Nat King Cole was born Nathaniel Adams Coles at Montgomery, Alabama. He received music lessons from his mother and his family moved to Chicago when he was only five, where his father Edward James Coles was a minister at the True Light Baptist Church and later Pastor of the First Baptist Church. At 12 he was playing the church organ and at 14 he formed a 14 piece band called the Royal Dukes. Nat was a top flight sandlot baseball player at Wendell Phillips high school in Chicago. His three brothers, Ike, Eddie Coles and Frankie also played the piano and sang professionally. Nat was also an above-average football player in high school. His sister Evelyn Cole was a beautician in nearby Waukegan, Illinois. In 1939 he formed the King Cole Trio after his publicist put a silver tin-foiled crown on his head and proclaimed him King. He later toured Europe and made a command performance before Queen Elizabeth II. He had a highly-rated TV show in the 1960s but it was canceled (by Cole himself) because no companies could be found that were willing to sponsor the show. He was a big baseball fan and had a permanent box seat at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. He met his wife Maria Cole (a big-band singer) at the Zanzibar nightclub in Los Angeles through 'Eddie Rochester' Anderson' of Jack Benny show. Her parents protested her decision to marry Cole, claiming he was "too black". However, they were married in 1948 and had two daughters, Natalie Cole and Caroline. On April 10, 1956, at Birmingham, Alabama, he was attacked by six white men from a white supremacist group called the White Cizizens Council during a concert and sustained minor injuries to his back. Cole appeared in several movies, his last one being Cat Ballou, starring Lee Marvin. Cole received 28 gold record awards for such hits as "Sweet Lorraine", "Ramblin' Rose" in 1962, "Too Young" in 1951, "Mona Lisa" in 1949 and Mel Tormé's "Christmas Song". His first recordings of the Christmas Song included the lyrics, "Reindeers really know how to fly" instead of "reindeer really know how to fly", a mistake later corrected by Capitol Records. He was also a composer and his song "Straighten Up and Fly Right" was sold for $50.00. A heavy smoker, he died of lung cancer.


China Gate (1957): $5,000
The Blue Gardenia (1953): $10,000

Born at 9 am-CST. Brother of bandleader Eddie Cole. Children: daughters, Carol Cole, born October 17, 1944 (adopted) Natalie Cole, born February 6, 1950 Timolin & Casey (identical twins), born September 26, 1961; son, Nat Kelly Cole, born February 1959 - died 1995 (AIDS) (adopted). During the one season his show, "The Nat King Cole Show" (1956) was on the air, it had no sponsor, being run by NBC on a sustaining (network-sponsored) basis. The highly rated show had top-of-the-line production values, music by Nelson Riddle's orchestra, top-name guest stars and the personal endorsement of NBC chairman David Sarnoff (who ordered his network executives, "Find his show sponsors or heads will roll!"). Many of Cole's friends in the industry, such as Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and Sammy Davis Jr., out of respect for his talents and what he was trying to do, appeared for minimum salary, and often no salary at all. Bob Henry ("The Andy Williams Show" (1962), "Flip" (1970)) wrote, produced and directed. At the end of the season, even though no national sponsors could be found - many companies did not want to upset their customers in the South, who did not want to see blacks on television - NBC expressed its willingness to keep the show going on a sustaining basis. It was Nat who pulled the plug, remarking bitterly, "I guess Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark." Brother of singer Freddy Cole. Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993. He and his second wife Maria Cole were married in Harlem's famous Abyssinian Baptist Church by the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr.. Winner of a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy award in 1989. Incredibly enough, he was nominated for a Grammy only once in his lifetime, in 1958, and lost. As a singer and recording artist, his contributions to American popular music are incalculable. Any list of his representative hits, all on Capitol records, has to include: "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66," "Sweet Lorraine," "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," "The Christmas Song," "Mona Lisa "(a signature song during his career), "Nature Boy," "Too Young," "Answer Me" , "Walkin' My Baby back Home", "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Lush Life, " "Ramblin' Rose," "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer, "People" , "That Sunday Yhat Summer" " "Dear Lonely Hearts," "L-O-V-E," and "Unforgettable.". He was paid only $5000 for acting in China Gate (1957), but he received $75,000 for singing "Three Coins in the Fountain" during the opening credits. Attended the Democratic National Convention in 1960. He was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6229 Hollywood Boulevard and for Recording at 6659 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.