Nat "King" Cole (March 17th 1919–February 15th 1965) was a popular America… Read Full Bio ↴Nat "King" Cole (March 17th 1919–February 15th 1965) was a popular American singer and jazz musician.

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.

St. Louis Blues
Nat King Cole Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I hate to see that evening sun go down,
I hate to see that evening sun go down,
'Cause my lovin' baby done left this town.

If I feel tomorrow, like I feel today,
If I feel tomorrow, like I feel today,
I'm gonna pack my trunk and make my getaway.

Oh, that St. Louis woman, with her diamond rings,
She pulls my man around by her apron strings.
And if it wasn't for powder and her store-bought hair,
Oh, that man of mine wouldn't go nowhere.

I got those St. Louis blues, just as blue as I can be,
Oh, my man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me.

I love my man like a schoolboy loves his pie,
Like a Kentucky colonel loves his rocker and rye
I'll love my man until the day I die, Lord, Lord.

I got the St. Louis blues, just as blue as I can be, Lord, Lord!
That man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me.

I got those St. Louis blues, I got the blues, I got the blues, I got the blues,

My man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me, Lord, Lord!

Overall Meaning

In Nat King Cole's song "St. Louis Blues," the singer laments the departure of her lover and the pain it causes her. The opening lines express her dislike for the setting sun, which signifies the end of the day and the departure of her lover. The repetition of these lines emphasizes the singer's sadness and creates a mood of despair. She then says that if she feels the same way tomorrow as she does today, she will leave town, implying that the only way to move past her heartbreak is to physically distance herself from the situation.

The singer then describes the woman who she claims stole her man, a St. Louis woman who wears diamond rings and controls her partner with her apron strings. The line "If it wasn't for powder and her store-bought hair, oh that man of mine wouldn't go nowhere" implies that the St. Louis women are frivolous and don't have genuine connections with their partners. The singer's sadness is compounded by her realization that her lover was taken away by someone who has nothing substantial to offer.

The song closes with the singer's love for her man as a source of comfort and pain. She loves him deeply but recognizes that the pain of his absence is visceral and overwhelming. The repetition of the line "I got the blues" emphasizes how deeply she's affected by this heartbreak. Overall, "St. Louis Blues" is a melancholy song that reflects the pain of lost love and how it can affect a person's life.

Line by Line Meaning

I hate to see that evening sun go down,
I'm sad to see the sun go down because it reminds me that my lover has left town.

If I feel tomorrow, like I feel today,
If my feelings don't change, I'll pack my bags and leave town too.

Oh, that St. Louis woman, with her diamond rings,
That woman in St. Louis, with all her jewelry, is using her charm to take my man away from me.

She pulls my man around by her apron strings.
My man is being controlled by that woman, doing whatever she wants.

And if it wasn't for powder and her store-bought hair,
If that woman didn't use makeup and wigs, my man wouldn't be interested in her.

Oh, that man of mine wouldn't go nowhere.
My man would stay with me if that woman didn't manipulate him.

I got those St. Louis blues, just as blue as I can be,
I'm feeling very sad and depressed since my man left me for that woman in St. Louis.

Oh, my man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
My man has a very hard, unfeeling heart that doesn't care about my feelings.

Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me.
If my man truly loved me, he wouldn't have left me and gone so far away.

I love my man like a schoolboy loves his pie,
I love my man very deeply and with great affection, like a young boy loves his favorite dessert.

Like a Kentucky colonel loves his rocker and rye
My love for my man is as strong as a Southern gentleman's love for his whiskey.

I'll love my man until the day I die, Lord, Lord.
I will always love my man, even until the end of my life.

I got the St. Louis blues, I got the blues, I got the blues, I got the blues,
I am feeling very sad and depressed, experiencing the St. Louis blues.

That man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
My man doesn't have a kind, loving heart that cares about my feelings.

Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me, Lord, Lord!
If my man truly loved me, he wouldn't have left me and gone so far away.

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, O/B/O CAPASSO, RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Billy Strayhorn

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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