Song:Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer
Album:20 Golden Greats
As great as he was, Nat King Cole was not immune to the effects of Rock 'N' Roll. He had a significant dry spell before he returned to the top ten with Ramblin' Rose in 1962 and Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer in 1963. And that was Cole's final top ten hit. By that time he was a long way from his heyday in the early 50s with #1 hits like Nature Boy and Mona Lisa. He continued to chart in the 50s but his final top ten hit in the 50s was Send For Me in 1957. He hosted his NBC variety show in 1956 and he recorded in Cuba in 1958. He also got into movies, most notably as WC Handy in the 1958 film St. Louis Blues. And then his longtime arranger Nelson Riddle left Capitol Records for Frank Sinatra's new Reprise label in 1960. He finally clicked with the 1962 single Ramblin' Rose which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. And that was followed by Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer which reached #6 in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. That song was called Du Spielst ne Tolle Rolle written by German songwriter Hans Carste. The English lyrics were written by Charles Tobias who also wrote the Looney Tunes theme Merrily We Roll Along. I guess Cole's longtime producer Lee Gillette was looking for a Tin Pan Alley style song. And that's how it was arranged by Ralph Carmichael. He worked on several of Cole 60s albums and would go on to be a pioneer in the production of Christian music. After this, Cole filmed the movie Cat Ballou. When he returned home, he was diagnosed with cancer and died on Feb. 15, 1965 at age 45. Despite the terrible generic cover, this budget comp is pretty good. Here's Nat King Cole performing Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer. on the 1964 BBC TV special An Evening With Nat King Cole. You can watch the entire show on Youtube.
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