Nathaniel Cole moved from Alabama to Chicago as a young child and began to play organ for his church at age twelve. Initially a jazz pianist, Nat "King" Cole began playing in jazz clubs in Los Angeles and later formed the popular King Cole Trio. He is credited with pioneering the sophisticated West Coast nightclub style of singing and playing, and with emphasizing the piano as a solo rather than a rhythm instrument--an influence still felt in the jazz world.

In 1944 and 1945, Downbeat magazine voted the King Cole Trio the top small combo. By the early 1950s, Cole had turned to pop with such songs as Walking My Baby Back Home, It's Only a Paper Moon, and For Sentimental Reasons. In the mid -1950s, riding on the success of one of his best-remembered hits, When I Fall in Love, Cole was given his own musical television series, breaking color barriers and making musical history. Cole's smooth, mellow hits--such as Mona Lisa and Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer--have retained their popularity for four decades with audiences throughout the world.