THE WORLD OF NAT KING COLE

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn 

Is just to love and be loved in return” 

If everybody could just live life by this credo from the lyrics of “Nature Boy”, wouldn’t things be so much easier?  And perhaps 90% of the world would get off the high-anxiety train of chasing that elusive thing that is their purpose in life. If only this simple phrase was our underlying motivating factor. Kumbaya.

There’s a great story about “Nature Boy”, its writer (Eden Ahbez) and how it got to Nat King Cole before coming a standard that’s been covered so many times.  There are different variations, but somehow this "natural living" person (hippie in not PC, I guess) Eden Ahbez, was able to get the song "Nature Boy" into the hands of a member of Nat King Cole's entourage. Nat liked the song very much and played it live in many of his shows to enthusiastic response. When Capitol Records wanted Nat to record the song, they went on a hunt to find the writer of the song. Legend of finding Eden Ahbez living unhoused, in the foliage under the Hollywood sign, may be hyperbolic but it makes a good story.

Needless to say, the song was a hit for Nat King Cole, helped him to become a cross-over artist and brought "organic" Eden Ahbez into the limelight. And the song lives on, covered in all eras from Sinatra to Lady Gaga (even Rick Astley in 2005).

But here's the rub: "Nature Boy" was a stolen song! A Yiddish composer named Herman Yablokoff sued Eden Ahbez over the rights and the suit was quietly settled. The irony of it all.

Eden’s autograph shown here is authentic.  The postcard from Caesar’s signed by Nat is also authentic. The sheet music appears to be signed possibly by band-member Johnny Williams.  Since Nat’s “signature” is in the same pen as Johnny's, I’m guessing that Johnny told Mr. Ragland, I’ll have Nat sign this for you … 

“Nature Boy” has been covered by so many artists, and although Nat King Cole’s is the definitive, I really love this version by Keely Smith.  Take a listen:

"This will be. An everlasting love" - Natalie Cole sang it and Gunilla Hutton was perhaps hoping it.

I don't have much to say about Natalie, because I've never seen her in concert and only a few of her tunes really resonate with me. My favorite ...

Gunilla Hutton is a lovely woman - very striking, even at 80 years old when I met her in March 2025. She is primarily known for "Petticoat Junction" and "Hee Haw", but I wanted her to sign this beautiful photo I had with her and Nat together. I didn't know how she'd react because they'd had a notorious affair back in the day and Gunilla allegedly called Nat's wife Maria and told her to divorce him. Well, that didn't happen and Nat and Gunilla broke off their love affair soon thereafter. I'm glad that she really liked the picture, looked at it fondly and said something like "He was an amazing man". I gave her a copy, for which she was very grateful. Gunilla was so much more engaging than I expected! She was super complimentary on my body wanted to know what my workout regime was and really focused on my skin. She told me I was lucky to have such nice skin, said something about melanin and then talked about how she was Swedish but would still be able to get tan when she was younger. I was equally complimentary to her, because this woman looked fantastic, trim and you could tell her own workout regime was paying off. Proof that we may get older, but you don't have to BE "old".