From the start, Nat King Cole's mother supported his musical ambitions. Nat took the advice seriously and, around the age of 12, started to dive into the classics, "playing everything from Bach to Rachmaninoff," according to Ruuth. As a result, the King Cole Trio disbanded in 1951, and it was as a pop singer, not a jazz instrumentalist, that Cole was known thereafter and to this day. [Part 1]", "Pop Chronicles Interviews #131 - Nat "King" Cole", "Study: Ad Agencies Exhibit 'Pervasive Racial Discrimination' | News", "17 Of The Most Influential Freemasons Ever", "Gale:Free Resources:Black History:Biographies: Nat King Cole", "L.A.'s Ugly Jim Crow History: Nat King Cole's Dog Poisoned in Hancock Park", "Nat 'King' Cole attacked on stage archive, 12 April 1956", "It's All Right to Still Like Ike: History: Once Painted as a 'Distanced' President, Dwight Eisenhower Now is Heralded for his Strong Sense of Service", "Nat King Cole | Songwriters Hall of Fame", "Special Awards Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame", Nat "King" Cole article in the Encyclopedia of Alabama, All for You: A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio, You're Lookin' at Me (A Collection of Nat King Cole Songs), The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You), Put 'em in a Box, Tie 'em with a Ribbon, and Throw 'em in the Deep Blue Sea, Caroling, Caroling: Christmas with Natalie Cole, Unforgettable A Musical Tribute to Nat King Cole, Sophisticated Lady (She's a Different Lady), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nat_King_Cole&oldid=1139844406, 20th-century African-American male singers, African-American television personalities, Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale), Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners, Racially motivated violence against African Americans, Spanish-language singers of the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox musical artist with associated acts, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Nat King Cole was in the final stages of lung cancer. Still later, in high school, he organized a 14-piece band with himself as leader and pianist. Maria also encouraged him to part with his expensive sidemen and turn the group from the King Cole Trio into Nat King Cole and His Trio, assuring him that his singing was the draw. Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Plays, The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You), Put 'em in a Box, Tie 'em with a Ribbon (and Throw 'em in the Deep Blue Sea), "American certifications Nat King Cole", Recording Industry Association of America, "British certifications Ozzy Osbourne", "Kent Music Report No 341 5 January 1981 > Platinum and Gold Albums 1980", "Billboard Hot 100 (Week of January 7, 2023)", "Jingle bell rock: Why lots of radio stations go all-Christmas in December", "Andy Williams Hits New High, The Ronettes 'Ride' Back After 52 Years & More Hot 100 Chart Moves", "Holiday 100: The week of December 24, 2011", "Holiday 100: The week of December 8, 2012", "Holiday 100: The week of January 4, 2014", "Holiday 100: The week of December 20, 2014", "Holiday 100: The week of December 12, 2015", "Holiday 100: The week of December 10, 2016", "Holiday 100: The week of December 16, 2017", "Holiday 100: The week of January 5, 2019", "Holiday 100: The week of December 7, 2019", "Holiday 100: The week of December 12, 2020", "Holiday 100 (Week of December 11, 2021)", "Holiday 100: The week of December 13, 2014", "Holiday 100 (Week of December 10, 2022)", "Holiday 100: The week of December 19, 2015", "Holiday 100: The week of December 21, 2019", "Holiday 100: The week of December 19, 2020", "Holiday 100 (Week of December 31, 2022)", "Holiday 100: The week of January 4, 2020", "Holiday 100: The week of December 26, 2020", "Nat King Cole Chart History (Holiday 100)", "Holiday 100: The week of January 2, 2021", "Holiday 100 (Week of December 18, 2021)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nat_King_Cole_discography&oldid=1132283049, "You Call It Madness (But I Call it Love)", "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)". While Cole certainly had a more understated public role in the Civil Rights Movement, he was apparently quite outspoken in private among his high-profile friends, including Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. By the time he contracted lung cancer, he was estranged from his wife Maria while in a relationship with actress Gunilla Hutton, best known as Nurse Goodbody of Hee Haw fame. Despite the fact that Nat King Cole is revered today as a vocal legend, he never intentionally pursued a singing career. Here's a look into the untold truth of Nat King Cole. But the ballads he sang with his trio were so enthusiastically received by the public that he started cutting vocal records accompanied by studio orchestras, and these proved even more successful than their jazz-oriented predecessors. PinkPantheress? Shop with confidence. Carole signed the papers and rushed home, where Nat would die on Feb. 15, 1965. Riddle and Cole recorded one final hit album Wild Is Love, based on lyrics by Ray Rasch and Dotty Wayne. However, he was with his wife during his illness and she stayed with him until his death. Cole's family moved to Chicago, Illinois, while he was still a child. Born in Alabama on March 17, 1919, Nathaniel Adams Coles (he would later drop the "s") always had a musical streak. Naxos of America / OKeh Records AllMusic Quiz. He also performed as a pianist on sessions with Lester Young, Red Callender, and Lionel Hampton. Web. The King Cole Trio 78rpm Single 10-inch Capitol Records #311 The Christmas Song. At the same time, though, he was highly influenced by his brother Eddie, who was six years older and a big fan of the popular jazz music that their father criticized. In the days leading up to Cole's death, he was able to go on short drives with his wife and visit his children at their family home in Hancock Park. Bill Dobbins and Richard Wang. Cole reportedly carried on affairs throughout his marriage. Cole was also among the dozens of entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Kennedy Inaugural gala in 1961. ", Singer and actress Eartha Kitt, one of the program's guest stars, later reflected that Cole's sophisticated image, elegance, and interaction with white performers as equals "was dangerous" in an era when blacks appearing on television regularly were only in comic or subservient roles. Cole retorted "Neither do I. His father, Edward James Coles, was a Baptist minister, while his mother, Perlina Adams, was the soprano soloist and director of the choir in her husbands church. For "Ramblin' Rose" 1962 Nominee Grammy: Album of the Year. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. With a catalog full of memorable love songs, Nat King Cole certainly had his own interesting experiences with romance. While this shift to pop music led some jazz critics and fans to accuse Cole of selling out, he never totally abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956, he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight. Top performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Pearl Bailey, Mahalia Jackson, Sammy Davis, Jr., Tony Bennett, and Harry Belafonte, appeared for the minimum wage allowed by the union. All rights reserved. Found 396 items. Incomparable Nat King Cole II. Later, Cole was chosen by Paramount Pictures to play W.C. Nat King Cole 78rpm Single 10-inch Capitol Records #1010 Mona Lisa. According to theOrlando Sentinel, after his time with Shuffle Along came to an end in Long Beach, Cole and his wife at the time decided to settle in California. Cole was born in Montgomery, Alabama. When singing "To see if reindeer really know how to fly," he mistakenly sang "reindeers." He was also present at the Democratic National Convention in 1960 to throw his support behind President John F. Kennedy. Updates? NAT KING COLE 78 RPM GRAMOPHONE RECORDS X 8. Spouse (s) Nat King Cole. By the time he worked his way from Chicago to Los Angeles, settling there permanently in 1937, his playing was already fully formed. Riddle arranged several of Cole's 1950s albums, including his first 10-inch long-play album, his 1953 Nat King Cole Sings For Two In Love. She began recording again after a stint in rehab in. The first was in 1946 with the King Cole Trio. Cole grew up in Chicago, where, by age 12, he sang and played organ in the church where his father was pastor. In 1991, Mosaic Records released The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio, an 18 compact disc set, consisting of 349 songs. The nimble, darting interplay heard on records such as This Side Up (1940) and What Is This Thing Called Love? The resulting broken rhythms disrupted the squared-off regularity of James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, and the other Harlem-based stride pianists of the period. Initially, Cole refused, replying, "We don't sing." Oxford University Press. "Cole, Nat 'King'." Nat King Cole. February 15, 1957. What he could never have done was become a Sinatra-like cultural colossus, for he lacked Sinatras larger-than-life personality. We want to hear your thoughts about this article. But despite success, Cole wanted to pursue a solo musical career. These critiques hurt the musician, who would eventually take a more active role in the movement, including participating in the 1963 March on Washington and regularly performing at benefit concerts for civil rights groups. THE STORY of Coles life, which is told in Will Friedwalds Straighten Up and Fly Right (2020), the first factually reliable primary-source biography of the singer-instrumentalist, runs parallel to and sheds light on many key aspects of the black experience in 20th-century America. The attack began at the rear of the auditorium when three men ran down the aisles towards Cole and his band. Cole frequently sang in between instrumental numbers, and noticing that people started to request more vocal numbers, he obliged. His mom, an amateur piano player herself, gave him piano lessons when he was as young as four years old, with "Yes, We Have No Bananas" being the first song he ever learned to play. On one hand, his existence as a popular Black musician certainly challenged racist sentiments and broke down many barriers. In addition to being an incomparable lyricist, Mercer was also a shrewd talent scout, and he sensed that Coles singing was capable of appealing to white listeners as well as black ones (the trio had previously recorded for Deccas Sepia Series of race records that were specifically marketed to urban blacks). NAT KING COLE Vinyl Records and CDs Nat King Cole's great piano work with his jazz trio got overshadowed by his massive vocal success in the 1950s yet each phase of his career offers up so many riches that it proves that the lines between jazz and popular music just don't matter. Settling in California, the Coles had five children and made their home in Hancock Park in greater Los Angeles. Throughout the 1950s, Cole continued to rack up hit after hit, including "Smile," "Pretend," "A Blossom Fell," "If I May." Carlos Gastel, Coles manager, now started thinking of him not as a singer-pianist but as a stand-up vocalist who played piano on the side. with Love. His enjoyable personality landed him the iconic gig as the host of his very own nationally televised show, as told by NPR. visit to New York during his early twenties, he met and ultimately married Maria Hawkins, a singer from Boston. Coles jazz roots never quite disappeared, especially when he recorded up-tempo tunes such as Almost Like Being in Love (1953) with arrangers such as Nelson Riddle and Billy May, sailing effortlessly atop the beat with the irresistible swing of the nonpareil instrumentalist he had been. Beginning in the late 1940s, Cole began recording and performing more pop-oriented material for mainstream audiences, often accompanied by a string orchestra. . For over a year, the entertainer worked tirelessly on his show, even turning down a total of $500,000 in performances in order to focus on the program. Back to home page | Sell it yourself. Among them were Nat Cole and his family. Those close to him, however, knew for days and were able to see him in his last moments. He rejected it, cheekily requesting $1 million instead. Free delivery for many products. There were several covers of Nat Cole's original record in the 1940s. 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