Music: Remember the Public

Nat "King" Cole is a confident soul with an explanation of his own for his steady popularity: "You've got to be elastic and change with the public's taste."

Currently, the public's taste for a schmalzy ballad called Too Young has put Crooner Cole's recording at the top of the bestselling heap. It's a success, says Cole, because he sings words, not notes. "I'm an interpreter of stories, and when I perform it's like I'm just sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories." This is just as well, for whatever his voice is, it is not, as he is the first...

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