My mom loved Nat King Cole. Not only did she appreciate his voice, but she thought he was quite handsome. As he was born on St. Patrick’s Day 1919, he was less than nine years older than she was.
I remember being in my maternal grandmother’s second floor and find albums of Nat Cole 78s. And by “albums”, I mean these books that looked like photo albums with paper sleeves holding a single cut on each side of the vinyl.
To my recollection, they weren’t being played anymore. My household, a few blocks away, had moved over to that newish technology, the LP, with a dozen songs playing at 33 RPM, or 45 rpm singles. I don’t recall my grandma having any player at all.
I have no idea what happened to the collection, and since I never HEARD them, I don’t recall the tracks, but it seems that most of them were on Capitol Records.
Here’s a list of Nat King Cole songs on 78s. Absent my mother’s feedback, I guess I’ll link to some of my favorites from the period, with no guarantees that I haven’t snatched a re-recording, rather than the originals; there were quite a lot of them.
Hit That Jive Jack (1942)
Straighten Up And Fly Right (1944)
Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good To You (1944)
Sweet Lorraine (1944)
It’s Only A Paper Moon (1944)
The Frim Fram Sauce (1945)
(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66 (1946)
(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons (1946)
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) (1946)
Makin’ Whoopee (1947)
I’m Thru With Love (1950) – the year my parents got married
Mona Lisa (1950)
Too Young (1951)
Unforgettable (1951)
Send for Me (1957) – this may exist in both 78 and 45
I remember when he died in February 1965 from lung cancer, his ever-present cigarettes being the cause. My mom didn’t make a big deal of it, as I recall, but I suspected that his passing privately wounded her.
My mom, Trudy Green, who died 2/2/2011, would have been 91 today.
Cole was signed to Capitol in 1943, though the early King Cole Trio had waxed for several labels, notably Decca. (Capitol itself was founded in 1942.)