Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer and musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He was widely noted for his soft, baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres.
Cole was
one of the first African Americans to host a television variety show, The Nat King Cole Show,
and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death from lung cancer in February 1965.
Early life
Nathaniel
Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1919. Coles had three brothers: Eddie,
Ike, and Freddy, and a half-sister, Joyce Coles.
Ike and Freddy would later pursue careers in music as well. When Cole was four
years old,
he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward Coles,
became a Baptist minister. Cole learned to play
the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles,
the church organist. His first performance was of "Yes! We
Have No Bananas" at
age four. He began formal lessons at 12, eventually learning not only jazz and gospel music, but also Western classical music, performing, as he said,
"from Johann
Sebastian Bach to Sergei
Rachmaninoff".
The
family lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Cole
would sneak out of the house and hang around outside the clubs, listening to artists
such as Louis
Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Jimmie Noone. He participated in Walter Dyett's renowned music program at DuSable
High School.
Career
Inspired
by the performances of Earl Hines, Cole began his performing career in the
mid-1930s while still a teenager, adopting the name "Nat Cole". His
older brother, Eddie, a bass
player, soon
joined Cole's band, and they made their first recording in 1936 under Eddie's
name. They also were regular performers at clubs. Cole, in fact, acquired his
nickname, "King", performing at one jazz club, a nickname presumably
reinforced by the otherwise unrelated nursery rhyme about Old King Cole. He also was a pianist in a national tour of Broadway theatre legend Eubie Blake's revue, "Shuffle
Along". When it suddenly failed in Long
Beach, California, Cole
decided to remain there. He would later return to Chicago in triumph to play
such venues as the famed Edgewater
Beach Hotel.
Los Angeles and the King Cole Trio
Cole and
two other musicians formed the "King Cole Swingers" in Long Beach and
played in a number of local bars before getting a gig on the Long Beach Pike for US$90 ($1,489 today) per week. The trio consisted of
Cole on piano, Oscar
Moore on
guitar, and Wesley Prince on double bass. The trio played in Failsworth
throughout the late 1930s and recorded many radio transcriptions. Cole was not
only pianist but leader of the combo as well.
Radio was
important to the King Cole Trio's rise in popularity. Their first broadcast was
with NBC's Blue Network in 1938. It was followed by
appearances on NBC's Swing Soiree. In the 1940s the trio appeared on the Old Gold, Chesterfield Supper Club and Kraft Music Hall radio shows.
Legend
was that Cole's singing career did not start until a drunken barroom patron
demanded that he sing "Sweet Lorraine". Cole, in fact, has gone on
record saying that the fabricated story "sounded good, so I just let it
ride." Cole frequently sang in between instrumental numbers. Noticing that
people started to request more vocal numbers, he obliged. Yet the story of the
insistent customer is not without some truth. There was a customer who
requested a certain song one night, but it was a song that Cole did not know,
so instead he sang "Sweet Lorraine". The trio was tipped 15 cents for
the performance, a nickel apiece (Nat King Cole: An Intimate Biography, Maria
Cole with
Louie Robinson, 1971).
During World War II, Wesley Prince left the group
and Cole replaced him with Johnny Miller. Miller would later be replaced by Charlie Harris in the 1950s. The King Cole Trio
signed with the fledgling Capitol Records in 1943. The group had
previously recorded for Excelsior Records, owned by Otis René, and had a hit with the song
"I'm Lost", which René wrote,
produced and distributed.Revenues from Cole's record
sales fueled much of Capitol Records' success during this period. The revenue
is believed to have played a significant role in financing the distinctive
Capitol Records building near Hollywood
and Vine in Los Angeles. Completed in 1956, it was the
world's first circular office building and became known as "The House that
Nat Built."
Cole was
considered a leading jazz pianist, appearing in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts (credited on the Mercury Record label as "Shorty
Nadine"—derived from his wife's name—as he was under exclusive contract to
Capitol Records at the time). His revolutionary lineup of
piano, guitar, and bass in the time of the big bands became a popular setup for
a jazz trio. It was emulated by many musicians, among them Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, and blues pianists Charles Brown and Ray Charles. He also performed as a pianist
on sessions with Lester
Young, Red Callender, and Lionel Hampton.
Success
"...I
started out to become a jazz pianist; in the meantime I started singing and I
sang the way I felt and that's just the way it came out."--VOA interview,
Cole's
first mainstream vocal hit was his 1943 recording of one of his compositions,
"Straighten Up and Fly Right", based on a black folk tale that his father had used as a
theme for a sermon. Johnny
Mercer invited
him to record it for his fledgling Capitol Records label. It sold over 500,000 copies,
proving that folk-based material could appeal to a wide audience. Although Cole
would never be considered a rocker, the song can be seen as anticipating the first rock and roll records. Indeed, Bo Diddley, who performed similar
transformations of folk material, counted Cole as an influence.
In 1946,
the Cole trio paid to have their own 15-minute radio program on the air. It was
called, "King Cole Trio Time." It became the first radio program
sponsored by a black performing artist. During those years, the trio recorded
many "transcription" recordings, which were
recordings made in the radio studio for the broadcast. Later they were used for
commercial records.
Beginning
in the late 1940s, Cole began recording and performing pop-oriented material
for mainstream audiences, in which he was often accompanied by a string orchestra. His stature as a popular icon
was cemented during this period by hits such as "The
Christmas Song"
(Cole recorded that tune four times: on June 14, 1946, as a pure Trio
recording, on August 19, 1946, with an added string section, on August 24,
1953, and in 1961 for the double album The Nat King Cole Story; this
final version, recorded in stereo, is the one most often heard today), "Nature
Boy"
(1948), "Mona Lisa" (1950), "Too Young"
(the #1 song in 1951),and his signature tune "Unforgettable" (1951) (Gainer 1). 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, for instance, he recorded an all-jazz album After Midnight. Cole had one of his last big
hits in 1963, two years before his death, with the classic "Those
Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer", which reached #6 on the Pop chart.
Television
On
November 5, 1956, The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC. The variety program was the first of its kind
hosted by an African-American, which created controversy at the time. Beginning as a 15-minute pops
show on Monday night, the program was expanded to a half hour in July 1957.
Despite the efforts of NBC, as well as many of Cole's industry colleagues—many
of whom, such as Ella
Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Frankie Laine, Mel Tormé, Peggy Lee, Eartha Kitt, and backing vocal group The Cheerleaders worked for industry scale (or
even for no pay)in order to help the show save
money—The Nat King Cole Show was ultimately done in by lack of a
national sponsorship. Companies such as Rheingold Beer assumed regional sponsorship of
the show, but a national sponsor never appeared.
The last
episode of The Nat King Cole Show aired December 17, 1957. Cole had
survived for over a year, and it was he, not NBC, who ultimately decided to
pull the plug on the show. Commenting on the lack of
sponsorship his show received, Cole quipped shortly after its demise,
"Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."
Later career
Throughout
the 1950s, Cole continued to rack up successive hits, selling in millions
throughout the world, including "Smile",
"Pretend", "A Blossom Fell", and "If I May". His pop hits were collaborations with
well-known arrangers and conductors of the day, including Nelson Riddle,
Gordon
Jenkins, and Ralph Carmichael. 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. In 1955, his single "Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" reached #7 on the Billboard chart. Jenkins arranged Love Is the Thing, which hit #1 on the album
charts in April 1957.
In 1958,
Cole went to Havana,
Cuba to
record Cole
Español, an
album sung entirely in Spanish. The album was so popular in Latin America, as well as in the USA, that two
others of the same variety followed: A Mis Amigos (sung in Spanish and Portuguese) in 1959 and More Cole
Español in 1962. A Mis Amigos contains the Venezuelan hit "Ansiedad," whose
lyrics Cole had learned while performing in Caracas in 1958. Cole learned songs in
languages other than English by rote.
After the
change in musical tastes during the late 1950s, Cole's ballad singing did not
sell well with younger listeners, despite a successful stab at rock n' roll
with "Send For Me" (peaked at #6 pop). Along with his contemporaries Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett, Cole found that the pop singles
chart had been almost entirely taken over by youth-oriented acts. In 1960,
Nat's longtime collaborator Nelson Riddle left Capitol Records for Frank Sinatra's newly formed
Reprise
Records label.
Riddle and Cole recorded one final hit album, Wild Is Love, based on
lyrics by Ray Rasch and Dotty Wayne. Cole later
retooled the concept album into an Off-Broadway show, "I'm With You."
Cole did
manage to record some hit singles during the 1960s, including in 1961 "Let
There Be Love" with George Shearing, the country-flavored hit "Ramblin'
Rose" in August 1962, "Dear
Lonely Hearts",
"That Sunday, That Summer" and "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days Of
Summer" (his final hit, reaching #6 pop).
Cole
performed in many short films, sitcoms, and television shows and played W. C. Handy in the film St. Louis Blues (1958). He also appeared in The
Nat King Cole Story, China Gate, and The Blue Gardenia (1953). In January 1964, Cole
made one of his final television appearances on The Jack Benny Program. Cole was introduced as “the best friend a song
ever had," and sang “When I
Fall in Love."
It was one of Cole's last performances. Cat Ballou (1965), his final film, was
released several months after his death.
Personal life
Around
the time Cole launched his singing career, he entered into Freemasonry, being
raised in January 1944 in the Thomas Waller Lodge No. 49 in California, the
lodge being named after fellow Prince Hall mason and jazz musician Fats Waller.
Marriage and children
Cole's
first marriage, to Nadine Robinson, ended in 1948. On March 28, 1948 (Easter
Sunday), just six days after his divorce became final, Cole married singer Maria
Hawkins Ellington
(although Maria had sung with Duke Ellington's band, she was not related to Duke Ellington). The Coles were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. They had five children: Natalie (born 1950) (Watts 1), who
herself would go on to have a successful career as a singer; adopted daughter Carole (1944–2009, the daughter of
Maria's sister), who died of lung cancer at 64; adopted son Nat Kelly Cole
(1959–1995), who died of AIDS at 36;and twin daughters Casey and
Timolin (born 1961).
Cole had
affairs throughout his marriages. By the time he developed lung cancer, he was
estranged from his wife Maria and living with actress Gunilla Hutton, best known as the second Billie
Jo Bradley on Petticoat
Junction
(1965–1966) and also notable as a regular cast member (Nurse Goodbody) on Hee Haw. But Cole was with Maria during
his illness, and she stayed with him until his death. In an interview, Maria
expressed no lingering resentment over his affairs. Instead, she emphasized his
musical legacy and the class he exhibited in all other aspects of his life.
Racism
In August
1948, Cole purchased a house from Col. Harry Gantz, the former husband of Lois Weber, in the all-white Hancock Park
neighborhood of Los
Angeles. The Ku Klux Klan, still active in Los Angeles
well into the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn.
Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any
undesirables moving in. Cole retorted, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody
undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."
Cole
fought racism all his life and rarely
performed in segregated venues. In 1956, he was
assaulted on stage during a concert in Birmingham,
Alabama, with
the Ted Heath Band (while singing the song
"Little Girl"), by three members of the North Alabama Citizens Council (a group led by Education of Little Tree author Asa "Forrest" Carter, himself not among the
attackers), who apparently were attempting to kidnap him (Ruuth 14). The three
male attackers ran down the aisles of the auditorium towards Cole and his band.
Although local law enforcement quickly ended the invasion of the stage, the
ensuing melée toppled Cole from his piano bench and injured his back. Cole did
not finish the concert and never again performed in the South. A fourth member of the group
who had participated in the plot was later arrested in connection with the act.
All were later tried and convicted for their roles in the crime.
In 1956,
he was contracted to perform in Cuba and wanted to stay at the Hotel
Nacional de Cuba in
Havana, but was not allowed to because it operated a color bar. Cole honored his contract, and
the concert at the Tropicana was a huge success. The following year, he
returned to Cuba for another concert, singing many songs in Spanish. There is
now a tribute to him in the form of a bust and a jukebox in the Hotel Nacional.
After his
attack in Birmingham, Cole stated "I can't understand it ... I have
not taken part in any protests. Nor have I joined an organization fighting
segregation. Why should they attack me?" A native of Alabama, Cole seemed eager to assure
southern whites that he would not challenge the customs and traditions of the
region. A few would keep the protests going for a while, he claimed, but
"I'd just like to forget about the whole thing." Cole had no intention
of altering his practice of playing to segregated audiences in the South. He
did not condone the practice but was not a politician and believed "I
can't change the situation in a day." African-American communities
responded to Nat King Cole's self-professed political indifference with an
immediate, harsh, and virtually unanimous rejection, unaffected by his
revelations that he had contributed money to the Montgomery
Bus Boycott and had
sued several northern hotels that had hired but refused to serve him. Thurgood Marshall, chief legal counsel of the NAACP, reportedly suggested that since he was an Uncle Tom, Cole ought to perform with a banjo. Roy Wilkins, the executive secretary of the
organization, challenged Cole in a telegram: "You have not been a crusader
or engaged in an effort to change the customs or laws of the South. That responsibility,
newspapers quote you as saying, you leave to the other guys. That attack upon
you clearly indicates that organized bigotry makes no distinction between those
who do not actively challenge racial discrimination and those who do. This is
a fight which none of us can escape. We invite you to join us in a crusade
against racism."
Cole's
appearances before all-white audiences, the Chicago Defender charged, were "an insult to
his race". As boycotts of his records and shows were organized, the Amsterdam News claimed that "thousands of
Harlem blacks who have worshiped at the shrine of singer Nat King Cole turned
their backs on him this week as the noted crooner turned his back on the NAACP
and said that he will continue to play to Jim Crow audiences." To play
"Uncle Nat's" discs, wrote a commentator in The American Negro,
"would be supporting his 'traitor' ideas and narrow way of
thinking". Deeply hurt by the criticism of the black press, Cole was also
suitably chastened. Emphasizing his opposition to racial
segregation "in
any form", he agreed to join other entertainers in boycotting segregated
venues. He quickly and conspicuously paid $500 to become a life member of the
Detroit branch of the NAACP. Until his death in 1965, Cole was an active and
visible participant in the civil
rights movement, playing
an important role in planning the March on
Washington in 1963.[18][19]
Politics
Cole sang
at the 1956 Republican National Convention in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California, on August 23, 1956. There, his
"singing of 'That's All There Is To That' was greeted with applause. He was also present at the Democratic National Convention in 1960 to throw his support
behind Senator John F.
Kennedy. Cole
was also among the dozens of entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Kennedy
Inaugural gala in 1961. Cole frequently consulted with President Kennedy (and
later President Lyndon B.
Johnson) on
civil rights.
Death
Cole was
a heavy smoker throughout his life and rarely seen without a cigarette in his
hand. He was a smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes, believing
that smoking up to three packs a day gave his voice its rich sound. (Cole would
smoke several cigarettes in rapid succession before a
recording.) After an operation for stomach ulcers in 1953, he had been advised
to stop smoking but did not do so. In December 1964, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He underwent cobalt and radiation therapy and was initially given a
positive prognosis. On January 25, he underwent surgery to remove his left lung.
Despite medical treatments, he died on February 15, 1965, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California at the age of 45.
Cole's
funeral was held on February 18 at St. James Episcopal Church on Wilshire Blvd.
in Los Angeles. His remains were interred inside Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.
Legacy
Cole was
inducted into both the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1990, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1997 was inducted into
the Down Beat Jazz Hall
of Fame. In
2007, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
An
official United States postage stamp featuring Cole's likeness was issued in
1994.
In 2000,
Cole was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the major
influences on early rock and roll.
