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.
Ain't Misbehavin'
Nat King Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All by myself
No one to walk with
But I'm happy on the shelf
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm savin' my love for you
I know for certain
I'm through with flirtin'
It's just you I'm thinkin' of
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm savin' my love for you
Like Jack Horner
In the corner
Don't go nowhere
What do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin' for
Believe me
I don't stay out late
Don't care to go
I'm home about eight
Just me and my radio
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm savin' my love for you
Like Jack Horner
In the corner
Don't go nowhere
What do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin' for
Believe me
I don't stay out late
Don't care to go
I'm home about eight
Just me and my radio
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm savin' my love for you
The lyrics of Nat King Cole's song, "Ain't Misbehavin'," capture a moment of contentment in one's own solitude, but with an unwavering fidelity to a loved one. The singer begins by lamenting his loneliness, "No one to talk with, all by myself, no one to walk with, but I'm happy on the shelf." However, his joy stems from the fact that he is steadfast in his love for a particular person, and he is "savin' [his] love for you." The singer makes it clear that he is not just abstaining from misbehaving but is instead saving his love for this person alone.
The song's next few lines illustrate that the singer is committed to his significant other, and he is not interested in any other flirtations. As he sings, "I know for certain the one I love, I'm through with flirtin', it's just you I'm thinkin' of." By alluding to the nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner," the singer further emphasizes that he is perfectly happy waiting in the corner for his beloved, noting that he does not "care to go" out and socialize.
The final lines of the song reiterate that through his self-imposed isolation, he is "savin' [his] love" for his chosen significant other, and that the "radios" and company of friends hold no allure for him. Thus, Cole's "Ain't Misbehavin'" speaks to the universal human experience of solitude, but stresses the persistence of love even within that isolation.
Line by Line Meaning
No one to talk with
I don't have anyone to talk to
All by myself
I am alone
No one to walk with
I don't have anyone to walk with
But I'm happy on the shelf
I am content being by myself
Ain't misbehavin'
I am not misbehaving
I'm savin' my love for you
I am holding onto my love for you
I know for certain
I am completely sure
The one I love
The person I love
I'm through with flirtin'
I am done with flirting
It's just you I'm thinkin' of
I only think of you
Like Jack Horner
Similar to Jack Horner
In the corner
Sitting in a corner
Don't go nowhere
I don't go anywhere
What do I care?
It doesn't matter to me
Your kisses are worth waitin' for
Waiting for your kisses is worth it
Believe me
Trust me
I don't stay out late
I don't stay out late
Don't care to go
I don't care to go out
I'm home about eight
I am usually home around eight
Just me and my radio
Only me and my radio
Ain't misbehavin'
I am not misbehaving
I'm savin' my love for you
I am holding onto my love for you
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Andy Razaf, Fats Waller, Harry Brooks
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@micasux717
Just bought a record player and vinyl for this song. Can't wait to play it on there.
@dancasey1370
I sold my vinyl albums last year and I've regretted it ever since. I had a lot of albums by Nat. Thanks for listening.
@raulitobegaso4638
1964, first time I ever listened and since then I loved this album...and with his other song.😀
@dancasey1370
Great album, great song.
@SaWilliam
chefs kiss Exquisite man and voice
@dancasey1370
The album, Love Is The Thing is one of my favorites from the past. Thanks for listening and commenting Sabrina.
@pememepee
One of my favoritesx
@dancasey1370
Sam was great and sadly missed. Thanks for listening.
@maxwaller2055
¡this posting [the collage] a wonderful version of this song!; today [3/11/2021] is the tenth anniversary of the preventable disaster on Friday, 11 March 2011 at the Fukushima, Japan's atomic nuclear reactor plants that continue to contaminate the NorthWestern Pacific Ocean to this date <-> 9:15 am Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, 11 March 2021
@dancasey1370
This song is from one of my favorite albums, Love Is The Thing. Nat does a great job on it. Thank you for the information Max. Keep listening.