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Comment by epiccoleman | Hacker News Reader

Nat just had such a distinctive and beautiful voice, it's so warm. I love his recording of "Almost Like Being In Love," which plays at the end of Groundhog Day. If you listen to another version, like for example Sinatra's... it's just not the same! Ella's is pretty nice though.

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Part of how he got that sound was hotboxing several cigarettes in a row before going into record - the the depth, harmonics and warmth of his voice is in part from smoking.

You can really hear the difference between say his late 40's recordings and his late 50's ones.

As a note, he was killed by Lung Cancer...

I've heard and read of several vocalists whose sounds were credited (by them or others) to smoking. I think those effects vary quite a bit between singers.

For me, anything I smoked always affected my singing worse overall in the long run. I may have gotten a temporary effect I liked, but it reduced the total amount of time I could sing without losing strength in at least part of my range.

I almost feel worse for those it doesn't affect so badly, because it was a key reason I decided to quit.

Don Williams was one who was 100% shaped by smoking, but it made his voice rich and full, and enhanced the harmonics and depth of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Williams

You can see the difference of the progression of time here.

~1975 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzGx_XzxDeM 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyoAoXB_xUU

He also carries the soundtrack for the semi musical western Cat Ballou, released the year he died (1965), and, to me, without his role the movie doesn't win any awards.

Ugh! That may be the most desperately stupid movie I've ever seen.

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