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.
There's a Train out for Dreamland
Nat King Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hear a bell a-ringing
All the children singing
You'll be singing too
Ooh ooh, ooh ooh
Hear a whistle blowing
Soon we'll all be going
You'll be going too
There's a train out for dreamland
That rides on a peppermint rail
It only stops at ice cream stations
To pick up crackerjack mail
There's a train out for dreamland
It's run by a chocolate brown bear
It runs around a candy mountain
As it sails through the air
You'll see a big white snowman
Who melts when he hears you laugh
A singin' mouse
A liquorice house
And a funny-looking jelly bean giraffe
All aboard now for dreamland
We'll choo-choo-choo-choo to the skies
So if you want to go to dreamland
Well then, just close your eyes
The lyrics to Nat King Cole's "There's a Train Out for Dreamland" depict a whimsical train journey that takes the listener to a surreal destination called dreamland. The bell ringing and children singing create an ambiance of pure joy that is carried throughout the song. The imagery depicted in the lyrics is surreal and dreamlike, with the train riding on a peppermint rail and stopping only at ice cream stations. The train is run by a chocolate brown bear and navigates through a candy mountain while sailing through the air.
The second stanza of the song talks about some of the things that the listener can expect to see on their journey to dreamland. They'll see a big white snowman who melts when he hears laughter, a singing mouse, a licorice house, and a funny-looking jelly bean giraffe among other things. These imaginative and playful lyrics create the perfect depiction of a dreamlike land where everything is made of candy and sweets.
Nat King Cole's "There's a Train Out for Dreamland" was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, the same duo that composed many famous songs such as "That Old Black Magic" and "Blues in the Night." The song was originally written for Mercer's Broadway show called "St. Louis Woman." Many other artists have recorded this song over the years, including Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, and Harry Connick Jr. The song was also featured in the 1993 film "Sleepless in Seattle" and the 2004 animated film "The Polar Express."
Line by Line Meaning
Ding-dong, ding-dong
There is a bell ringing
Hear a bell a-ringing
Listen to the sound of the bell
All the children singing
All of the kids are singing along
You'll be singing too
You will also join in and sing
Ooh ooh, ooh ooh
Hear the whistle sound
Hear a whistle blowing
Listen to the sound of the whistle
Soon we'll all be going
We will all be leaving soon
You'll be going too
You will also be coming along
There's a train out for dreamland
There is a special train that goes to dreamland
That rides on a peppermint rail
It travels on a track of peppermint
It only stops at ice cream stations
It only halts at stations with ice cream
To pick up crackerjack mail
It collects mail which contains surprises
It's run by a chocolate brown bear
The train is being driven by a bear with brown fur like chocolate
It runs around a candy mountain
The train moves around a mountain made of candy
As it sails through the air
It appears to be flying through the sky
You'll see a big white snowman
You will come across a large snowman and it's completely white
Who melts when he hears you laugh
When you laugh, the snowman begins to melt
A singin' mouse
A mouse who sings
A liquorice house
A house that looks like liquorice candy
And a funny-looking jelly bean giraffe
A giraffe that looks peculiar and resembles a jelly bean
All aboard now for dreamland
Everyone is invited to board the train to dreamland
We'll choo-choo-choo-choo to the skies
The train will move towards the sky with the sound of choo-choo-choo-choo
So if you want to go to dreamland
If you desire to go to dreamland
Well then, just close your eyes
You can go to dreamland by merely closing your eyes
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Frederick H. Heider, Carl Kress
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Andrew Richards
The greatest singer of all times nat king cole
M Spears & Bobo Buddy the Senior Cat
I've been a listening to a channel to help me sleep with a video that sounds like you're on a train and in the background all of the songs sound like they are in a different room and whilst listening in headphones, it sounds like this song is traveling over your head back and forth! This has been my favorite song as I fall asleep and felt compelled to look it up! ❤🎶😴
Maya Grace
EXACT SAME. Nemo’s Dreamscapes
TOMBANCROFT
Not one of Nat's high profile songs - but it should be. We know he used to sing to his kids - this could just be one he sang to them at bedtime - I like to think so anyway.
Arturo Juárez Música es Vida
This song makes me sad, thinkin about his daughter..