Nat King Cole | Artist
Nathaniel Adams Coles aka Nat "King" Cole, was an American jazz pianist, popular music artist and screen actor, born 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama. Cole's career spanned almost three decades where he found success and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts. He hosted the NBC variety series The Nat King Cole Show, which became the first nationally broadcast television show hosted by a black American. Cole started his career as a jazz pianist in the late 1930s, when he formed the King Cole Trio, which became the top-selling group (and the only black act) on Capitol Records in the 1940s. He transitioned to become a solo singer billed as Nat King Cole and achieved mainstream success with hit singles include "Unforgettable", "Smile", "L-O-V-E", "Nature Boy", "When I Fall in Love", "Let There Be Love", "Mona Lisa", "Autumn Leaves", "Stardust", "Straighten Up and Fly Right", "The Very Thought of You", "For Sentimental Reasons", "Embraceable You" and "Almost Like Being in Love". His 1960 Christmas album The Magic of Christmas was the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s. Despite his mainstream success, Cole faced intense racial discrimination during his career. In August 1948, Cole purchased a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, a burning cross was placed on his front lawn and the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any "undesirables" moving into the neighborhood. Cole responded, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain." Cole was also assaulted during a concert on April 10, 1956, in Birmingham, Alabama, while singing the song "Little Girl" on stage with the Ted Heath Band. After photographs of Cole with white female fans were circulated bearing such incendiary captions as "Cole and His White Women" and "Cole and Your Daughter", three men from the North Alabama Citizens Council attacked Cole in an apparent attempt to kidnap and murder him. At the peak of his career Cole enjoyed a long collaboration with orchestral-maestro Nelson Riddle, who later moved on to join Frank Sinatra at Reprise records. Moving into the 1960's Cole's ballads appealed less and less to young listeners, despite a successful attempt at rock and roll with "Send for Me". Like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett, Cole found that the pop chart had been taken over by youth-oriented acts. From his catalogue of 57 studio albums, standouts include; After Midnight (1957), The Very Thought of You (1958), Nat King Cole Sings & George Shearing Plays (1962), and Let's Face the Music (1964). Cole died on February 15, 1965, at the age of 45, from lung cancer. He was survived by his two daughters, Natalie Cole who was a singer and actress, and Carole, an actress, music producer, and the CEO of King Cole Productions. In 1991, Natalie Cole recorded a new vocal track that was mixed with her father's 1961 stereo re-recording of his 1951 hit "Unforgettable" for a tribute album on Elektra Records. The song and album won seven Grammy awards in 1992 for Best Album and Best Song.
Artist Website: wikipedia.org/Nat_King_Cole
Featured Albums: Nat King Cole
Related Artists: Natalie Cole, Nelson Riddle, The King Cole Trio
