Unforgettable: The Life and Mystique of Nat King Cole

Gourse ( Everyday: The Story of Joe Williams ) pays homage to the performer who, after starting out as a talented jazz pianist, found unprecedented fame and commercial success as a vocalist. His renditions of ``Mona Lisa,'' ``Nature Boy,'' ``Unforgettable'' and hundreds of other songs were known the world over by the time he died in 1965. Cole, a cheerful, quiet, painfully shy man who inspired devotion wherever he went, kept his personal problems out of the limelight; his adoring public was scarcely aware that he was plagued by financial woes, racial prejudice, marital difficulties, illness and complaints from critics that he had abandoned jazz for an easier road to success with popular music. The author of this well-crafted, sympathetic biography carefully pieces together the facts of her subject's life, and concludes with an impressive discography that underscores Cole's achievement. Photos not seen by PW. (June)