名人轶事:Nat King Cole

（单词翻译）

By Yenni Djahidin Grow

Broadcast: January 2, 2005

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

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.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

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 Christian¹ minister.

When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family north to

Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned² 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.

VOICE TWO:

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 bass³. 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 into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular.

Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano.

VOICE TWO(cont):

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 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 teachings⁴. The song

became one of the biggest hits of Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than

five-hundred-thousand copies.

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VOICE ONE:

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 recording⁵ of “Mona Lisa.” That song made

him famous as a singer.

(MUSIC)#p#副标题#e#

VOICE TWO:

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.

Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders

criticized⁶ 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 protested⁷ the purchase of a house

by a black family. Nat and his family refused to leave and lived in the house

without problems.

VOICE ONE:

Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His show began

on N-B-C Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. N-B-C 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 N-B-C halted⁸ production after

a year.

Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint⁹ Louis Blues¹⁰.

He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy¹¹. 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 orchestras¹³ of

the time. Here Nat King Cole sings “When I Fall in Love” with the Gordon

Jenkins orchestra¹²:
VOICE TWO:

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.

VOICE ONE:

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.

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)

VOICE TWO:

Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings¹⁴ 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)

VOICE ONE:

This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow and produced

by Caty Weaver¹⁵. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another People

in America program on the Voice of America.