Nat KingCOLEthe legendary black singer and pianist, was at the height of his career when he died on 15 February, 1965, aged just 45.He popularised many songs now regarded as classics of the ‘Great American Songbook’, including Unforgettable, Nature Boy, Mona Lisa and The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire).He also had a notable television career, becoming one of America’s most popular entertainers and paving the way for future black performers, and appeared in a number of films.Nathaniel Adams Coles was born on 17 March, 1919, in Montgomery, Alabama. His father was a butcher and Baptist deacon and was offered a position as minister in Chicago when Nathaniel was young.It was in Chicago that he started playing music, his mother teaching him the church organ. He learned gospel and jazz songs, and also European classical music. He would often sneak out of the house to visit the jazz clubs in Bronzeville, Chicago’s "Black Metropolis".With a piano style based on that of Earl "Fatha" Hines, Mr Cole formed his first group (with brother Eddie on bass) in the 1930s while still in his teens. He acquired the nickname "King" at this time, a play on the "merry old soul" Old King Cole of nursery rhyme fame.Relocating to Long Beach, California, he first appeared in a revue called Shuffle Along (where he met first wife, Nadine Robinson) then formed the Nat King Cole Trio with Oscar Moore on guitar and Wesley Prince on double bass. The drum-less arrangement was unorthodox at the time, but would later be adopted by other jazz musicians.Mr Cole didn’t begin singing until the late 1930s when a club regular vociferously demanded to hear Sweet Lorraine – the song would become his first hit in 1940.In 1943, following the replacement of Prince with Johnny Miller, the King Cole Trio signed with Capitol for whom Mr Cole would record all his life. The success of Nat King Cole would lead to Capitol’s LA offices being nicknamed "the house that Nat built".Throughout the 1950s, Mr Cole would alternate between jazz and pop songs. Though he only recorded other people’s songs, his smooth, subdued vocal style set him apart from most jazz singers and allowed him to cross genres easily.The Nat King Cole Show, which began broadcasting in November, 1956, was a landmark in television history, being the first show of its kind hosted by an African-American. It featured guest musicians and comedy skits. Its cancellation just over a year later was blamed in part on the difficulty in attracting sponsors to a black musician, though Frank Sinatra’s variety show also failed that year which points to a more general viewing trend.That’s not to say that Mr Cole didn’t suffer from racism – in 1956 he was attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama, by members of the White Citizens' Council in an apparent kidnap attempt. It was to be the last time he played in America’s Deep South.Mr Cole was a heavy smoker all his life and died of lung cancer in 1965. He was still immensely popular, despite changing musical tastes in the 1960s, and a posthumous Best Of album went gold in America. In 1991 Capitol released his complete recordings in a collection that amounted to nearly 350 songs.He married Maria Hawkins Ellington in 1948 (six days after divorcing Nadine Robinson). They had five children, including singers Freddy and Natalie. Natalie Cole recorded her own "duet" version of Unforgettable in 1991 to critical acclaim. He was estranged from his wife at the time of his death, living with his mistress, the actress Gunilla Hutton.Mr Cole is an inductee of both the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and was awarded a posthumous the Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1990.
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