The record men had raked Tin Pan Alley from one end (Broadway) to the other (Hollywood) to get every foreseeable hit on to wax before James Caesar Petrillo put an end to it all on Dec. 31. But who could have guessed that a long-haired Hollywood "hermit," a bearded and usually barefoot character, had a hit song in his pocket? No one did—except Nat ("King") Cole. And last week, with Eden Ahbez' Nature Boy, King Cole and Capitol Records had the biggest musical scoop since the ban.
Last fall Eden, who wears his hair shoulder-length, practices breath control and eats only fruits,...
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