Nat King Cole biography

Older brother Eddie was musical too – a bassist – and having returned from playing on tour with Noble Sissle, set up a band with his younger brother, which he duly called Eddie Cole's Swingsters (that's how it is with older brothers – they throw their weight around to get their name on the marquee!). Still just in his teens, Nat made his recording debut with his brother's band in 1936, and they were later recruited to take part in the all-black Broadway show, 'Shuffle Along' – a production on which Cole was to meet dancer and first wife Nadine Robinson, whom he married in 1937, despite still being only 17 years old.

'Shuffle Along' had been a touring production, and when the tour wound up in Los Angeles in spring 1937, the newlyweds stayed there, for Nat to build his musical career. He set up a trio with bassist Wesley Prince and guitarist Oscar Moore, and eventually became known as the 'King Cole Trio' – punning on the nursery rhyme of 'Old King Cole', and thereby giving a stage-name to one of the 20th century's biggest musical stars.

Cole was increasing the amount of vocals he did as part of their repertoire, and by the autumn of 1938 the trio had made several transcriptions for radio, followed by numerous small label recordings in 1939 and 1940. There was a war going on, of course, and when Prince signed up to fight, he was replaced on four-string duties by Johnny Miller. Decca signed up the revised trio in 1942, and their single 'That Ain't Right' hit the number one spot of what was then known as the 'Harlem Hit Parade' in 1943. However, bona fide mainstream success was just around the corner, and came about after Capitol Records bought up and re-released their second single, 'All For You'. Number one again on the 'Harlem' chart, but more significantly having managed to place on the pop chart too, Capitol saw the potential in the pianist and singer and signed Cole outright. The huge sales of next release 'Straighten Up and Fly Right' in 1944, which topped both the 'Harlem' and the 'Folk' chart (as it was based on an old folk tale that Cole's father used to tell in church), and also placed in the top ten of the pop chart, fully vindicated this decision to sign the group.

It could justifiably be argued that Cole's success built the Capitol label – in fact the distinctive 'rotunda' Capitol building in LA has been referred to as 'The House that Nat built' – and considering that Cole remained with capitol throughout his career, such a moniker is hardly groundless. From the late 1940s onwards, Cole scored hit after hit, crossing over into the pop mainstream (much to the chagrin of the jazz purists, of course). This pop approach was probably best exemplified by the singer's recording of 'The Christmas Song', written by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells, and probably better known by its first line, 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...' Recorded and released four times by Cole, the fourth (Stereo) version has become an annual favourite, and as well as appearing on probably every Christmas-themed compilation since, the song is a fine depiction of Cole's silky, deep vocals, and crystal clear enunciation, backed with the elegant string arrangements that were to win him millions of fans.

The pop hits flowed – 'Nature Boy' (1948) went gold, and the gorgeous 'Mona Lisa' (1950), won an Academy Award (it was from the soundtrack to the movie 'Captain Carey, USA'), as well as spending 8 weeks at the top of the Billboard pop charts. And although 'Unforgettable' (1952) was not as much of an instant hit as its predecessors, it has endured in much the same way as Cole's version of 'The Christmas Song' - helped in no small part by a new version, on which Cole duets, from beyond the grave, with his daughter Natalie, released in 1991.

To match the chart successes, Cole's profile was hugely boosted when he became a syndicated TV show host, the first African American to land such a high-profile hosting job, as the 'Nat King Cole Show' on NBC hit viewers' screens weekly in 1956. The show carried on into 1957, expanding from fifteen minutes to half an hour in length, but ultimately was doomed, failing to attract the national sponsorship deal it needed to stay afloat. Cole attributed the lack of a sponsor to institutionalised racism – and indeed it did appear that no major sponsor wanted to be associated with a black artist at that time in America, no matter how popular he was.

Race and civil rights issues dogged the artist throughout his career – perhaps no surprise given that he was originally from the same town – Montgomery, Alabama - where Rosa Parks refused to obey the rules over where she could sit on the bus, resulting in the historic bus boycott of 1955. As well as standing his own ground back in 1948, moving into an all-white neighbourhood in L.A., despite protests and threats from the local Landowners' Association, Cole repeatedly refused to perform in segregated venues, and sued hotels that refused to let him stay. The performer's most terrifying skirmish with racism in his own country, however, was to come in his home state itself: whilst performing in Birmingham, Alabama, Cole was reportedly assaulted on stage by three white men, who appeared as though they were trying to kidnap him.

Vowing never to play in the South again, Cole kept on producing the hits, working with top collaborators and arrangers such as Nelson Riddle (who would also later provide the arrangements for Sinatra's albums) and Gordon Jenkins, who arranged the number one album 'Love is the Thing' (1957). The following year Cole took to acting, appearing in a major role as the blues musician W.C. Handy in the biopic 'St Louis Blues'.

The sixties started strongly for Nat - with the 1960 LP 'Wild is Love', a collection of stage revue songs, he scored a top ten album for the first time in three years, and from 1961 to 1964 he toured a live show named 'Sights and Sounds : The Merry World of Nat King Cole'. In Chicago, in November 1964 Cole noticed a marked loss in weight – the next month he was admitted to hospital, where he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Having smoked up to three packs a day for most of his adult life, reasoning that the cigarettes preserved his low voice, Cole could hardly claim he never had it coming, but this would come as no comfort either to him or his legions of fans when he passed away on the 15th February, 1965.

• Nat King Cole Discography