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Nat King Cole music biography continued...

on March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama, he was raised in Chicago, where he made his recording debut in 1936 with Eddie Cole's Solid Swingers, a sextet led by his brother. He toured with a 'Shuffle Along' revue in 1937, then settled in Los Angeles where he played solo piano for a year. In 1939 he began recording for Decca with his original King Cole Trio, whose piano-bass-guitar instrumentation was widely copied by combos in the 1940s and 1950s. 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, a preacher, had used as a theme for a sermon. Starting with 'The Christmas Song' (1946), he supplemented his trio with a studio orchestra and gradually reduced the prominence of his piano playing, which had been highly influential among jazz musicians. Throughout the early to mid 50s Cole released a series of hit records, cementing his status as not only a musical but a cultural icon. . Though the show was cancelled for lack of a sponsor, in 1956-7 Cole became the first African-American to host his own network television show.



The change in musical tastes during the late 1950s meant that Cole's ballad singing did not sell well with younger listeners. 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. Although he would continue to record hits into the early sixties, Cole increasingly turned to acting roles on television and in films. A heavy smoker, he died of lung cancer on February 15, 1965, while still at the height of his performing career. Said one biographer: "In this day and age we accept without question the astronomical salaries, media coverage and influence of black superstars such as Will Smith, Prince, Oprah Winfrey etc. But it was pioneers such as Nat King Cole who paved the way for the progress of the black performer." Indeed, all music lovers, not just African-Americans have been enriched by the contributions of Nat King Cole.