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.
Blame It On My Youth
Nat King Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Blame it on my youth
If only just for you I did exist
Blame it on my youth
I believed in everything
Like a child at three
You meant more than anything
If you were on my mind all night and day
Blame it on my youth
If I forgot to eat and sleep and pray
Blame it on my youth
If I cried a little bit
When first I learned the truth
Don't blame it on my heart
Blame it on my youth
If you were on my mind all night and day
Blame it on my youth
If I forgot to eat and sleep and pray
Blame it on my youth
If I cried a little bit
When first I learned the truth
Don't blame it on my heart
Blame it on my youth
The lyrics to "Blame It On My Youth" by Nat King Cole & His Trio describe a love that is pure and innocent, like that of a child. The singer, likely in his early years, is introspective and takes responsibility for his own emotions and actions. He acknowledges that if he was expecting love when he first kissed his lover or if he believed in everything like a child at three, it is because of his youth, rather than any fault on the part of his lover. The singer expresses that his lover meant the world to him, and if he ever forgot to take care of himself, it was because he was so consumed by thoughts of his beloved.
The singer continues to take ownership of his emotions and actions throughout the rest of the song. He acknowledges that he cried a little bit when first learning the truth, but again places the blame on his youth rather than on his heart. The song is a beautiful reflection on the naivety and innocence of youth and how it can shape our thoughts and behaviors in romance and life.
Line by Line Meaning
If I expected love when first we kissed
I was foolish to expect love from a simple kiss
Blame it on my youth
My lack of experience and naïveté caused me to believe in fairy tale love stories
If only just for you I did exist
I was consumed with the idea of being important and special to you
I believed in everything
I was gullible and believed in anything that I was told
Like a child at three
My innocence made me behave like a young and impressionable child
You meant more than anything
You were my entire world and everything to me
All the world to me
You were the most important thing in my life, and I would do anything for you
If you were on my mind all night and day
You occupied my thoughts constantly, day and night
If I forgot to eat and sleep and pray
I was so focused on you that I neglected important aspects of my life
If I cried a little bit
I was heartbroken and upset
When first I learned the truth
When I found out the cold, hard truth about our relationship
Don't blame it on my heart
I was not to blame for my emotions
Blame it on my youth
It was my inexperience and immaturity that led me to feel the way I did
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Edward Heyman, Oscar Levant
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@renzo6490
If I expected love when first we kissed
Blame it on my youth
If only just for you I did exist
Blame it on my youth
I believed in everything
Like a child at three
You meant more than everything
All the world to me
If you were on my mind all night and day
Blame it on my youth
If I forgot to eat and sleep and pray
Blame it on my youth
If I cried a little bit
When first I learned the truth
Don't blame it on my heart
Blame it on my youth
If you were on my mind all night and day
Blame it on my youth
If I forgot to eat and sleep and pray
Blame it on my youth
If I cried a little bit
When first I learned the truth
Don't blame it on my heart
Blame it on my youth
@ikidearitashi1030
作曲；O.Levant
作詞；E.Heyman
If I expected love when first we kissed,
Blame it on my youth.
If only just for you I did exist,
Blame it on my youth.
I believed in everything,
Like a child of three.
You meant more than anything,
All the world to me.
If you were on my mind both night and day,
Blame it on my youth.
If I forgot to eat and sleep and pray,
Blame it on my youth.
And if I cried a little bit when first I learned the truth,
Don't blame it on my heart,
Blame it on my youth.
@albertohoraciosulpizio8171
Inolvidable Nat. Un músico de un talento increíble...siempre en mi corazón.
@JStaceyhib
I've been a 'jazz', 'swing' lover since the age of 16 ( and I'm now 81) and can you believe that I have never come across this song until a couple of months ago and now I just cannot get it out of my head - really - it is there when I wake up and when I go to sleep, and I've listened to every rendering of it that I can find. Musically it just blows my mind. They are all so good but I suppose Keith Jarret's rendering must be the one that totally absorbs me the most.
@davidariesandjaya2063
Just try joey alexander version blame it on my youth
@davidesangiorgi6933
I'm totally in the Mehldau's version on "Art Of Trio Vol. 1" is somethin out of this world! Thanks to you Brad
@jonahw.3435
I know this is kinda late, but if you haven't you absolutely MUST hear Jamie Cullums rendition of this song!!! Coming from a now 19 year old😉
@RanBlakePiano
John Stacey-Hibbert year Chris connor
@jimthompson606
I am hearing it for the first time and already bonding with it. Another fine aspect of Oscar Levant.
@mauricioduron3193
Few can render the element of melody in any song as well as Mr. Cole does here. Sinatra does convey to us the sense of loss and heartbreak.
@stj971
My 2 favs
@JaniceWrightLove
Nat had a skill with adding sex appeal to the songs.