Nat "King" Cole (March 17th 1919–February 15th 1965) was a popular America… Read Full Bio ↴Nat "King" Cole (March 17th 1919–February 15th 1965) was a popular American singer and jazz musician.
As a piano player, he formed a jazz trio in 1938 that played Los Angeles nightclubs, one of the first jazz trios featuring guitar and piano. Prior to this he had played music since he was a child and had worked with bands since he was sixteen. He was raised in Chicago and exposed to the abundant jazz scene there. He was heavily influenced by pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines.
Later he became more popularly known as a singer and crooner and his work became more orchestrated.
His first mainstream vocal hit was in 1944 with Straighten Up and Fly Right, based on a black folk tale that his father had used as a theme for a sermon. Although hardly a rocker, the song's success proved that an audience for folk-based material existed. It is considered a predecessor to 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 with such hits as The Christmas Song (1946), Nature Boy (1948), Mona Lisa (1950), 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 musical roots; as late as 1956, for instance, he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight. In 1991, Mosaic Records released the Complete Nat King Cole Trio Recordings on Capitol, which contained 349 songs on twenty-seven LPs or eighteen CDs.
Throughout the 1950s Cole continued to rack up hit after hit, including Smile, Pretend, A Blossom Fell, and If I May. Most of his pop hits were collaborations with famed arranger/conductor Nelson Riddle. It was with Riddle that Cole released his first ten-inch long-play album in 1953 entitled Sings for Two in Love. Several more albums followed, including the Gordon Jenkins arranged Love Is the Thing, which reached number one on the album charts in April 1957.
Inspired by a trip to Havana, Cuba in 1958, Nat went back there that same year and recorded Cole Espanol, an album sung entirely in Spanish and Portuguese. The album was a hit not only in the U.S., but in Latin America as well. The album was so popular, that two others followed: A mis amigos in 1959, and More Cole Espanol in 1962.
Musical tastes were changing in the late 1950s, and despite a successful stab at rock n' roll with Send for Me, Cole's ballad singing had grown old to younger listeners. Like contemporaries Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, Nat 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. The two parted ways with one final hit album Wild Is Love, based on lyrics by Ray Rasch and Dotty Wayne. Nat would later re-tool the concept album into an off-Broadway production called I'm With You.
As the 1960s progressed, Nat once again found success on the American singles chart, starting with the country/pop flavored hit Ramblin' Rose in August of 1962. Three more hit singles followed: Dear Lonely Hearts, Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer, and That Sunday, That Summer. Nat's final album was entitled L.O.V.E, and was recorded in late 1964. It was released just prior to his death and reached number four on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965. A "Best Of" album went gold in 1968. His 1957 song When I Fall in Love was a chart topping hit for the U.K. in 1987.
Cole was the first African-American to have his own radio program. He repeated that success in the late-1950s with the first truly national television show starring an African-American. In both cases, the programs were ultimately canceled because sponsors shied away from a black artist. Cole fought racism all his life, refusing to perform in segregated venues. In 1956, he was attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama by members of the White Citizens' Council who apparently were attempting to kidnap him. Despite injuries, Cole completed the show but vowed never to perform in the South again.
On 23rd August 1956, Cole spoke at the Republican National Convention in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California. He was also present at the Democratic National Convention in 1960, to throw his support behind President John F. Kennedy. Cole was also among the dozens of entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Kennedy Inaugural gala in 1961. Nat King Cole frequently consulted with President Kennedy (and later President Johnson) on the issue of civil rights. Yet he was dogged by critics, who felt he shied away from controversy when it came to the civil rights issue. Among the most notable was Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was upset that Cole didn't take stronger action after the 1956 on-stage attack.
In 1948, Cole purchased a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. The property owners association told Cole they didn't want any undesirables moving in, to which Cole retorted "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."
He and his second wife, Maria Ellington, were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. They had five children, including twin girls. Daughter Carol Cole, and son Kelly Cole were adopted. Kelly Cole died in 1995. Nat's daughter, Natalie Cole, and his younger brother, Freddie Cole are also singers.
Natalie and her father had an unexpected hit in the summer of 1991. The younger Cole mixed a 1961 recording of her father's rendition of Unforgettable with her own voice, creating an electronic duet. Both the song and the album of the same name won several Grammy awards the following year.
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.
Nat King Cole was a heavy smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes, believing that smoking up to three packs a day gave his voice the rich sound it had (Cole would smoke several cigarettes in rapid succession before a recording for this very purpose). Cole died of lung cancer at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, on 15th February 1965. His funeral was held at St. Victor's Catholic Church in West Hollywood, and he was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Cat Ballou, his final film, was released several months later.
As a piano player, he formed a jazz trio in 1938 that played Los Angeles nightclubs, one of the first jazz trios featuring guitar and piano. Prior to this he had played music since he was a child and had worked with bands since he was sixteen. He was raised in Chicago and exposed to the abundant jazz scene there. He was heavily influenced by pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines.
Later he became more popularly known as a singer and crooner and his work became more orchestrated.
His first mainstream vocal hit was in 1944 with Straighten Up and Fly Right, based on a black folk tale that his father had used as a theme for a sermon. Although hardly a rocker, the song's success proved that an audience for folk-based material existed. It is considered a predecessor to 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 with such hits as The Christmas Song (1946), Nature Boy (1948), Mona Lisa (1950), 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 musical roots; as late as 1956, for instance, he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight. In 1991, Mosaic Records released the Complete Nat King Cole Trio Recordings on Capitol, which contained 349 songs on twenty-seven LPs or eighteen CDs.
Throughout the 1950s Cole continued to rack up hit after hit, including Smile, Pretend, A Blossom Fell, and If I May. Most of his pop hits were collaborations with famed arranger/conductor Nelson Riddle. It was with Riddle that Cole released his first ten-inch long-play album in 1953 entitled Sings for Two in Love. Several more albums followed, including the Gordon Jenkins arranged Love Is the Thing, which reached number one on the album charts in April 1957.
Inspired by a trip to Havana, Cuba in 1958, Nat went back there that same year and recorded Cole Espanol, an album sung entirely in Spanish and Portuguese. The album was a hit not only in the U.S., but in Latin America as well. The album was so popular, that two others followed: A mis amigos in 1959, and More Cole Espanol in 1962.
Musical tastes were changing in the late 1950s, and despite a successful stab at rock n' roll with Send for Me, Cole's ballad singing had grown old to younger listeners. Like contemporaries Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, Nat 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. The two parted ways with one final hit album Wild Is Love, based on lyrics by Ray Rasch and Dotty Wayne. Nat would later re-tool the concept album into an off-Broadway production called I'm With You.
As the 1960s progressed, Nat once again found success on the American singles chart, starting with the country/pop flavored hit Ramblin' Rose in August of 1962. Three more hit singles followed: Dear Lonely Hearts, Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer, and That Sunday, That Summer. Nat's final album was entitled L.O.V.E, and was recorded in late 1964. It was released just prior to his death and reached number four on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965. A "Best Of" album went gold in 1968. His 1957 song When I Fall in Love was a chart topping hit for the U.K. in 1987.
Cole was the first African-American to have his own radio program. He repeated that success in the late-1950s with the first truly national television show starring an African-American. In both cases, the programs were ultimately canceled because sponsors shied away from a black artist. Cole fought racism all his life, refusing to perform in segregated venues. In 1956, he was attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama by members of the White Citizens' Council who apparently were attempting to kidnap him. Despite injuries, Cole completed the show but vowed never to perform in the South again.
On 23rd August 1956, Cole spoke at the Republican National Convention in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California. He was also present at the Democratic National Convention in 1960, to throw his support behind President John F. Kennedy. Cole was also among the dozens of entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Kennedy Inaugural gala in 1961. Nat King Cole frequently consulted with President Kennedy (and later President Johnson) on the issue of civil rights. Yet he was dogged by critics, who felt he shied away from controversy when it came to the civil rights issue. Among the most notable was Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was upset that Cole didn't take stronger action after the 1956 on-stage attack.
In 1948, Cole purchased a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. The property owners association told Cole they didn't want any undesirables moving in, to which Cole retorted "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."
He and his second wife, Maria Ellington, were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. They had five children, including twin girls. Daughter Carol Cole, and son Kelly Cole were adopted. Kelly Cole died in 1995. Nat's daughter, Natalie Cole, and his younger brother, Freddie Cole are also singers.
Natalie and her father had an unexpected hit in the summer of 1991. The younger Cole mixed a 1961 recording of her father's rendition of Unforgettable with her own voice, creating an electronic duet. Both the song and the album of the same name won several Grammy awards the following year.
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.
Nat King Cole was a heavy smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes, believing that smoking up to three packs a day gave his voice the rich sound it had (Cole would smoke several cigarettes in rapid succession before a recording for this very purpose). Cole died of lung cancer at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, on 15th February 1965. His funeral was held at St. Victor's Catholic Church in West Hollywood, and he was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Cat Ballou, his final film, was released several months later.
for Sentimental Reasons
Nat King Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I love you for sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I'll give you my heart
I love you, and you alone were meant for me
Please, give your loving heart to me
And say we'll never part
I think of you every morning
Dream of you every night
Darling, I'm never lonely
Whenever you are in sight
I love you for sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
I love you for sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
I hope you do believe me
I'll give you my heart
I love you, and you alone were meant for me
Please, give your loving heart to me
And say we'll never part
Dream of you every night
Darling, I'm never lonely
Whenever you are in sight
I love you for sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
I love you for sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
The lyrics of Nat King Cole's "For Sentimental Reasons" express a deep love for someone who is meant to be with the singer alone. The singer hopes that the object of their affection believes them, and offers their heart as proof of the depth of their feelings. The words are full of longing and devotion, as the singer daydreams of their love each morning and night, and feels never lonely when the beloved is in sight. The phrase "for sentimental reasons" implies that this love is based on something beyond logic or practicality, but rather rooted in a sentimental tradition or emotion.
Overall, the song conjures a sense of aching desire for a love that is special and unique, with a poetic but straightforward style. The repetition of the opening lines in the last stanza of the song gives the impression that the love the singer feels is unchanging and eternal.
Line by Line Meaning
I love you for sentimental reasons
I have a strong emotional attachment to you and my love is not necessarily based on practical reasons or logic
I hope you do believe me
I genuinely mean what I say and my love for you is sincere
I'll give you my heart
I will give you all of my love and devotion
I love you, and you alone were meant for me
I believe that you are my true love and there is nobody else in the world for me
Please, give your loving heart to me
I hope that you will love me back and give me your heart in return
And say we'll never part
I want us to be together forever and for our love to never end
I think of you every morning
You are always on my mind, even in the early hours of the day
Dream of you every night
You are in my thoughts as I go to sleep and I even dream of you
Darling, I'm never lonely
Being with you fills me with happiness and I never feel alone when you're around
Whenever you are in sight
Just seeing you makes my heart skip a beat and I am filled with joy
I've given you my heart
I have fully committed to loving you and I hope that you cherish my love
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: William Best, Deek Watson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@juliafransiscatan
I love you
For sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I'll give you my heart
I love you
And you alone were meant for me
Please give your loving heart to me
And say we'll never part
I think of you every morning
Dream of you every night
Darling, I'm never lonely
Whenever you are in sight
I love you
For sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
I love you
For sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
@nica2421
Qqqqq11❤wawq¹4 Soup (healthy choice)
Furits bananas and greaps
Crackers( ritz)
Bleach
Joy
Tide
2 Case of water
Egg
Hotdog
Rasion bread
Bread
Ketchup
Juice
Bag of potatoes
Forzen corn
Limes
4Tuna
Milk
Cornflakes
2 Cornbeef
Vitamin C
Pack of 1 gallon zi😂a wq29••••22:²11
@soundwave6218
Nat King Cole🥀
Goodmorning ❤ 🖤 💚 Philadelphia..Smooth Sounds for a Brand-new Day..This year was long but full of Blessings and Lessons..I've been around some of thee most Depressing Fucking people and its sad how they may not have what they want but everything they need and instead of appreciating all that they do have they chose to keep Bullshit going, fight, cause confusion and division among the
people like their problems were suppose to be your Problems etc..But then there were that selected few who kept a Smile gave it up for God and laughed daily through their pain and still showed
L💚VE this song is dedicated to you
I LOVE YOU for everyday the Lord's Strength shined through you..
Happy New Year's 🥳
God Bless you All...💫
@KrepsyK
I sing this to my daughter and she sings it back to me. It's the sweetest thing in the world.
@กฤตยาอุทัยวรรณ์
What a magic moment ❤😊
@patrick815
There's Magic in this song
@galinacrosby9952
Yes, there sure is!!! 🥰😍🤩
@juliafransiscatan
I love you
For sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I'll give you my heart
I love you
And you alone were meant for me
Please give your loving heart to me
And say we'll never part
I think of you every morning
Dream of you every night
Darling, I'm never lonely
Whenever you are in sight
I love you
For sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
I love you
For sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
@deanjones-y1x
I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Cole in Syracuse 1962 i think at a place called Three Rivers Inn What a thrill He was just the Best I will never forget his wonderful voice and Manner A true Gentleman thank You and GOD BLESS R.I.P Mr. COLE
@hannibalbarca9888
What a classic what a voice you can listen to this gentleman 100 000 times you will never get bored and always be impressed
@NoahNKC
Nat King Cole's voice is the definition of Warmth, Smoothness and Comfort.
@martinonapoletano5750
Meravigliosa
@deborahmataiasi46
Now THIS is music 🎶🤍