Nat King Cole Quotes

Primarily I'm a meat man, although once in a while I toy with a few vegetables.

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

I got the message. All of us get the message, sooner or later. If you get it before it's too late or before you're too old, you'll pull through all right.

You've got to change with the public's taste.

The Supreme Court is having a hard time integrating schools. What chance do I have to integrate audiences?

The sheriff is at the cash register, and if I don't get a hit soon, I don't know what I'll do.

When I first organized the King Cole Trio back in 1937, we were strictly what you would call an instrumental group. To break the monotony, I would sing a few songs here and there between the playing. I sang things I had known over the years. I wasn't trying to give it any special treatment, just singing. I noticed thereafter people started requesting more singing, and it was just one of those things.

Calypso Blues"

Wa oh oh, wa oh oh
Wa oh wa oh wa oh way
Wa oh oh, wa oh oh
Wa oh wa oh wa oh way

Sittin' by de ocean
Me heart, she feel so sad,
Sittin' by de ocean,
Me heart, she feel so sad
Don't got de money
To take me back to Trinidad.

Fine calypso woman,
She cook me shrimp and rice,
Fine calypso woman,
She cook me shrimp and rice
These Yankee hot dogs
Don't treat me stomach very nice.

In Trinidad, one dollar buy
Papaya juice, banana pie,
Six coconut, one female goat,
An' plenty fish to fill de boat.
One bushel bread, one barrel wine,
An' all de town, she come to dine.
But here is bad, one dollar buy
Cup of coffee, ham on rye.

Me throat she sick from necktie,
Me feet hurt from shoes.
Me pocket full of empty,
I got Calypso blues.

She need to, bubble like perculatah'
She come from Trinidad so winin' in her nature
Never can't I assess a reps until failure
Tell her if she stops she needs fe fly Air Jamaica
Anytime she land she nah go feel like no stranger
Carry us beyond we similar in behavior
Them no understand our customs and we flavor
Need a natty dred to be the new care taker, lord!

These Yankee girl give me big scare,
Is black de root, is blond de hair.
Her eyelash false, her face is paint,
And pads are where de girl she ain't!
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I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.

Oh, my darling, it's incredible, that someone so unforgettable should think I am unforgettable, too.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you've got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

I was a guinea pig for some hoodlums who thought they could hurt me and frighten me and keep other Negro entertainers from the South.

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

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

People don't slip. Time catches up with them.

Only time, education and plenty of good schooling will make anti-segregation work.

If I could read it, I could play it.

I ... started out to become a jazz pianist; in the meantime I started singing and I sang the way I felt and that's just the way it came out.

Although it's been said many times, many ways ... Merry Christmas to you!

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

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

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

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

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.

I'm a businessman. I work for business people. The kind of thing they say is: Now we've sold a lot of records, let's sell some more.

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

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

I'm proud of our court. It knocks back a lot of the propaganda the Communists put out about the way America treats her Negroes.

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

Music is emotional, and you may catch a musician in a very unemotional mood or you may not be in the same frame of mind as the musician. So a critic will often say a musician is slipping.

If you smile through your fear and sorrow, smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see the sun come shining through for you.