Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist whose three-decade music career produced one of the foundational bodies of work in 20th-century American jazz-and-pop vocal music — particularly his 1944–1965 Capitol Records catalog and his 1956–1957 lead role on NBC's The Nat King Cole Show (the first American TV variety show ever hosted by an African-American performer). He was born Nathaniel Adams Coles on March 17, 1919, in Montgomery, Alabama, into an African-American family. His father Edward James Coles was a Baptist minister and butcher, and his mother Perlina Adams was the church organist. The family relocated to Chicago when Nat was four, where his father served as the pastor of the True Light Baptist Church.

His 1936 first professional jazz-piano-trio engagement — at age 17, with the King Cole Swingsters at the Panama Café in Chicago — and his subsequent 1937 founding of his King Cole Trio (with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince) launched his late-1930s and early-1940s American jazz-piano-trio career.

His 1943 Capitol Records signing — at the founding of Capitol Records by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn Wallichs — launched his 1944–1965 21-year Capitol Records career. The 1946 Capitol Records single "The Christmas Song" (composed by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells) — recorded August 19, 1946 — has been continuously cited as one of the foundational documents of 20th-century American Christmas music. His 1948 single "Nature Boy" (composed by eden ahbez) became his first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single.

His 1951 single "Mona Lisa" (composed by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston) won the 1951 Best Song Academy Award and produced his early-1950s American pop-vocal commercial peak. His 1956–1957 lead role on NBC's The Nat King Cole Show — the first American TV variety show ever hosted by an African-American performer — was curtailed by NBC's December 1957 cancellation following the inability to attract national-advertiser sponsorship in the racially-segregated 1950s American TV-advertising environment. He died on February 15, 1965, at age 45, in Santa Monica, California, of lung cancer.

His name Nat began as the diminutive of Nathaniel (from the Hebrew Netan'el meaning "gift of God"). Nat was a popular American boys' name across the 20th century.