欢迎来到VOA在线收网 www.voa365.com
当前位置:VOA NEWS > VOA慢速英语 > 美国人物志 >

Nat King Cole, 1919-1965: One of America’s Most Popular Singers

2012-03-25 23:25来源:未知

音频下载

Nat "King" Cole (center) with baseball player Roy Campanella and his wife Ruthe at New York City's Copacabana night club
Nat "King" Cole (center) with baseball player Roy Campanella and his wife Ruthe at New York City's Copacabana night club

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I’m Shirley Griffith.

STEVE EMBER: 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.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: 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.
 

Nat "King" Cole, and his wife Maria, arrive at a London airport May 12, 1960
Nat "King" Cole, and his wife Maria, arrive at London airport May 12, 1960



STEVE EMBER: 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 to Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano.

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 the 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)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: 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)

STEVE EMBER: By Nineteen-Fifty Six, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to appear for a lot of money at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
 

Singer Natalie Cole looks at a mock stamp and plaque following the renaming of a post office for her father Nat King Cole
Singer Natalie Cole looks at a mock stamp and plaque following the renaming of a post office for her father



Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders criticized him. Nat said he attempted to take legal action against those places but often failed.

Nat earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Nat and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His show began on NBC Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. NBC agreed to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the show. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a show that had a black performer. They were concerned that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but NBC halted production after a year.

Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint Louis Blues. He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a film about himself called The Nat King Cole Story.

In the Nineteen-Fifties, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time. Here Nat King Cole sings “When I Fall in Love” with the Gordon Jenkins orchestra:

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Nat King Cole was married two times. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Nat King Cole always smoked a lot of cigarettes. He died of cancer of the lung in February, Nineteen Sixty-Five. He was only forty-five years old.

He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a Nineteen-Ninety Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.

Nat’s daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died.
 

Eartha Kitt hugs Nat King Cole, playing the piano in the role of W.C. Handy, in a scene from the 1958 movie "St. Louis Blues."
Eartha Kitt hugs Nat King Cole, playing the piano in the role of W.C. Handy, in a scene from the 1958 movie "St. Louis Blues."



In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Natalie Cole recorded an album called Unforgettable. It contains twenty-two of Nat King Cole’s songs, including the song “Unforgettable.” Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings were sold while he was alive. And today, people around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America’s greatest performers of popular and jazz music.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was David Bodington. I’m Shirley Griffith.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

(责任编辑:admin)
最新新闻
  1. 网传日月光Q4产能利用率降至70%
  2. 新型存储器已经开始增长,到20
  3. 市场人士透露:联发科在汽车芯片
  4. 【VOA在线闲聊】三星收购Arm会步英
  5. Nikola召回迄今为止生产的93辆Nik
  6. 蚂蚁数科两项区块链专利完成一对
  7. 蔚来申请注册“NIO CERTIFIED 蔚来官
  8. 获小米超千万投资 改装车公司工
  9. 法拉第未来首款电动汽车FF 91再次
  10. 消息称LG显示计划明年生产920万块
  11. 宝马面向欧洲市场推出最小的跨界
  12. 美国副总统哈里斯承诺就电动汽车
  13. 知情人士透露称马斯克和推特CE
  14. 因苹果缩减订单 台积电或修改明
  15. LG推出一项新技术,以开放局域网
  16. 小米13正式上线:骁龙8Gen2发布1
  17. 米家3 KG迷你洗衣机售价699元
  18. 苹果公司官方非常兴奋:印度将生
  19. 中国广电在全国31个省区开通广电
  20. 华为 Mate 50 Pro国外上市:售价远高
  21. 特斯拉柏林超级工厂回收工厂发生
  22. 华为 Mate 50原价4999
  23. iPhone 14销售比上一代下降了11%
  24. 2021至2025中国台湾将投350亿元新台
  25. 华为Mate50Pro预定5 G芯片,苹果公司
  26. 锐龙7000核显性能实测 单核及多核
  27. 索尼PS5最新更新:6 nm制程功率与
  28. 华为会议马上就要开始了!一种全
  29. 小米再次成为了冠军!该系列产品
  30. 还能吸收病毒?!戴森首个产品也
  31. 小米又推出了一款新产品,售价
  32. Imagination携手百度飞桨创建Model
  33. 奔驰要不要再加价?2024将发布
  34. TikTok在英国或被罚款2900万美元 被
  35. iPhone15PM改用 ULTRA:笔记本和 iPa
  36. 因库存不断提升存储芯片持续降价
  37. 预计小米Civi2将推出五款新产品
  38. 可靠商务桌面电脑推荐:联想M4
  39. 受飓风影响:NASA撤回阿尔忒弥斯
  40. 《三体》影迷们疯狂了!
  41. 4090设计实在是太离谱了!
  42. Meta试图Facebook和Instagram账户添加到
  43. 苹果公司在技术上遭受重大挫折,
  44. 我国成功发射遥感三十六号卫星,
  45. 骁龙8Gen2+120 W快速充电!小米13系
  46. 屏幕下手机价格大跌,灵动岛安卓
  47. 亚马逊宣布下月举办新会员促销活
  48. 酷睿i9-13900K预告片,5.8 GHz稳定!
  49. 美国流媒体巨头Netflix宣布在芬兰
  50. 外科手术机器人 商业化将加快世