Nat King Cole

Singer, songwriter, pianist

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

Nat King Cole was one of the most popular performers in the history of the music business. From the early 1940s with his jazz combo, the King Cole Trio, through his later solo career, he was responsible for numerous hit records, including pop and ballad classics such as “Sweet Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “The Christmas Song,” “Ramblin’ Rose,” and “Mona Lisa.” Cole was one of the first recording artists to sign with Capitol Records, and was that company’s most dependable talent for many years. Perhaps because of his enormous success with both black and white music fans, in 1957 he became the first black man to host a variety show on national television. Cole also appeared in motion pictures; his best remembered film performance, as a strolling balladeer in Cat Ballou, was completed a few months before his death in 1965.

Born Nathaniel Adams Coles on March 17, 1919, in Montgomery, Alabama, to a Baptist minister and his wife, Cole moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, as a young child. Soon afterwards, at the age of four, he gave his first public performance, singing “Yes, We Have No Bananas” in a talent contest. Despite the fact that his older brother Edward had to push him onstage, young Nat won a turkey.

Cole’s mother, Perlina, taught him to play the piano in the hopes that he would someday become a classic pianist. According to Maria Cole, the singer’s second wife, in her book, Nat King Cole: An Intimate Biography, his musical talents were quickly put to practical, if not classical, use. In kindergarten, he played piano for the teacher as musical accompaniment to classroom games. By the time Cole was eleven, he and his sister shared the piano duties of their father’s ministry at the True Light Baptist Church. But when he was sixteen, his interests turned to jazz, and he formed his own group, the Royal Dukes. They played for small change, or, as Maria Cole recounted, “when they couldn’t get cash, often settled for hot dogs and hamburgers.” Nat did not sing, because the other members of the group did not like his voice. Shortly afterwards, however, Cole left the Dukes to join the group his brother had formed, the Rogues of Rhythm.

The Rogues eventually joined the cast of “Shuffle Along,” a black musical revue. While Cole was serving as the revue’s pianist, he became acquainted with Nadine Robinson, one of its dancers. As the show was en route to California, Robinson became Cole’s first wife, but “Shuffle Along” closed when it got to Long Beach, leaving Cole unemployed. He began playing piano in Los Angeles area bars to support himself. In one of these bars, Cole was discovered by another club owner, Bob Lewis, who urged Cole to form a small backup group and drop the s from his surname. Lewis wanted

For the Record…

Full name Nathaniel Adams Coles; born March 17, 1919, in Montgomery, Ala. ; daughter of Edward James (a Baptist minister) and Perlina Coles; married Nadine Robinson (a dancer), c 1937 (marriage ended); married Maria Hawkins Ellington (a singer), 1948; children: Carol (adopted), Natalie, Kelly (adopted son), Timolin, Casey (twin daughters); died of lung cancer in Santa Monica, Calif., February 15, 1965. Education: Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago.

Singer, pianist. Formed musical group, The Royal Dukes, c 1935; joined brother Edward’s group, The Rogues of Rhythm, c 1936; joined revue “Shuffle Along,” c. 1936; played piano in bars in Los Angeles, Calif., 1937. Formed the Nat Cole Swingsters Three (later the King Cole Trio), 1937; solo recording artist and concert performer, 1951–65. Appeared in films including China Gate and Cat Ballou. Had own radio show during late 1940s; own television show for National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), 1957.

Awards: Recipient of many gold records.

Addresses: Record company—Capitol Records, 1750 North Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 91522.

the more traditional quartet, but Cole could only find two other suitable musicians—thus, with the help of Wesley Prince on bass and Oscar Moore on guitar, the Nat Cole Swingsters Three began their first steady job in Lewis’s club.

The group, quickly renamed by Lewis as the Nat King Cole Trio, was at first strictly instrumental. A traditional story says Cole was first led to use his voice professionally because of a persistent, drunken customer who kept demanding that he sing “Sweet Lorraine.” More accurately, according to Maria Cole, the pianist began to sing a little to break the monotony of solid instrumental numbers. Though the Trio soon acquired renown in the Los Angeles area, a nationwide tour was not particularly successful.

But when Glenn Wallichs got together with songwriter Johnny Mercer and producer Buddy DeSylva to form Capitol Records in 1942, he remembered meeting Cole and his band, and decided to sign them to a record contract. By 1943 the Trio had recorded its first hit, “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” A few years later, when Cole met his second wife, the former Maria Ellington, he was already well-known throughout the United States due to recordings like “Sweet Lorraine,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” and “Get Your Kicks on Route 66.” In 1948, when his divorce became final and he married Maria, “Nature Boy,” a song he recorded the previous year, became a tremendous hit and transformed Cole into a household name.

As time went on, Cole realized that he was having far more hit records when he sang solo ballads backed by a big band than when he played and sang jazz with the trio. In 1951, a year after he released what is perhaps his most famous song, “Mona Lisa,” he left the trio and ceased playing the piano on his records. Even so, Cole is still recognized, in the words of critic Terry Teachout in High Fidelity, as “an extraordinarily gifted jazz pianist.” The decision proved a turning point in the singer’s career, and many gold records, featuring what Teachout described as Cole’s “dark, grainy baritone,” followed. “Unforgettable,” “Ballerina,” “When You’re Smiling,” and “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” are a few of the hits that helped make Cole a favorite of music fans in the United States and worldwide. As Maria Cole explained, “Nat’s impeccable taste and vocal styling … established him not only as one of the leading crooners of the day, but also as one of the best song salesmen in the business. He could take the most unlikely lyric and transform it to a hum or whistle on everybody’s lips.” She quoted Wallichs as once saying: ’“All the publishers offer [Capitol] a tune for him first, because they know if Cole sings it, they have an eighty to twenty chance of having a hit.’”

In late 1964, while still experiencing much success as a concert performer and recording artist, Cole developed a severe cough and searing chest pains. A smoker, he was diagnosed with a fast-growing, cancerous tumor of the lung. Cole checked into a Santa Monica hospital in December; he died on February 15, 1965. Besides remaining popular through the legacy of his many recordings, Cole served as an influence for other pop balladeers, including Johnny Mathis, and Cole’s own daughter, Natalie.

Selected discography

Singles on Capitol

“Straighten Up and Fly Right,” 1943.

“Sweet Lorraine,” 1943.

“Embraceable You,” 1943.

“It’s Only a Paper Moon,” 1943.

“Body and Soul,” 1944.

“What Is This Thing Called Love?” 1944.

“There, I’ve Said It Again,” 1944.

“Stormy Weather,” 1945.

“You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You,” 1945.

“Don’t Blame Me,” 1945.

“Sweet Georgia Brown,” 1945.

“I’m in the Mood for Love,” 1946.

“Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” 1946.

“What Can I Say, Dear, After I Say I’m Sorry?” 1946.

“The Christmas Song,” 1946.

“(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,” 1946.

“In the Cool of the Evening,” 1946.

“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” 1946.

“You’re the Cream in My Coffee,” 1946.

“Honeysuckle Rose,” 1947.

“Makin’ Whoopee,” 1947.

“Too Marvelous for Words,” 1947.

“How High the Moon,” 1947.

“Three Little Words,” 1947.

“Nature Boy,” 1947.

“Dream a Little Dream of Me,” 1947.

“Then I’ll Be Tired of You,” 1947.

“Two Front Teeth,” 1949.

“My Baby Just Cares for Me,” 1949.

“I Almost Lost My Mind,” 1950.

“Mona Lisa,” 1950.

“Frosty the Snow Man,” 1950.

“Red Sails in the Sunset,” 1951.

“Too Young,” 1951.

“Unforgettable,” 1951.

“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home,” 1951.

“You Stepped Out of a Dream,” 1952.

“Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” 1952.

“Somebody Loves Me,” 1952.

“Laura,” 1952.

“Lover Come Back to Me,” 1953.

“Tenderly,” 1953.

“Almost Like Being in Love,” 1953.

“Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup,” 1953.

“Smile,” 1954.

“Tea for Two,” 1955.

“Breezin’ Along With the Breeze,” 1955.

“Taking a Chance on Love,” 1955.

“Don’t Blame Me,” 1955.

“Just One of Those Things,” 1955.

“I Want to Be Happy,” 1955.

“You Can Depend on Me,” 1956.

“Ballerina,” 1956.

“Caravan,” 1956.

“When I Grow Too Old to Dream,” 1956.

“Tangerine,” 1956.

“Stardust,” 1956.

“It’s All in the Game,” 1956.

“When I Fall in Love,” 1956.

“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” 1956.

“When Sunny Gets Blue,” 1956.

“Blue Moon,” 1957.

“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” 1957.

“Who’s Sorry Now?” 1957.

“Once in a While,” 1957.

“The Party’s Over,” 1957.

“I Understand,” 1957.

“An Affair to Remember,” 1957.

“Fascination,” 1957.

“Maria Elena,” 1958.

“The More I See You,” 1958.

“I Found a Million Dollar Baby,” 1958.

“The Very Thought of You,” 1958.

“Impossible,” 1958.

“Mood Indigo,” 1958.

“Lorelei,” 1958.

“Only Forever,” 1960.

“I Remember You,” 1960.

“Capuccina,” 1961.

“Cold, Cold Heart,” 1961.

“September Song,” 1961.

“Ramblin’ Rose,” 1962.

“Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer,” 1963.

“I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” 1963.

“I Could Have Danced All Night,” 1963.

“On the Street Where You Live,” 1963.

“People,” 1964.

“You’re My Everything,” 1964.

“More,” 1964.

“My Kind of Girl,” 1964.

“The Girl From Ipanema,” 1964.

(With Stubby Kay) “The Ballad of Cat Ballou,” 1964.

“They Can’t Make Her Cry,” 1964.

LPs

King Cole Trio, Trio Days, Capitol.

Anatomy of a Jam Session, Black Lion.

The Genius of Lester Young, Verve.

Jazz at the Philharmonic, 1944–46, Verve.

Cole Español, Capitol.

Cole Español (And More), Vol. 2, Capitol, 1987.

The Complete After Midnight Sessions, Capitol, 1988.

Sources

Books

Cole, Maria, with Louie Robinson, Nat King Cole: An Intimate Biography, Morrow, 1971.

Periodicals

High Fidelity, June, 1988.

Jet, August 18, 1986, March 20, 1989.

People, May 1, 1989.

—Elizabeth Thomas

Nat King Cole 1919—1965

Vocalist

Early Musical Career

“King Cole”

Developed Enthusiastic Following

Moved Away from Jazz

Became Showcased Singer

Not Immune to Racial Prejudice

Selected discography

Sources

Nat King Cole was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama. When Cole was four years old, his father, Edward, a Baptist minister, accepted a pastorship of a church in Chicago. The family, which included Cole’s mother, Perlina, his older brother, Edward, and two sisters, Eddie Mae and Evelyn, moved north. Two younger brothers, Issac and Lionel (called Freddie), were born later in Chicago. Perlina Coles, choir director at her husband’s church, introduced her children to music early on and all four of her sons became professional musicians. As a small child, Cole could pump out “Yes, We Have No Bananas” on the piano and liked to stand in front of the radio with a ruler in his hand, pretending to conduct an orchestra. At age 12, Cole began taking formal lessons in piano and also began playing the organ in his father’s church. If his keyboard skills weren’t needed at church, he was put into the choir.

While attending Wendell Phillips High School, Cole became enamored of jazz music. The African American community on Chicago’s southside was a center of jazz action in the 1930s. Cole and his older brother Eddie went as often as possible to hear jazz and be with jazz musicians. When admission to a performance could not be afforded, Cole would stand in alleys listening at the stage door. He was most influenced by the style of pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines. “It was his driving force that appealed to me … I was just a kid and coming up, but I latched onto that new Hines style. Guess I still show the influence today,” Cole told John Tynan of Down Beat in 1957.

Early Musical Career

As a teenager, Cole organized two musical groups~a 14-piece band called the Rogues of Rhythm, and a quintet called Nat Coles and his Royal Dukes. He would play with whichever group could get a booking. In addition to music, athletics played a big role in Cole’s adolescence and his talent on the baseball diamond drew the interest of scouts from the Negro Leagues. Cole remained a sports fan throughout his life. “The only sport I’m not interested in is horse racing, and that’s because I don’t know the horses personally,” Cole told The Saturday Evening Post in 1954.

At age 16, Cole became the pianist for the Solid

At a Glance…

Born Nathaniel Adams Coles, March 17, 1919, in Montgomery, AL; son of Edward James (a Baptist minister), and Perlina Adams Coles (a choir dir. and music instructor); married Nadine Robinson (a dancer), 1937 (divorced, 1946); married Maria Hawkins Ellington (a singer), 1948; children: daughters Carol (adopted), Natalie, Timolin, Casey, and son Kelly (adopted), all children are from the second marriage; died of lung cancer in Santa Monica, CA, February 15, 1965. Education—Attended Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago.

Career: Jazz pianist, occasional vocalist, the King Cole Trio from 1937 to early 950s; began recording as a vocalist of pop music in 1946. Recordings with the King Cole Trio include “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” 1944; “Route 66,” 1944; “Sweet Lorraine,” 1944; “For Sentimental Reasons,” 1946; and “The Christmas Song,” 1946. Solo recordings include “Nature Boy,” 1948; “Orange Colored Sky,” 1950; “Mona Lisa,” 1950; “Unforgettable,” 1951; “Too Young,” 1951; “Somewhere Along the Way,” 1952; “Pretend,” 1953; “Answer Me, My Love,” 1953; “Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup,” 1953; “A Blossom Fell,” 1955; “Ramblin’ Rose,” 1962; and “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” 1963.

Film appearances include: (as a performer with the King Cole Trio) The Stork Club, 1945, See My Lawyer, 1945, Breakfast in Hollywood, 1946; (as an actor) China Gate, 1957, Istanbul, 1957, St. Louis Blues, 1958, Night of the Quarter Moon, 1959, Cat Ballou, 1965.

Radio and television work includes: a weekly radio program with King Cole Trio, 1946-47, and a television variety show, The Nat King Cole Show, NBC, 1956-57.

Swingers, a quintet formed by his brother Eddie. Late night engagements made keeping up with academic work difficult and Cole gradually dropped out of school before earning a diploma. In 1936, as pianist for the Solid Swingers, Cole participated on several records for the Decca company’s Sepia Series. These were “race” records aimed at black audiences. Though the Solid Swingers’ recordings did not enjoy much popularity, the fact that a record company had been interested enough to make them in the first place was a big encouragement for Cole to pursue a career in music.

In 1937, Cole and his brother Eddie joined a revival of the revue Shuffle Along. After a six week run in Chicago, the show went on the road. During the tour, Cole married dancer Nadine Robinson. When the Shuffle Along company suddenly folded in Long Beach, California, Cole and Robinson decided to stay on the West Coast. To pay the rent, Cole took whatever job was available. “It was a tough workout. I must have played every beer joint from San Diego to Bakersfield,” Cole told the Saturday Evening Post. Despite having to play on out of tune pianos at third rate venues, Cole’s extraordinary talent was noticed and he was soon a regular performer at the Century Club, a favorite hangout for Los Angeles area jazz musicians. “All the musicians dug him. We went there just to listen to him because nobody was like him. That cat could play! He was unique,” said a musician who saw Cole at the Century Club to biographer James Haskins.

“King Cole”

In late 1937 or early 1938, dates differ, Cole was asked to put together a small group to play at the Sewanee Inn, a Los Angeles nightclub. Cole got guitarist Oscar Moore, bassist Wesley Prince, and drummer Lee Young to join the group. When Young failed to appear on opening night, the group went on as a drummer-less trio. Cole was still using his real name Coles. Sewanee Inn owner Bob Lewis nicknamed him King Cole and requested that he wear a gold paper crown during performances. The crown soon disappeared but the nickname stuck. The group became known as the King Cole Trio and its leader became Nat King Cole.

Developed Enthusiastic Following

The music scene of the late 1930s was dominated by dance orchestras or “big bands.” A trio, especially one without a drummer, was an oddity. Nonetheless, the King Cole Trio developed an enthusiastic local following and found almost constant work at Los Angeles nightspots, including many clubs which had never before hired black performers. The trio recorded with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and made some recordings of their own for the “race record” market. In early 1941, the trio went on a national tour and ended up spending several months in New York City, playing at top jazz clubs. Though the trio was primarily an instrumental group, Cole occasionally supplied a vocal line to add variation. The shy Cole was a reluctant singer who did not think he had much vocal talent. Even after becoming one of the most popular singers in the world, his opinion was unchanged. He told the Saturday Evening Post in 1954—“My voice is nothing to be proud of. It runs maybe two octaves in range. I guess it’s the hoarse, breathy noise that some like.”

In 1942, soon after the United States entered World War II, the trio’s bassist Wesley Prince was drafted into the military. He was replaced by Johnny Miller. Cole was exempted from the draft. Differing accounts attribute this to either flat feet or hypertension. The trio settled into a 48-week run at Los Angeles’ 331 Club. In 1943, the trio was signed by Capitol Records, a fledgling operation founded in the previous year by well-known lyricists Johnny Mercer and Buddy DeSylva, and record store owner Glen Wallichs. The trio’s Capitol recording of “Straighten Up and Fly Right, “with Cole on piano and as featured vocalist, became a hit in 1944. The song appealed to both black and white audiences and crossed the barrier between jazz and popular music. Cole had composed “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” basing its lyrics on one of his father’s sermons, but he had sold away all rights to the song several years earlier for $50 and earned nothing extra from the hit recording.

Moved Away from Jazz

The success of the King Cole Trio continued with the hits “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” and “For Sentimental Reasons.” The trio also performed in movies including The Stork Club, Breakfast in Hollywood, and See My Lawyer. In 1946 they were hired, along with pianist Eddy Duchin, as summer replacements for Bing Crosby on the radio program Kraft Music Hall. “You have no idea how much satisfaction I got from the acceptance of the trio, because we opened the way for countless other small groups, units that before were strictly for cocktail lounges,” Cole told Down Beat in 1957. Cole’s career took a major step away from jazz when the trio recorded Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song.” A hit in the winter of 1946-1947, “The Christmas Song” was the trio’s first recording with a string section accompaniment and was the first recording to emphasize Cole as a singer rather than a singing pianist leading a trio.

Cole’s move towards being a singer of popular music was viewed by many jazz purists as an artistic sellout. This shift to the mainstream has been attributed to the influence of Maria Ellington, an intelligent and sophisticated young singer whom Cole met in 1946. “Maria saw that Nat had a limited future as a jazz pianist. He couldn’t just sit there and sing and become a big hit. He had to stand up and sing with strings,” said Duke Niles, a songplugger who knew Cole, to biographer Leslie Course.

Many people around Cole, including fellow trio members Moore and Miller, thought the well-educated Ellington was calculating, domineering, and snobbish. Others say that Cole enjoyed many kinds of music (he was also an excellent classical pianist) and felt hindered by the confines of jazz. He very much wanted to be a big mainstream star and Ellington’s guidance merely assisted him in achieving that goal. After obtaining a divorce from Nadine Robinson, Cole married Ellington at a lavish ceremony conducted by Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church in 1948. Cole and Ellington had three daughters and adopted a son and another daughter.

Became Showcased Singer

Having added string accompaniment to his recording of “The Christmas Song,” Cole took another step away from jazz with “Nature Boy,” which he sang with the backing of a full orchestra. The exotic-sounding ballad was a major hit of 1948. In 1950, another somewhat offbeat ballad, “Mona Lisa,” soared to the top of the charts and stayed there for weeks. Gradually Cole began singing “stand up” rather than sitting in front of a piano. The King Cole Trio devolved into window dressing for Cole’s solo performances and was finally disbanded in 1955. Success continued with “Unforgettable,” “Too Young,” “Answer Me, My Love,” and “Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup.” Cole’s mellow delivery was in opposition to the belting offered by other popular singers of the early 1950s such as Eddie Fisher, Johnny Ray, and the young Tony Bennett. His careful enunciation of a lyric enabled him to convey a song with depth and meaning and made his rather limited vocal range seem irrelevant. “Mine is a casual approach to a song; I lean heavily on the lyrics. By that I mean I try to tell a story with the melody as background,” Cole told Down Beat in 1954.

Not Immune to Racial Prejudice

In 1956, Cole was given his own television show on NBC-TV. Despite good ratings, the program failed to find a sponsor and left the air after a year. Cole’s being African American was seen as the primary cause for the lack of advertising interest. Sponsoring a program that drew a large, if by no means exclusively, black audience was seen as a waste of money by advertisers. Racial incidents cropped up from time to time during Cole’s starring career. When he and his wife bought a house in the exclusive Hancock Park section of Los Angeles in 1949, neighbors formed an association to prevent them from moving in. In 1956, at the height of his fame, Cole was attacked by a group of white men while performing in Birmingham, Alabama. Cole was sometimes criticized by other blacks for not taking a more aggressive stand against unfair treatment of racial minorities. He did not refuse to perform before segregated audiences, believing that goodwill and an exhibition of his talent were more effective than formal protests in combating racism.

The advent of rock and roll, the revitalized career of Frank Sinatra (to whom Cole was often compared), and competition from younger black “crooners” such as Johnny Mathis and Harry Belafonte, caused Cole’s popularity to fade slightly in the later 1950s. To boost his sagging career, Cole acted in a several films, and organized a touring concert show called “Sights and Sounds,” in which he appeared with a group of young singers and dancers called the Merry Young Souls. In the early 1960s, he returned to the top ten with the hits “Ramblin’ Rose,” and “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer.” Some critics remarked that these vacuous, though catchy, songs were not up to the quality of his earlier hits.