording by the Holly Cole Trio. It was released in 1989 on Alert Records in Canada. It is notable for the Jazz cover of The Pretenders' "2,000 Miles"-Track listing:# "The Christmas Blues" - 2:54...

    (1989)
  • Girl Talk
    Girl Talk (Holly Cole album)
    Girl Talk is the first full album by the Holly Cole Trio. It was released in 1990 on Alert Records in Canada.-Track listing:# "My Foolish Heart" - 4:34# "Girl Talk" - 4:32...

    (1990) Canada: Gold (50,000)
  • Blame It on My Youth (1992) Canada: Gold
  • Don't Smoke in Bed (1993) Canada: Platinum (100,000)
  • Temptation (1995) Canada: Gold
  • It Happened One Night
    It Happened One Night (Holly Cole album)
    It Happened One Night is a live album by Holly Cole. It was released in 1996 on the Metro Blue imprint of Capitol Records. It was recorded on June 28, 1995 at the St...

    (live, 1996)
  • Dark Dear Heart
    Dark Dear Heart
    Dark Dear Heart is a studio album by Holly Cole. It was released in 1997 in Canada on Alert Records.-Track listing:# "I've Just Seen a Face" - 3:28# "Make It Go Away" - 4:00...

    (1997) Canada: Gold
  • Treasure (1989-1993)
    Treasure (Holly Cole album)
    Treasure is a limited edition compilation album by Holly Cole Trio. It was released in Canada in 1998 on Alert Records. It is a collection of "Hits and Previously Unreleased Tracks" from 1989-1993.-Track listing:...

    (Limited Edition - Hits and Previously Unreleased Tracks, 1998)
  • Romantically Helpless
    Romantically Helpless
    Romantically Helpless is a studio album by Holly Cole. It was released in 2000 in Canada on Alert Records and mastered as an HDCD encoded CD.-Track listing:# "One-Trick Pony" - 4:41# "Romantically Helpless" - 3:31...

    (2000) Canada: Gold
  • The Best of Holly Cole
    The Best of Holly Cole
    The Best of Holly Cole is a compilation album by Holly Cole. It was released in 2000 in the US on Blue Note.-Track listing:# "Trust in Me" - 3:24# "Calling You" - 4:40# "God Will" - 3:12...

    (2000)
  • Baby, It's Cold Outside
    Baby, It's Cold Outside (Holly Cole album)
    Baby, It's Cold Outside is a Christmas album by Holly Cole. It was released in 2001 in Canada on Alert Records.-Track listing:# "Christmas Time Is Here" - 3:04# "Baby, It's Cold Outside" - 4:07...

    (2001)
  • Shade
    Shade (Holly Cole album)
    Shade is a studio album by Holly Cole. It was released in 2003 in Canada on Alert Records.-Track listing:# "Heatwave" - 3:40# "Something Cool" - 3:58# "Too Darn Hot" - 3:13# "God Only Knows" - 4:27...

    (2003)
  • Holly Cole Collection Vol.1 (2004)
  • Holly Cole
    Holly Cole (album)
    Holly Cole is a studio album by Holly Cole. It was released in 2007 in Canada on Alert Records. The title of this release was originally announced as This House is Haunted.-Track listing:...

    (2007)

Associated projects

  • Count Your Blessings (an Alert Records Christmas compilation CD, 1994)
  • Feast (instrumental CD by trio members Aaron Davis and David Piltch, 1996)

External links

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