Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. His career as a jazz and pop singer began in the late 1930s and lasted nearly three decades. During this time, he recorded over 100 songs that became popular on music charts.
Cole started his career as a jazz pianist in the late 1930s. He formed a group called the King Cole Trio, which became the most successful and the only Black group on Capitol Records in the 1940s. His trio influenced how small jazz groups were organized. In 1950, Cole became a solo singer, known as Nat King Cole. Although he achieved great success, he faced racial discrimination throughout his career. He was not a major public speaker for the civil rights movement but supported it by joining his local NAACP branch and participating in the 1963 March on Washington. He often performed for civil rights groups. From 1956 to 1957, he hosted a television show called The Nat King Cole Show, which was the first nationally broadcast show hosted by a Black American.
Some of Cole’s most famous songs include "Unforgettable," "Smile," "A Blossom Fell," "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 (also called The Christmas Song), was the best-selling Christmas album of the 1960s. In 2019, Rolling Stone listed it as one of the 40 essential Christmas albums. In 2022, his recording of "The Christmas Song" reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time 62 years after it was first released. The Library of Congress preserved this recording in the United States National Recording Registry.
Cole received many honors, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1960) and a Special Achievement Golden Globe Award. After his death, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990), the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award (1992), and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame (1997), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2000), and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (2020). NPR named him one of the 50 Great Voices. Cole was the father of singer Natalie Cole (1950–2015), who performed her father’s songs on the 1991 album Unforgettable… with Love.
Early life
Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1919. He had three brothers: Eddie (1910–1970), Ike (1927–2001), and Freddy (1931–2020), and a half-sister named Joyce. Each of the Coles brothers worked in music. When Cole was four years old, his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward, became a Baptist minister. Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina (Adams) Coles, who was the church organist. His first performance was "Yes! We Have No Bananas" when he was four years old. Cole began piano lessons at the age of 12, studying jazz, gospel, and classical music "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff." As a young man, Cole joined the news delivery boys' "Bud Billiken Club" band for The Chicago Defender.
Cole and his family moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, where he attended Wendell Phillips Academy High School, the same school Sam Cooke attended a few years later. Cole participated in Walter Dyett's music program at DuSable High School. He would leave home secretly to visit clubs, sitting outside to listen to Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Jimmie Noone.
Career
When he was 15 years old, Cole left high school to focus on a music career. After his brother Eddie, who played the bass, returned from touring with Noble Sissle, they formed a group of six musicians and recorded two songs for Decca in 1936 as Eddie Cole's Swingsters. They performed in a revival of the musical Shuffle Along. Nat Cole joined the musical on tour. In 1937, he married Nadine Robinson, who was part of the cast. After the show ended in Los Angeles, Cole and Nadine moved there while he searched for work.
One day in 1938, while relaxing in his hotel room, Bing Crosby heard the Nat Cole Trio for the first time from Jim Otto's Steak House. He then took Johnny Mercer to listen to them. Crosby invited the trio to appear on his radio program, Kraft Music Hall. Later, Mercer signed them to Capitol Records when he started the label. In 1944, the song “Straighten Up and Fly Right” reached the top of the music charts. Because Crosby often invited them to his show, the trio even replaced him on stage during the summer of 1946.
Cole led a big band and played piano in nightclubs. When a club owner asked him to form a band, Cole hired bassist Wesley Prince and guitarist Oscar Moore. They named themselves the King Cole Swingsters, inspired by a nursery rhyme about “Old King Cole.” Later, they changed their name to the King Cole Trio before making radio recordings and working with smaller record labels.
Cole recorded “Sweet Lorraine” in 1940, which became his first hit. According to a story, his career as a singer began when a drunk customer asked him to sing the song. Cole did not know the song, so he sang “Sweet Lorraine” instead. As people heard his singing, they asked for more songs, and Cole agreed to perform them.
In 1941, the trio recorded “That Ain’t Right” for Decca, followed by “All for You” for Excelsior in 1942. They also recorded “I’m Lost,” a song written by Otis René, the owner of Excelsior.
— Nat King Cole, Voice of America interview, c. 1956.
Cole was the original pianist for Jazz at the Philharmonic and performed at the first recorded concert in 1944. He was listed on Mercury Records as “Shorty Nadine,” a name based on his wife’s name, because he had an exclusive contract with Capitol Records. For the same reason, he used other names, such as Eddie Laguna, Sam Schmaltz, Nature Boy, and A Guy, but only as an instrumentalist, never as a vocalist. He recorded with musicians like Illinois Jacquet and Lester Young.
In 1946, the trio hosted King Cole Trio Time, a 15-minute radio program. This was the first radio show hosted by a Black musician. From 1946 to 1948, the trio recorded radio transcriptions for Capitol Records. They performed on shows like Swing Soiree, Old Gold, The Chesterfield Supper Club, Kraft Music Hall, and The Orson Welles Almanac.
Cole began recording and performing pop songs, often with a string orchestra. His fame grew with hits like “All for You” (1943), “The Christmas Song” (1947), “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66,” “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons” (1946), “There! I’ve Said It Again” (1947), and “Nature Boy” (1948).
Cole continued his success in the 1950s, recording songs like “Frosty the Snowman” (No. 8 in 1950), “Mona Lisa” (No. 1 in 1950), “Orange Colored Sky” (1950), and “Too Young” (No. 1 in 1951).
In 1951, the song “Unforgettable” (No. 9) was revived in 1991 by Cole’s daughter, Natalie, using modern recording technology to create a duet. The duet reached the top of the pop charts, nearly 40 years after its original release.
On June 7, 1953, Cole performed at the ninth Cavalcade of Jazz concert at Wrigley Field in Chicago, produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. Other performers that day included Roy Brown and His Orchestra, Shorty Rogers, Earl Bostic, Don Tosti and His Mexican Jazzmen, and Louis Armstrong and His All Stars with Velma Middleton.
On November 5, 1956, The Nat 'King' Cole Show debuted on NBC. It was one of the first variety programs hosted by an African American. The 15-minute show was expanded to 30 minutes in July 1957. Rheingold Beer sponsored the show regionally, but no national sponsor was found. Despite efforts by NBC and other celebrities, the show struggled financially and ended on December 17, 1957. Cole later said, “Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark,” about the lack of sponsorship.
Throughout the 1950s, Cole recorded popular songs like “Smile,” “Pretend,” “A Blossom Fell,” and “If I May.” His work with composers like Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, and Ralph Carmichael helped him create successful albums. Riddle arranged albums such as Nat King Cole Sings for Two in Love (1953), Cole’s first 10-inch LP. In 1955, “Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup” reached No. 7 on the Billboard chart. Love Is the Thing reached No. 1 in April 1957 and remained his only No. 1 album.
As music tastes changed in the 1950s, Cole’s ballads appealed less to young listeners. However, he tried rock and roll with “Send for Me,” which reached No. 6 on the pop chart in 1957. Like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett, Cole found that younger artists dominated the pop charts.
In 1958, Cole traveled to Havana, Cuba, to record Cole Español, an album in Spanish. It was so popular that he released two more Spanish-language albums: A Mis Amigos (1959) and More Cole Español (1962).
In 1959, Cole won a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a “Top 40” Artist for “Midnight Flyer.”
Cole appeared in short films, sitcoms, and television shows, as well as movies like The Blue Gardenia (1953), China Gate (1957), and
Personal life
When Cole started his singing career, he joined Freemasonry. Cole was raised in January 1944 in the Thomas Waller Lodge No. 49 in California. The lodge was named after fellow Prince Hall mason and jazz musician Fats Waller. Cole joined the Scottish Rite Freemasonry and became a 32nd Degree Mason.
Cole was "an avid baseball fan," especially of Hank Aaron. In 1968, Nelson Riddle described an earlier event where music studio engineers found Cole listening to a game on a transistor radio.
Cole met his first wife, Nadine Robinson, during a tour for the all-black Broadway musical Shuffle Along. Cole was 18 when they married in 1937. Their marriage led him to move to Los Angeles and form the Nat King Cole trio. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1948.
On March 28, 1948 (Easter Sunday), six days after his divorce became final, Cole married singer Maria Hawkins. The Coles were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. They had five children: Natalie (1950–2015), who was a singer before dying of heart failure at age 65; an adopted daughter, Carole (1944–2009), who died of lung cancer at age 64; an adopted son, Nat Kelly Cole (1959–1995), who died of AIDS at age 36; and twin daughters, Casey and Timolin, born September 26, 1961. Maria supported Cole during his final illness and stayed with him until his death. In an interview, she emphasized his musical legacy and the class he showed despite his flaws.
In August 1948, Cole bought a house from Col. Harry Gantz, the ex-husband of silent film actress Lois Weber, in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Soon after, a burning cross was placed on the Coles' front lawn. The neighborhood group told Cole they didn't want "undesirables" living there. Cole replied, "Neither do I. If I see anyone undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain." Cole's dog died after eating poisoned meat, likely linked to his moving to the neighborhood.
In 1956, Cole was hired to perform in Cuba. He wanted to stay at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana but was refused because the hotel had a segregation policy. Cole honored his contract, and his concert at the Tropicana Club was a success. The next year, Cole returned to Cuba for another concert, singing many songs in Spanish.
On April 10, 1956, Cole was attacked during a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, while singing "Little Girl" with the Ted Heath Band. After photos of Cole with white female fans were shared with headlines like "Cole and His White Women," three men from the North Alabama Citizens Council tried to kidnap him.
The three men ran toward Cole on the stage. Local police stopped them, but not before Cole fell from his piano bench and injured his back. He did not finish the concert. Police later found rifles, a blackjack, and brass knuckles in a car outside the venue.
Six men were charged with trying to murder Cole, though charges against four were later reduced. The original plan to attack Cole involved 150 men from Birmingham and nearby towns. On April 18, 1956, Jesse Mabry, E.L. Vinson, Mike Fox, and Orliss Clevenger, members of the Alabama Citizens' Councils, were convicted of conspiring to attack Cole and disturbing the peace in a trial led by Judge Ralph E. Parker. Two days later, Parker sentenced each man to six months in jail and a $100 fine (about $1,200 in 2025). He added a $25 fine for Clevenger for carrying brass knuckles. In December 1956, Kenneth Adams and Willis Richard Vinson pleaded guilty to assault. Vinson was fined $100 and ordered to pay court costs. Adams was fined $50 and ordered to pay court costs.
Cole said, "I can't understand it. I haven't taken part in any protests or joined groups fighting segregation. Why should they attack me?" Cole wanted to forget the incident and continued to perform for segregated audiences in the South, saying he could not change the situation overnight. He gave money to the Montgomery bus boycott and previously sued Northern hotels that hired him but refused to serve him.
Thurgood Marshall, then chief legal counsel of the NAACP, said, "All Cole needs to complete his role as an Uncle Tom is a banjo." Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive secretary, sent Cole a telegram.
The Chicago Defender said Cole's performances for all-white audiences insulted his race. The New York Amsterdam News reported that "thousands of Harlem blacks who worshiped Cole turned their backs on him" after he continued to perform for segregated audiences. A commentator in The American Negro wrote that playing "Uncle Nat's" music would support his "traitor" ideas.
Deeply hurt by criticism in the black press, Cole was affected. He emphasized his opposition to racial segregation "in any form" and agreed to join other entertainers in boycotting segregated venues. He also paid $500 to become a lifetime member of the Detroit branch of the NAACP. Until his death in 1965, Cole was an active participant in the civil rights movement and played a key role in planning the March on Washington in 1963.
Cole performed in 1956 for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's televised birthday celebration. At the 1956 Republican National Convention, he sang "That's All There Is to That" and was greeted with applause.
Cole also supported Senator John F. Kennedy at the 1960 Democratic National Convention. He was among the entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Kennedy Inaugural gala in 1961. Cole advised Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, on civil rights.
Illness and death
In September 1964, Nat King Cole began losing weight and had back pain. He collapsed in pain after performing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. In December, Cole was working in San Francisco when friends finally convinced him to see a doctor. A chest X-ray showed a malignant tumor in an advanced stage on Cole's left lung. Cole, who smoked heavily, had lung cancer and was expected to live only a few months. Despite his doctors' advice, Cole continued working and made his final recordings between December 1 and 3 in San Francisco, with an orchestra led by Ralph Carmichael. The music was released on the album L-O-V-E shortly before Cole died. His daughter later said he did this to help support his family.
Cole entered Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica on December 7, 1964, and began cobalt therapy on December 10. Frank Sinatra performed in Cole's place at the grand opening of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on December 12. Cole's condition worsened over time, but he was released from the hospital during the New Year's period. At home, Cole saw the many cards and letters people had sent after his illness was made public. He returned to the hospital in early January 1965. He also sent $5,000 (equivalent to $52,000 in 2025) to Gunilla Hutton, an actress and singer with whom he had been in a romantic relationship since early 1964.
Later, Hutton called Cole's wife, Maria, and asked her to divorce Cole. Maria confronted Cole, and he ended his relationship with Hutton. Cole's illness brought him closer to his wife, and he promised that if he recovered, he would appear on television to urge people to stop smoking. On January 25, Cole had his entire left lung removed. His father died of heart problems on February 1. Throughout Cole's illness, his publicists claimed he would soon recover and return to work, even though they knew he had a terminal illness. Billboard magazine reported, "Nat King Cole has successfully come through a serious operation, and the future looks bright for 'the master' to resume his career again." On Valentine's Day, Cole and his wife briefly left the hospital to drive by the sea. Cole died at the hospital early on the morning of Monday, February 15, 1965, at age 45.
Cole's funeral was held on February 18 at St. James' Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. About 400 people attended the service inside the church, and thousands gathered outside. Hundreds of people had visited the coffin the day before. Honorary pallbearers included Robert F. Kennedy, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, George Burns, Danny Thomas, Jimmy Durante, Alan Livingston, Frankie Laine, Steve Allen, and Pat Brown, the governor of California. The eulogy was delivered by Jack Benny, who said, "Nat Cole was a man who gave so much and still had so much to give. He gave it in song, in friendship to his fellow man, and devotion to his family. He was a star, a tremendous success as an entertainer, an institution. But he was an even greater success as a man, as a husband, as a father, as a friend." Cole's remains were buried in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Posthumous releases
Nat King Cole's final album, L-O-V-E, was recorded in early December 1964, just days before he began cancer treatment in the hospital. The album was released shortly before his death. It reached number 4 on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965. A Best Of album was certified as a gold record in 1968. His 1957 recording of "When I Fall in Love" reached number 4 on the UK charts in 1987. This release was a response to a version of the song by Rick Astley, who was competing for the Christmas number 1 spot.
In 1983, a person who works with old records at EMI Electrola Records, a part of EMI (Capitol's parent company until 2013) in Germany, found some unreleased recordings by Nat King Cole. These included a recording in Japanese and another in Spanish ("Tu Eres Tan Amable"). Capitol Records released these tracks later that year as an LP called Unreleased.
In 1991, Mosaic Records released The Complete Capitol Records Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio, a collection of 349 songs. This was available as an 18-CD or 27-LP set. In 2008, the collection was released digitally through services like iTunes and Amazon Music.
Also in 1991, Natalie Cole recorded a new vocal track that was combined with her father's 1961 stereo re-recording of his 1951 hit "Unforgettable" for a tribute album of the same name on Elektra Records. The song and album won seven Grammy awards in 1992, including Best Album and Best Song.
There have been many tribute albums honoring Nat King Cole, including one by his brother, Freddy. Randy Napoleon, Freddy Cole's guitarist and arranger for 13 years, has performed and recorded tributes to the Cole family.
In 2009, the year of Barack Obama's inauguration as America's first Black president, Capitol Records released an album called Voices of Change, Then and Now. This album includes the song "We Are Americans Too," which Capitol did not release in 1956, the year Nat King Cole wrote it.
Discography
His popular songs include "Straighten Up and Fly Right" (1944, Number 8), "The Christmas Song" (1946, Number ?; 1962, Number 65; 2018, Number 11), "Nature Boy" (1948, Number 1), "Mona Lisa" (1950, Number 1), "Frosty the Snowman" (1950, Number 9), "Too Young" (1951, Number 1), "Unforgettable" (1951, Number 12), "Somewhere Along the Way" (1952, Number 8), "Answer Me, My Love" (1954, Number 6), "A Blossom Fell" (1955, Number 2), "If I May" (1955, Number 8), "Send for Me" (1957, Number 6), "Looking Back" (1958, Number 5), "Ramblin' Rose" (1962, Number 2), "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer" (1963, Number 6), and "Unforgettable" (1991, with daughter Natalie).
Awards and honors
Cole was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1990, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1992, he was honored with the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2007. In 1994, a United States postage stamp featuring Cole's image was released. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2013, he was inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. NPR recognized him as one of the 50 Great Voices.
During his time at Capitol Records, Cole recorded over 150 singles that reached the Billboard Pop, R&B, and Country charts. No other Capitol artist has matched his success. His records sold 50 million copies throughout his career. His recording of "The Christmas Song" continues to be played during the holiday season and reached the Billboard Top 40 in December 2017. In 2020, Cole was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.