“The Master”

 It was no picnic if you were a black pop singer and musical performer in the 1940’s or ‘50s.  There was the well documented legendary hatred exuded by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in their quest to promote the continuation of a lily white American society.  

In 1956 he was attacked on stage while performing in Birmingham, Alabama.  The musical performer survived the foiled kidnapping attempt.  And then there was also the hatred of blacks who viewed any black performer who played to and thus garnished support from basically “Jim Crow” white audiences, as a traitor to their race.   

He was one of the first black performers to host a nationally broadcast variety show in 1956.  Although the show was critically acclaimed, it never found a sponsor in lily white America.  NBC refused to give-up on the program and many of the biggest stars and most talented performers appeared on the show for industry scale or for no pay at all.   Finally, in 1957 he voluntarily ended the show to halt NBC’s financial bleeding.  

It was during this era that Nate King Cole became a musical American icon.  He sold 50 million records during a career that spanned four decades.  Cole recorded more than 150 singles for Capitol Records that charted on Billboard Pop, R&B, and Country music popularity pinnacles.   No other Capitol artist has yet to match that achievement. 

After musical tastes changed in the late 1950’s, Cole, like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett, found his records selling like used Edsels.  Yet Cole still managed a string of some nice hits during the 1960’s.   There was "Let There Be Love," "Ramblin’ Rose,” “Dear Lonely Hearts,” “That Sunday That Summer,” and "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer."  This is when we baby boomers learned of his existence.  

Unfortunately, contemporary music audiences may have only a passing knowledge of this superlative artist through one of two - or possibly both - experiences.    "Unforgettable" showed up on Pop Charts in 1991, almost forty years after its original success.  Cole’s daughter, Natalie, sang it as a duet with her father through the magic of modern day technology.  The other is, of course, “The Christmas Song,” played during every Christmas season on radio stations throughout the country.  

Maria Hawkins Ellington (no relationship to Duke), Nat’s wife at the time of his death, said in an interview that in addition to his musical legacy, his class made him irresistible.  Billboard Magazine coined him “The Master.”  In January 1964, Cole made one of his final television appearances on The Jack Benny Program.  He was introduced as "the best friend a song ever had." 

Notable pallbearers at his funeral included Robert F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Danny Thomas and Steve Allen along with the governor of California, Pat Brown. 

In his eulogy to the “the Master” Jack Benny said; "Nat Cole was a man who gave so much and still had so much to give. He gave it in song, in friendship to his fellow man, devotion to his family. He was a star, a tremendous success as an entertainer, an institution. But he was an even greater success as a man, as a husband, as a father, as a friend.”   

The only thing more painful than losing a beloved performer of Nat King Cole's  stature is watching him fade into obscurity.  For his greatest gift and thus our greatest loss is not just the superb enjoyment he provided but rather his class and character that is so badly needed in serving as inspiration to all of us today.