In the mid 1950s I had the great pleasure of meeting Nat Cole. Our senior partner George O’Reilly invited his dear friend Bing Crosby to officially open Tara Records in Tara St. Bing and George were great friends at this time. Unfortunately, Bing could not come as he was shooting ‘High Society’ with Sinatra and Gene Kelly. It would be a few years later before we had the pleasure of meeting Bing.
Somehow Bing heard Nat ‘King’ Cole was playing in Dublin’s Theatre Royal and asked Nat to do the honours. We went into overdrive, tarted the shop up, filled the window with Nat’s 12-inch LP covers and, of course, a big welcome banner.
Louis Mullen lived in the apartment over the shop. Older readers may remember Louis Mullen. He was resident vocalist in the Crystal ballroom in South Anne Street, where we tripped the light fantastic many nights of the week.
Louis suggested that he and I buy Nat a hand-made pipe set as Nat was a heavy smoker. Off we went to Kapp and Peterson and bought some magnificent pipes. In the shop I noticed a set of clay pipes– they were very touristy with harps and shamrock on them. I bought them as a joke to give Nat a laugh.
Well the laugh was on us. Nat had never heard of clay pipes– he was constantly taking them out and admiring them. It was unbelievable looking at him, he was besotted with our clay pipes. It was like we gave him the winning ticket to the Irish Sweepstake. Nat very kindly invited us to his show that night and we had a super time.
We were never to see Nat again as he died of lung cancer in 1965. In the 1950s and early 60s we knew nothing of the link with tobacco and cancer.
To this day Nat Cole and Sinatra are still Capitol Records biggest sellers and only this year all of Nat’s LPs have been reissued on two-fers, that’s two LPs on one CD.
Look out for’Love is the Thing’ with the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra. This LP was voted number one record of all time by ‘In Time Magazine’. Also, another gem is ‘Welcome to the Club’ with the great Count Basie Band. Buy them, play them and marvel.