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.
All By Myself
Nat King Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What'll I do?
I long for somebody who
Will sympathize with me
I'm growing so tired of living alone
I lie awake all night and cry
Nobody loves me
That's why
All by myself in the morning
All by myself in the night
I sit alone with a table and a chair
So unhappy there
Playing solitaire
All by myself I get lonely
Watching the clock on the shelf
I'd love to rest my weary head on somebody's shoulder
I hate to grow older
All by myself
In Nat King Cole's song "All By Myself," the singer expresses his loneliness and dissatisfaction with being alone. He longs for someone to sympathize with him and keep him company. He repeats the phrase "all by myself" to emphasize his isolation and sadness. The song's tone is melancholic with a hint of bitterness towards the world for not embracing him. He is tired of being alone, and it makes him cry when he thinks about how nobody loves him.
The lyrics also describe the singer's routine of passing time alone. He spends his mornings and nights alone. He sits alone with a table and a chair, playing solitaire, and stares at the clock on the shelf, highlighting his mundane routine that he wishes to change. He yearns to have someone in his life to share his joys and sorrows and rest his weary head on their shoulder. The song ends with the singer lamenting the fact that he is growing older alone.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm so unhappy
I am feeling miserable and sad
What'll I do?
I am clueless about how to overcome my feelings
I long for somebody who will sympathize with me
I wish to have someone who understands and shares my emotions
I'm growing so tired of living alone
I am feeling exhausted and weary of living in isolation
I lie awake all night and cry
I spend sleepless nights weeping about my life
Nobody loves me, that's why
I feel unloved because nobody cares for me
All by myself in the morning
I begin my day alone, without any company
All by myself in the night
I end my day alone, with no one to talk to
I sit alone with a table and a chair
I am sitting alone in a room surrounded by furniture
So unhappy there
I am feeling immensely unhappy being in such a lonely place
Playing solitaire
I am playing a card game for one person
All by myself I get lonely
I feel lonely when I am by myself
Watching the clock on the shelf
I pass the time looking at the clock on the shelf
I'd love to rest my weary head on somebody's shoulder
I wish to embrace and lay my head on someone's caring shoulder
I hate to grow older
I dislike growing older and still being alone
All by myself
I am all alone in my life and in my mind
Lyrics © IMAGEM U.S. LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: MEMPHIS SLIM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Ou você ama o mundo ou você segue a Deus.
Esse homem tinha uma voz linda, adocicada, cantor do mais alto gabarito e de timbre de voz superenvolvente! Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett são os maiores cantores que a grande música americana produziu, sem esquecer tantos outros que nem dá pra contar! Pena que essa música não volta mais, e que a música americana, assim como a brasileira, está arruinada atualmente!
su pretinha
SAUDADEEES AMO ESTA MUSICA DO EX NAT KING COLE FELINA VITORIOSA AMO ESSE TOM DE MUSICA LINDA ENCAIXOU DEU CERTO CEEERTIIINHO NÉ??? FELINASUE
Suely Da Silva
MEU LITLLE BLACK FOI EMBORA OUTRO PLANO LINDA VOZ O CANTOR TOP PADRAO EXCELENTE DE SUFERINHA
su pretinha
LIIINDA MUSICA UM ALIVIO PARA A MULHER K SABE OUVIR MUSICA DE QUALIDADE E BOM GOSTO
Lois Winters
Used to play this for my group therapy patients as they felt so alone with their neuroses. They soon forgot what made them so unhappy.
Tony Learner
The Great Nat King Cole ... what can we say ... thank you for the post.
su pretinha
SE FOOI COOL COLE QUE MARAVILHOSOOO SOM E ESTA VOOZ. EEEIIMHH NOOOSSAAHH SUE LIIIIINDO LINDO SE FOI CEDOO DEMAAIS KUNG COLE. NAT KING QUE PENIIINHA SUSSUE
Mikey Strafford
Now, i have a major dilemma here. I adore everything tha Nat Cole has done, but i'm also a major Bobby Darin fan. this version id well over produced and Bobby Dareins version is so pure.... hmm... it's BD that wins this song Mikey xx
Corrie121
Brilliant post. Thank you so much for sharing.
su pretinha
CABELINHO NA RÉGUA GRANDE NAT SE FOI SUE