名人轶事31:Nat King Cole
By Yenni Djahidin Grow
Broadcast: January 2, 2005
(THEME)
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.
(THEME)
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.
(MUSIC)
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.
(MUSIC)
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