I first heard this song about two years ago. It was on a summer day when I first came across this song, not knowing anything about it other than it was a Nat King Cole song, I played it. As I listened the song’s haunting almost mystical quality wove it’s spell one me, I fell instantly in love with this song.
In doing research on this song for this post I came upon a story of how this song came to be recorded by Nat King Cole. Nature Boy was written by Eden Ahbez, a hippie/beatnik poet and songwriter. As the story goes Ahbez begged Cole’s manager to have Nat take a look at the song. After looking at the song Nat recognized it as a Yiddish melody and liked the lyrics so he decided to add the song to his act.
The reaction to Nature Boy was positive so Cole decided to record the song. But before the song could be recorded the record company, Capitol Records, had to find the songwriter in order to get the publishing rights to the song. Ahbez was no where to be found! Finally, the search ended when Ahbez was found living under the first L of the Hollywood sign. To quote one of the wisest sages of our time, Hank Hill of King of The Hill, “The boy ain’t right!”
I don’t know how much, if any, of that story is true but it sure is a fun story. Anyway, enjoy Nate King Cole’s “Nature Boy.” I hope you like it as much as I do.
Album: Best Of Nat King Cole
Released: 1947
US Chart: # 1
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