Original ‘The Horses’ Singer Rickie Lee Jones Shares Taste Of New Album

Earlier this year, Rickie Lee Jones announced that she would release a new album, Pieces Of Treasure, on Friday, 28 April, via BMG. 

Reuniting with her lifelong friend and legendary producer Russ Titelman, who co-produced Jones’ star-making albums, her 1980 debut Rickie Lee Jones and the seminal Pirates, her new record promises to be another foray through jazz, classical, and blues music.

Pieces Of Treasure is Rickie Lee Jones’ journey through the American Songbook. She has already taken on the Dean Martin classic, Just In Time, written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and Walter Huston’s September Song (written by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson).

This week, Rickie Lee Jones has unveiled another gem, Nature Boy, initially sung by Nat King Cole and written by Eden Ahbez.

She keeps the mystery and otherworldly nature of the original song intact, with her strong vocals providing a fresh, jazzy take on a beloved track. Check it out below.

“I learned Nature Boy from my dad when I was young, maybe ten, twelve years old,” Rickie Lee Jones revealed in a statement. 

“It is a very odd song, only one verse, almost like an introduction without a body. But that is the point of it, there is just one message, as if Krishnanmurti himself wrote it and that was that—’Love, and be loved in return.’ I really did feel my father near as I recorded this.”

“This American Songbook recording shows Rickie's artistry in full bloom,” Titelman added. “Her voice has always sounded a bit younger than it ought to (that may be a function of her ability to inhabit the character who is singing the song so masterfully that you believe every word) but on this recording the aging voice sounds even better to me than the youthful one. 

"There's a resonance and warmth in her lower register that wasn't there before. I adore the young Rickie Lee but I love even more the Old Dame.”

Pre-order Pieces Of Treasure here.