Portrait of Nat King Cole with his mother, Perlina, his younger brother, Ike, and his father, Edward in 1940

Portrait of Nat King Cole with his mother, Perlina, his younger brother, Ike, and his father, Edward in 1940.

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued for the remainder of his life. He found great popular success and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts. His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed. Cole also acted in films and on television and performed on Broadway. He was the first African-American man to host an American television series.

Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama. When Nat King Cole was four years old, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois.

Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. His first performance was "Yes! We Have No Bananas" at the age of four. He began formal lessons at 12, learning jazz, gospel, and classical music on piano "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff". As a youth, he joined the news delivery boys' "Bud Billiken Club" band for The Chicago Defender.

The Cole family moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, where he attended Wendell Phillips Academy High School, the school Sam Cooke attended a few years later. He participated in Walter Dyett's music program at DuSable High School.

When he was 15, Cole dropped out of high school to pursue a music career. Cole recorded "Sweet Lorraine" in 1940, and it became his first hit.

Cole began recording and performing pop-oriented material in which he was often accompanied by a string orchestra. His stature as a popular star was cemented by hits such as "All for You" (1943), "The Christmas Song" (1947), "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66", "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons" (1946), "There! I've Said It Again" (1947), "Nature Boy" (1948), "Frosty The Snowman", "Mona Lisa" (No. 1 song of 1950), "Orange Colored Sky" (1950), "Too Young" (No. 1 song of 1951) and "Unforgettable" (1952).

AWARDS & HONORS

In 1959, he received a Grammy Award for Best Performance By a "Top 40" Artist for "Midnight Flyer". Cole was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

In 1991, Nat's daughter (Natalie Cole) recorded a new vocal track that was mixed with her father's 1961 stereo re-recording of his 1951 hit "Unforgettable" for a tribute album of the same title. The song and album won seven Grammy awards in 1992 for Best Album and Best Song.

A United States postage stamp with Cole's likeness was issued in 1994.

He was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2007. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013.

Cole's success at Capitol Records, for which he recorded more than 150 singles that reached the Billboard Pop, R&B, and Country charts, has yet to be matched by any Capitol artist. His records sold 50 million copies during his career. His recording of "The Christmas Song" still receives airplay every holiday season, even hitting the Billboard Top 40 in December 2017.

In 2020 Cole was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.