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 the fledgling Capitol Records label. It sold over 500,000 copies, and proved that folk-based material could appeal to a wide audience. Although Nat 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.
Beginning in the late 1940s, Cole began recording and performing more pop-oriented material for mainstream audiences, 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 the tune three times: in 1946, his first recording to include strings and the only one where he sings "reindeers," 1953, and 1961 -- the last version is the one most often played today), "Nature Boy" (1948), "Mona Lisa" (1950), "Too Young" (the #1 song in 1951)[1], and his signature tune "Unforgettable" (1951). 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. In 1991, Mosaic Records released the Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio, consisting of 349 songs. Revenues from Cole's record sales fueled much of Capitol Records' success during this period, and are believed to have played a significant role in financing the distinctive Capitol Records building on Vine Street in Los Angeles. Completed in 1956, it was the world's first circular office building and became known as "the house that Nat built."
Nat King Cole with future star Billy Preston, age 10 (1957)Throughout the 1950s Cole continued to rack up hit after hit, including "Smile", "Pretend", "A Blossom Fell", "If I May" and many others. 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". Jenkins arranged "Love Is the Thing", #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 in the same vein 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.
The change in musical tastes during the late 1950s meant that 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 & 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 the country-flavored hit "Ramblin' Rose" in August of 1962, "Dear Lonely Hearts", "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days Of Summer", and "That Sunday, That Summer". He also once again recorded "The Christmas Song" along with an entire Christmas album in 1963. His 1963 version of "The Christmas Song" is the most notable of the 4 versions. This is the version that has been getting wide radio airplay since the mid 1960's.
His last album, L.O.V.E., was recorded in early December 1964 -- just a few days before entering the hospital for lung cancer treatment -- and released just prior to his death; it peaked at #4 on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965. A "Best Of" album went gold in 1968. His 1957 recording of "When I Fall In Love" topped the UK charts in 1987.
Cole was the first African American to have his own radio program and television show (see below). In both cases, the programs were ultimately cancelled because potential sponsors shied away from showcasing a black artist. Cole fought racism all his life and refused to perform in segregated venues. In 1956, he was assaulted on stage while singing the song "Little Girl" in Birmingham, Alabama by members of the White Citizens' Council who apparently were attempting to kidnap him. Cole completed the performance despite injuries, but never again performed in the South.
Cole performed in many short films, and played W. C. Handy in the film Saint Louis Blues. He also appeared in The Nat King Cole Story, "China Gate" and "The Blue Gardenia" (see photo above). Cat Ballou, his final film, was released several months after his death.
Cole, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer in February 1965 while still at the height of his singing career.
In 1983, an archivist for Electrola Records, Capitol Records' subsidiary in Holland, discovered some songs Cole had recorded but that had never been released, including one in Japanese and another in Spanish ("Tu Eres Tan Amable"). Capitol released them later that year as the Long Play "Unreleased".He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.
Nat's daughter, Natalie Cole, and his youngest brother Freddy Cole, are also singers. In the summer of 1991, Natalie and her father had an unexpected hit, when Natalie mixed her own voice with her father's 1961 rendition of "Unforgettable", as part of her album paying tribute her father's music. The song and the album of the same name won seven Grammys awards in 1992.
Ray Evans, the lyrics writer of "Mona Lisa" died February 15, 2007, the 42nd anniversary of Cole's death.
On November 5, 1956, The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC-TV. While commentators have often erroneously hailed Cole as the first African-American to host a network television show (an honor belonging to Hazel Scott in 1950), the Cole program was the first of its kind hosted by a star of Nat Cole's magnitude. Initially begun as a 15 minute show on Monday night, the show was expanded to a half hour in July 1957. Despite the efforts of NBC, as well as many of Cole's industry colleagues, (most of whom, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Harry Belafonte, worked for industry scale in order to help the show save money), The Nat King Cole Show was ultimately done in by a lack of 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 (NBC, as well as Cole himself, had been operating at an extreme financial loss). Commenting on the lack of sponsorship his show received, Cole quipped shortly after its demise, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."
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