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.
Day in
Nat King Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The same old voodoo follows me about
The same old pounding in my heart
Whenever I think of you
And darling I think of you
Day in and day out
Day out, day in
When I awake I get up with a tingle
One possibility in view
That possibility of maybe seeing you
Come rain, come shine
I meet you and to me the day is fine
Then I kiss your lips, and the pounding becomes
The oceans roar, a thousand drums
Can't you see it's love, can there be any doubt
When there it is, day in, day out
Come rain, come shine
I meet you and to me the day is fine
Then I kiss your lips, and the pounding becomes
The oceans roar, a thousand drums
Can't you see it's love, can there be any doubt
When there it is, day in, day out
Then I kiss your lips, and the pounding becomes
The oceans roar, a thousand drums
Can't you see it's love, can there be any doubt
When there it is, day in, day out
The lyrics of Nat King Cole's "Day in, Day out" explore the theme of love and the persistence of its effects even in the face of time and distance. The singer describes how he is constantly haunted by thoughts of his beloved, represented by the "same old voodoo," that follows him wherever he goes. He confesses that the mere thought of her evokes an intense pounding in his heart that he cannot shake off. This feeling intensifies the moment he sees her, and he describes the sensation as the sound of an ocean's roar and a thousand drums.
The lyrics suggest that the singer's feelings for his beloved are unshakeable, and he simply cannot imagine a world without her. The song paints a picture of love that is robust, transformative, and everlasting. The contrast between day in and day out throughout the lyrics underscores the idea that no matter how time passes, the singer's love remains strong.
The final verse culminates in the revelation that the singer's love for his beloved is an all-encompassing force beyond doubt. The physical sensation of the pounding in his heart, invoked by the mere thought of her, attests to a level of emotional attachment that is undeniable.
Line by Line Meaning
Day in, day out
Every single day, the same routine and emotions follow
The same old voodoo follows me about
I can't seem to escape the spell of my love for you, it's always there
The same old pounding in my heart
My heart beats the same way every day, constantly longing for you
Whenever I think of you
My thoughts are consumed by you and the love I have for you
And darling I think of you
I can't help but to think of you, my love
Day out, day in
Again and again, my days start and end the same way
I needn't tell you how my days begin
You already know how my days start, with the hope of seeing you
When I awake I get up with a tingle
Every day I wake up with excitement, dreaming of seeing you
One possibility in view
My one and only hope is that I can see you today
That possibility of maybe seeing you
The only thing that keeps me going is the hope that I can see you
Come rain, come shine
No matter what happens in life, my love for you is constant
I meet you and to me the day is fine
Seeing you makes my day perfect and complete
Then I kiss your lips, and the pounding becomes
Your kiss makes my heart race even faster, beating like the sound of the ocean and drums
The oceans roar, a thousand drums
My heart beats so loud it sounds like the roar of the ocean and the beat of a thousand drums
Can't you see it's love, can there be any doubt
My love for you is undeniable, it's clear for anyone to see
When there it is, day in, day out
My love for you is constant, every single day, every single moment
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Johnny Mercer, Rube Bloom
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
john
on A Blossom Fell
i want the song" I'll never settle for less" lyrics,would somebody be so kind to give it to me?