L O V E Nat King Cole Quotes

#1. There's just one thing I can't figure out. My income tax!

Nat King Cole

#2. I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.

Nat King Cole

#3. If I could read it, I could play it.

Nat King Cole

#4. It's not the people in the South who create racial problems - it's the people who are governing.

Nat King Cole

#5. Johnny Mercer started Capitol Records, and he brought in Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole. He just let them sing whatever they wanted, and it became the best record company in America.

Tony Bennett

#6. I'm in the music business for one purpose - to make money.

Nat King Cole

#7. Most of us remember Nat King Cole as a vocalist. His warm, grainy baritone is still so closely identified with such familiar ballads as 'Stardust' and 'The Christmas Song' that it's hard to imagine anyone else performing them.

Terry Teachout

#8. My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden.

Mose Allison

#9. I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

Nat King Cole

#10. Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Paul Whiteman, Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, the Mills Brothers, Woody Herman, and Nat King Cole. "Mona Lisa, men have named you,

George Hodgman

#11. I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

Nat King Cole

#12. I considered Nat King Cole to be a friend and, in many ways, a mentor. He always had words of profound advice.

Diahann Carroll

#13. Get me well so I can get on television and tell people to stop smoking.

Nat King Cole

#14. I was brought up with beautiful music - Nat King Cole and Glen Miller from my dad, and my mum loved Judy Garland and Doris Day - brilliant stuff. Through my brothers and sisters I heard David Bowie and The Specials, The Carpenters, Meatloaf and The Rolling Stones.

Imelda May

#15. I'm a musician at heart, I know I'm not really a singer. I couldn't compete with real singers. But I sing because the public buys it.

Nat King Cole

#16. For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.

Nat King Cole

#17. I felt something impossible for me to explain in words. Then, when they took her away, it hit me. I got scared all over again and began to feel giddy. Then it came to me ... I was a father.

Nat King Cole

#18. Also, I'd like to play an athlete again, while I'm still physically fit, or a musician, like Nat King Cole, because I play the trumpet and sing. I'd like to incorporate that into a character.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

#19. I respected Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Those were my heroes, and they were 10 years older than I was.

Tony Bennett

#20. My favorite singer to this day is Nat King Cole. I've tried to emulate his phrasing. It is so absolutely beautiful to listen to his lovely voice.

Johnny Mathis

#21. I am an American citizen and feel I am entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.

Nat King Cole

#22. I'm an old soul. I like the Nat King Cole; Sam Cooke is my favorite singer of all time. But I'm into neo-soul; I'm into R&B. Some of the modern stuff appeals to me, but most of it comes from an older time.

Trai Byers

#23. I ordered a coffee and a little something to eat and savored the warmth and dryness. Somewhere in the background Nat King Cole sang a perky tune. I watched the rain beat down on the road outside and told myself that one day this would be twenty years ago.

Bill Bryson

#24. Critics don't buy records. They get 'em free.

Nat King Cole

#25. My mom was an amazing singer and music was a big part of my life, so I grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini; I used to watch 'The Andy Williams Show' on TV. I was very musical, so I was watching stuff that most kids my age wouldn't be interested in.

Gloria Estefan

#26. My dad's family were political and he was always a theatrical creature, whereas my mum is really musical and her father was the touring pianist with Nat King Cole. My family was an explosive mixture of politics, religion and music - no wonder I turned out how I did.

Grace Jones

#27. Of the great singing stars of the 1940s and '50s, only one - Nat King Cole - died young, at age 45.

Robert Gottlieb

#28. Nat King Cole was a really big influence.

Bryan White

#29. I love Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Brandi, Sade, Nat King Cole. I like the Beatles. I listen to a lot of that.

Leah LaBelle

#30. Probably more than anybody else, I loved Nat 'King' Cole as a performer - not only his singing but his piano playing. Whenever he had a new record come out, I'd get it and try to learn how he was playing. And he was one of the nicest people I'd ever met.

Bruce Forsyth