Today is what would have been the 90th birthday of singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole, whose version of Bobby Troup’s “Route 66” became a big hit in 1946 and helped inspire generations to explore the Mother Road.
A number of news outlets have published tributes to the man, including the Los Angeles Times, the Power Line blog, the Arizona Daily Sun, which provided details from a 1957 gig in a Tucson high school stadium; and the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, which is his hometown.
An art exhibit opened last week in Los Angele for Cole. And the same week, Capitol Records released an album of remixes of performances, dubbed “Re: Generations,” that is getting warm reviews. The album includes Will.I.Am, The Roots, Stephen Marley and others.
What’s especially notable is Cole was beloved by millions of white Americans before the civil rights movement started to take hold. Whether it was his smooth enunciation or his geniality, Cole’s records were found in households that would have been otherwise reluctant to host a black man. Cole also was the first African-American to host a nationwide TV program, “The Nat King Cole Show,” in 1956-57. So he quietly was a racial pioneer.
Cole, a chain smoker, died in 1965 of lung cancer.
Here is Cole, performing one of his most famous songs:
Great clip, and Happy B-Day Nat. While he died when I was very, very young, my Mom loved his music, and it played on the home stereo quite often when I was a kid.