Last Sunday, Tony asked me to suggest a word of the week to him. Thinking of summer, vacations, and light sunny days, and for me early childhood memories, I was reminded of a song from the long ago. So I said, “ramble.” And we were off on a week of rambling.
A few of our readers on Monday suggested songs to look at for today, but I already had the tune in mind. It was a big hit for a singer whose music I associate with my childhood, though almost all of his greatest hits were released a good while before I was born. Today’s delightful silky-voiced crooner was Nat “King” Cole, one of my father’s very favorites, as I likely have mentioned before.
Nat Cole came by his musical talent naturally, you might say. He had no classical vocal training, but as the second-eldest son of a Baptist preacher and the church organist, he was raised in a musical household, and so of course were his siblings. Three of Nat’s brothers also became professional singers or musicians, and all of them first learned to play from lessons with their mother. Nat’s younger brother, Freddy, studied music formally at the Roosevelt Institute in Chicago, as well as at Julliard, in New York. He earned an M.A. in music from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Nat’s elder brother, Eddie, was a skilled pianist and bass player, who had a seventy-year-long career as a musician and entertainer. Eddie and Nat worked together as The Rogues of Rhythm, one of the several jazz combos that Nat organized in the 1930’s. Nat’s younger brother Ike played piano and drums in his youth, did a stint in the US Army Band, formed a jazz combo of his own, and made a living as a musician in Las Vegas and on television. He was the pianist for Natalie Cole’s tremendously successful tribute to father’s music in her Grammy-sweeping 1991 album, “Unforgettable.” In many ways Natalie Cole was her father’s greatest tribute, because she inherited Nat’s silky voice and carried on the family tradition in song until her own death at age 64.

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The elder Cole brothers, Eddie and Nat, both made their own way in the world of music, leaving high school before graduating to pursue their musical careers by working in clubs and by learning from other musicians, rather than by studying in classrooms. It’s hard to deny that the gift of music ran in that family. In particular, Nat King Cole’s various trios in the 30’s established the standard for such small jazz ensembles ever after.

So high was his reputation as a jazz musician that Nat actually was criticized by some jazz artists for having “sold out” when he shifted into singing in the popular vein. But I don’t think that that was a fair assessment. Nat had the voice of a crooner, and he never lost that jazzy edge, nor did he stop playing the piano, particularly on television and in clubs. He simply did it all, and did it exquisitely. Bing Crosby, who started his own career as a jazz singer, was the one who recruited Nat for Capital Records, which quickly sent Nat’s voice out from coast to coast and beyond. Bing knew talent when he heard it.

Nat Cole released two of his biggest hits toward the very end of his career, and I recall hearing them on the car radio (which my father always set to music) when I was small. One of those was “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” (which I’ve written about here), and the other was “Rambling Rose,” our Sometimes a Song for this week. “Ramblin’ Rose” was released in August of 1962, shooting to Number 2 on the Billboard Charts.

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These hits were triumphs of a sort, because like all of the major singers from the 40’s and 50’s, Nat had found himself struggling to get the ear of the younger listeners who had gone all in for Rock and Roll. But Nat had staying power. We can only guess what he might have done had he not sadly died of lung cancer at age 56. The evidence of his greatness was notable in his many posthumous awards for the remainder of the 20th century, and continuing into present times. “Unforgettable” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in the year 2000. Cole himself received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 1990 and induction into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 2020. What a legacy.

So now I am giving you my choice for this week, the very appealing “Rambling Rose,” a much-covered easy-breezy song that provided a counterpoint to the rising influence of Rock music. And I’ll attach below an additional treat from a really unforgettable performance. Enjoy!

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Word & Song is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymn, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. To support this project, join us as a subscriber.

Word & Song by Anthony Esolen

reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true