It was 60 years ago this week that the world said goodbye to the great Nat King Cole.

Nat was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in Alabama in 1919 and began his career as a jazz pianist in the late 1930s when he formed the Nat Cole Trio and his first hit, Sweet Lorraine, came in 1940. He always claimed that his voice was attributed to his heavy smoking, During a routine x-ray, it revealed a malignant tumour on his lung and doctors suggested he quit working, but he refused and carried on. His daughter, Natalie, later claimed that he did this to ensure his family were financially stable as he knew he was terminally ill despite the media saying otherwise.

Nay died in California at the age of just 45. In 2000, Paul Gambaccini broadcast a list of the top 100 voices of the century as voted for by Radio 2 listeners and Radio Times and Daily Mail readers and Nat was placed at number three behind Elvis Presley at number two and…..let me know who you think was number one.

Let’s enjoy Nat with, arguably, his most famous song and, despite not being the original, it’s got to be the definitive version of When I Fall in Love.