Frank Sinatra made a career singing saloon songs, as heard on such albums as "For Only the Lonely." Nat Cole's "Where Did Everyone Go?" (from 1963) is his only stab at saloon songs and, as with nearly everything Cole recorded, it's first-class through and through, a timeless song collection sung by a master that--like fine wine--is to be savored.The arranger is the incomparable Gordon Jenkins with whom Cole recorded "Love is the Thing" and "The Very Thought of You." This time the mood is darker and more complex, 12 takes on love gone bad, mostly classic tunes from the Great American Songbook, among them "Say It Isn't So" (Irving Berlin), "If Love Ain't There" (Johnny Burk), "Spring is Here (Rodgers and Hart), "The End of a Love Affair" (Edward Redding) and "Am I Blue" (Harry Akst, Grant Clarke). Some of the songs were newly minted but sound classic: "Where Did Everyone Go?" (Jimmy van Heusen), "That's All There Is" (Gordon Jenkins) and "I Keep Going Back to Joe's" (Marvin Fisher, Jack Segal). Cole caresses rather than sings these songs. A saloon album wouldn't be a saloon album without one tune by Johnny Mercer, in this case "When the World Was Young." Sinatra's version (from 1962) is incomparable, but Cole's is too. As with every song here, Cole never overplays his hand; he plums the emotional depth of the lyrics and sings it honestly. Like Sinatra, he had an unerring ear for finding the exact right mood and expressing it simply. And Gordon Jenkins, that master of the orchestra's string section, makes the perfect accomplice. If you missed this album when it was released in 1963 (as most did) it's not too late to make amends. This is one of those rare albums that gets better with time. Five stars.