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.
I'm Thru With Love
Nat King Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'll never fall again
Said "Adieu" to love
Don't ever call again
For I must have you
Or no one
And so I'm through with love
I'll keep my feelings there
I have stocked my heart
With icy frigid air
And I need to care for no one
And so I'm through with love
Why did you leave me
To think that you could cared?
You didn't need me
For you have your share
Of slaves around you
To hound you and swear
With deep emotion
Devotion to you
Goodbye to spring
And all it meant to me
It can never bring
The things that used to be
For I must have you or no one
And so I'm through with love
Why did you leave me
To think that you could cared?
You didn't need me
For you have your share
Of slaves around you
To hound you and swear
With deep emotion
Devotion to you
Goodbye to spring
And all it meant to me
It can never bring
The things that used to be
For I'm through with love, I'm through with love
But every time I fall in love
Something always happen to me
That's why I'm through with love
The lyrics to Nat King Cole's song "I'm Thru With Love" convey the singer's disillusionment with love, as a result of a particularly painful experience. The first two lines of the song, "I'm through with love, I'll never fall again," clearly express the singer's newfound resolve to avoid falling in love again because of the hurt that has been inflicted upon him. He says goodbye to love, and closes the door on the possibility of love ever returning to his life. The reason for his decision is that he "must have you or no one," indicating that the pain he has experienced is perhaps due to the fact that he has not been able to have the object of his affection.
The subsequent lines explain further why the singer is done with love. He has locked his heart and filled it with icy, frigid air, effectively making it impossible for him to be moved by anyone or anything. He concludes that he needs to care for no one, indicating that he has given up on the idea of truly connecting with someone on an emotional level. The last section of the song repeats the sentiment that the singer is done with love, even as he recognizes that this decision was the result of a painful experience.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm through with love
I am done pursuing romantic relationships
I'll never fall again
I will not allow myself to fall in love again
Said "Adieu" to love
I have bid farewell to love
Don't ever call again
I do not want to be contacted for romantic reasons
For I must have you
Or no one
I am unwilling to settle for anyone else but you
And so I'm through with love
Therefore, I have decided not to engage in romantic relationships anymore
I've locked my heart
I have closed my heart to love
I'll keep my feelings there
I will not allow myself to express any romantic feelings
I have stocked my heart
With icy frigid air
My heart is cold and indifferent towards love
And I need to care for no one
I do not need anyone to take care of or love me
Why did you leave me
To think that you could cared?
I am hurt that you made me believe you cared, only to leave me
You didn't need me
For you have your share
Of slaves around you
To hound you and swear
You did not need me because you had plenty of admirers willing to serve you
With deep emotion
Devotion to you
They were deeply emotional and devoted to you
Goodbye to spring
And all it meant to me
I bid farewell to the season of love and all the joy and happiness it once brought me
It can never bring
The things that used to be
I no longer believe that love can bring back the things I once had
But every time I fall in love
Something always happen to me
I have been hurt every time I fell in love before, causing me to be cautious now
That's why I'm through with love
This is the reason I have decided to stop pursuing romantic relationships
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Joseph A. Livingston, Matt Malneck, Gus Kahn
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
CrashingCrockery
Love the subtle background chatter and glasses clinking! Gives this much more of a "you-are-there" ambiance.
Ems B
I was just about to comment this!
Fede Rhodes Music
this is live in paris I had the CD absolutely love it he sang many standards,Theres only one Nat king Cole...this is a love song.Sends you to another world
eseraE34
Wishing I was born this time of the 1930's . I fell in love with this!
YardieSmoke1
Seeing as you’re either black or biracial. That time period wasn’t very kind to our skin color.. BUT the music was absolutely phenomenal.
Paul Bright
Did you consider that if you were born in the 30’s you’d probably be a distant memory by now?
Brett Neville
Oscar Moore's (I'm assuming it was he on this recording) guitar solo is beautiful. I love the lines, "Goodbye to Spring, and all it meant to me. It can never bring the things that used to be...".
Adam Hemingway
Nat King Cole is such a cool dude!! His singing style, his look, his hair!! Yo the hair is so elegant and suave! Wish I lived in those days :/
lray1234
@Thatperformer387 don't paint all liberals with the same brush. I have friends of both parties, and we all love the one and only Nat Cole.
Pat Buhia
Hhahah wow