7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

The prejudices of the era in which Cole lived hindered
his potential for even greater stardom. His talents extended
beyond singing and piano playing: he excelled as a relaxed
and humorous stage personality, and he was also a capable
actor, evidenced by his performances in the films Istanbul
(1957), China Gate (1957), Night of the Quarter Moon (1959),
and Cat Ballou (1965); he also played himself in The Nat
“King” Cole Musical Story (1955) and portrayed blues legend
W.C. Handy in St. Louis Blues (1958). His daughter Natalie
is also a popular singer who achieved her greatest chart
success in 1991 with “Unforgettable,” an electronically
created duet with her father.

Ella Fitzgerald

(b. April 25, 1917, Newport News, Va., U.S.—d. June 15, 1996, Beverly
Hills, Calif.)

A

merican singer Ella Fitzgerald became world famous
for the wide range and rare sweetness of her voice
and was an international legend during a career that
spanned some six decades.
Singing in a style influenced by the jazz vocalist Connee
Boswell, Fitzgerald won amateur talent contests in New
York City before she joined the Chick Webb orchestra in
1935; Webb became the teenaged Fitzgerald’s guardian
when her mother died. She made her first recording, “Love
and Kisses,” in 1935, and her first hit, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,”
followed in 1938. After Webb’s death in 1939, she led his
band until it broke up in 1942. She then soloed in cabarets
and theatres, toured internationally with such pop and
jazz stars as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Duke
Ellington, the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, and Dizzy
Gillespie, and recorded prolifically.
During much of her early career she had been noted
for singing and recording novelty songs. Her status rose