By Yenni Djahidin Grow

Broadcast: January 2, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA.

Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the

United States. Today we will tell about Nat King Cole, one of America’s most

popular singers.

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VOICE ONE:

Nat King Cole was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, in

Nineteen-Nineteen. His parents named him Nathaniel Adams Coles. His father

was a Christian minister.

When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family north to

Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned to play the piano when he was very young. His

mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public

performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Nat was playing

piano at his father’s church.

VOICE TWO:

Nat played piano in New York City and in Los Angeles, California when he was

a young man. In Nineteen Thirty-Seven, he formed a group that played jazz

music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The

trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Nat’s piano playing kept the

beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Nat

also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular.

Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano.

VOICE TWO(cont):

By the middle Nineteen-Forties, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a

popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first

musicians to record with new Capitol Records.

The first song he recorded for Capitol was “Straighten Up and Fly Right.”

He wrote the song. The words were based on his father’s teachings. The song

became one of the biggest hits of Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than

five-hundred-thousand copies.

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VOICE ONE:

Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include “Sweet

Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “When

I Fall in Love,” and “Mona Lisa.” In Nineteen-Fifty, the American film

industry gave him an award for his recording of “Mona Lisa.” That song made

him famous as a singer.

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