Artist · chart history · #193 in indie & aaa artist polls
Nat King Cole
Solo artist Montgomery United States
Nat King Cole is an artist from Montgomery. Nat King Cole has 10 chart appearances on 7 radio countdowns from 4 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Unforgettable”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #228. The station that charted Nat King Cole most often is WFPK (Louisville, KY), with 4 appearances.
Nat King Cole, born in Montgomery in 1919, started out as a jazz pianist, and a formidable one. In the late 1930s he put together the King Cole Trio, which became the top-selling act on Capitol through the 1940s, the only Black one on the label, and set the template for the small jazz combos that came after. "Straighten Up and Fly Right" catches him at his most swinging.
From 1950 he stepped out front as a solo singer, and that voice, velvet and unhurried, carried more than 100 songs onto the pop charts: "Mona Lisa", "Nature Boy", "Unforgettable", "When I Fall in Love", "Smile", "L-O-V-E". His 1960 Christmas album outsold every other Christmas record of the decade. From 1956 to 1957 he hosted The Nat King Cole Show on NBC, the first nationally broadcast TV show with a Black American host. He faced fierce racism throughout his career, belonged to his local NAACP branch, played benefits for civil rights groups and joined the 1963 March on Washington.
He died in 1965, and the honours kept coming long after: the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2022, "The Christmas Song" finally reached the top ten of the Hot 100, 62 years after it first charted. His daughter Natalie Cole revisited his songs on Unforgettable... with Love in 1991.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Nat King Cole on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unforgettable | 4 | #228 | – | – | |
| 2 | Route 66 | 1 | #103 | – | – | |
| 3 | (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66 | 1 | #102 | – | – | |
| 4 | Nature Boy | 1 | #1663 | – | – | |
| 5 | Mona Lisa | 1 | #1866 | – | – | |
| 6 | Christmas Song | 1 | #1974 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 498 | Unforgettable | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2023 | 102 | (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66 | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places |
| 2012 | 228 | Unforgettable | WYEP Top 500 Songs Countdown |
| 2010 | 103 | Route 66 | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) |
| 2006 | 196 | Artist ranking | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Artists (2006) |
| 2004 | 500 | Unforgettable | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) |
| 2001 | 341 | Unforgettable | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1663 | Nature Boy | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1866 | Mona Lisa | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1974 | Christmas Song | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
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