NATURE BOY

Created on 20/06/2002
Latest update on 27/09/2024

Artist: Nat King Cole
Author: eden ahbez
Label: Capitol
Year: 1947

With Frank DeVol's Orchestra. Black performer, romantic strings, a new combination; jazzmen and Ray Charles adopted this formula soon after. Melody possibly based upon Herman Yablokoff's Yiddische lied Schweig mein Hertz and the American spiritual Sweet Jesus Boy.

Covers:

1948:

Al Jolson

1948:

Unnatural Seven feat. Red Ingle [backward parody as Serutan Yob (A Song For Backward Boys & Girls Under 40); no wonder: Ingle played saxophone with Spike Jones]

1948:

Sarah Vaughan

1948:

Frank Sinatra

1948:

Dick Haymes & The Song Spinners

1954:

Herb Jeffries with eden ahbez [author on LP The Singing Prophet as The Legend Of Nature Boy, a lengthy symphonic suite]

1955:

Miles Davis

1956:

Herbie Mann

1960:

Stan Getz

1961:

Bobby Darin

1961:

Ike Quebec

1962:

Etta Jones

1963:

Annie Ross

1963:

John Coltrane

1964:

Ramsey Lewis

1965:

Impressions

1965:

Marvin Gaye

1966:

Ahmad Jamal

1966:

José Feliciano

1967:

James Brown

1967:

George Brummell [as Etrange garçon]

1968:

Big Mama Thornton

1968:

Gandalf

1976:

Ella Fitzgerald

1977:

George Benson

1978:

Engelbert Humperdinck

1978:

Zoot Sims

1978:

Big Star [on third album recorded in '74]

1979:

Art Pepper

1983:

Central Line

1991:

Natalie Cole

1994:

John Pizzarelli

1994:

Grover Washington Jr.

1998:

Victoria Williams

1999:

Jon Hassell

2001:

David Bowie [along with 3D from Massive Attack in film Moulin Rouge, imitating eden ahbez]

2003:

Aaron Neville

2003:

Junior Jazz

2005:

Harry Connick Jr.

2014:

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga

2017:

Gregory Porter

2021:

Jennifer Hudson [in Aretha Franklin biopic Respect]

2023:

Rickie Lee Jones

Author eden ahbez was a guru from Big Sur, California who refused to write his name in capitals as this was a privilege for the gods. He was born in 1908 and - Native Americans non included - the first twentieth century American with long hair. ("I look crazy but I'm not. The funny thing is: other people don't look crazy but they are"). Recorded an LP for Del-Fi in '59, but Nature Boy wasn't even considered. According to legend he left the Nature Boy lyrics on the doorsteps of the artist entrance of the California theatre where Cole was supposed to perform that evening.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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