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.
Ramblin' Rose
Nat King Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Why you ramble, no one knows
Wild and wind-blown, that's how you've grown
Who can cling to a ramblin' rose?
Ramble on, ramble on
When your ramblin' days are gone
Who will love you with a love true
Ramblin' rose, ramblin' rose
Why I want you, heaven knows
Though I love you with a love true
Who can cling to a ramblin' rose?
Ramblin' rose, ramblin' rose
Why I want you, heaven knows
Though I love you with a love true
Who can cling to a ramblin' rose?
In the song "Ramblin' Rose," Nat King Cole sings about a woman who is always on the move, never staying in one place for too long. She's wild, independent and free, but the downside of this is that she struggles to create lasting relationships with others. Cole sings, "Why you ramble, no one knows, Wild and windblown, that's how you've grown." These lyrics suggest that the ramblin' rose's nomadic tendencies might be ingrained in her nature and part of her upbringing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't come at a cost.
Throughout the song, Cole questions the feasibility of loving a ramblin' rose. He acknowledges that he loves her with a love true, but wonders, "Who can cling to a ramblin' rose?" This line speaks to the inherent instability of the woman he's singing about, and the difficulties that arise from trying to have a stable relationship with someone who's always on the move. In the second verse, Cole sings, "When your ramblin' days are gone, Who will love you with a love true." Here, he's recognizing that someday the ramblin' rose's youth and freedom will pass, and she'll need someone to be there for her. But he's also pointing out the irony that if she doesn't find someone while she's still free and unattached, she may end up alone in the end.
Overall, "Ramblin' Rose" is a melancholy but romantic song, full of longing and nostalgia. Cole's smooth, velvety voice adds to the wistfulness of the lyrics, conveying the sense of a man who loves a woman but knows that she might be too wild and unpredictable to tie down.
Line by Line Meaning
Ramblin' rose, ramblin' rose
The singer is singing about a wandering rose plant that can't seem to stay in one place.
Why you ramble, no one knows
The singer is saying that they don't understand why the rose keeps moving around.
Wild and wind blown, that's how you've grown
The singer describes how the rose has grown up to be untamed and affected by the elements.
Who can cling to a ramblin' rose?
The artist is questioning who could love and be with someone who is always on the move.
Ramble on, ramble on
This line could be interpreted as encouragement for the rose to keep moving forward.
When your ramblin' days are gone
The singer acknowledges that the rose's wandering won't last forever.
Who will love you with a love true
The singer questions who will be there to truly love the rose when its wandering days are over.
Ramblin' rose, ramblin' rose
The artist repeats the beginning in order to express their affection for the rose.
Why I want you, heaven knows
The artist admits they don't really know why they love the wandering rose so much.
Though I love you with a love true
The artist confirms that their affection for the rambling rose is genuine and real.
Who can cling to a ramblin' rose?
The singer ends the song with the same question, wondering who could ever truly be with a wandering soul like the rambling rose.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Joe Sherman, Noel Sherman
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@patmarshallharp
I can still remember hearing this song on my transistor radio in 1962 as I was on the bus coming home from school. No one can compare to Nat King Cole and his voice of velvet.
@serge.l.1897
I had exactly the same experience. Today when I hear that song it throws me back in time, long ago.
@tradde11
Love this song. I feel it's his best one. I know I heard this back then but probably not on a bus as we walked to school from K-5.
@yafuker6046
I was 6, listening on my front porch, and across the street was my neighbor's RAMBLER beside his wife's ROSES!
@nancyjodion2779
Wgen l give my heart
@debtmr
Me tooooooo!!! I love this song still in 7/2023. I sing along 😄
@jmrodas9
Nearly sixty years later, it is still a Great song to hear. Nat had such an outstanding voice really, timeless.
@jmrodas9
Nat King Cole was really a King. What a stupendous voice he had! I like to hear this song which reminds me of my last years in High School. Things have changed so much since then and there are so many places I used to know that have changed beyond recognition. But I still remember them when I hear songs like this one.
@marutpalbhattacharya3618
He is my idol
@keythdanielsen5533
That's the great power of music.