Freddy Cole has passed on (October 15, 1931 – June 27, 2020). Yes, Lionel Frederick Cole was one of Nat "King" Cole's brothers. The youngest. They're all dead now. Eddie was born in 1910, Nat was born in 1919, Ike was born in 1927, and Freddy in 1931.
Freddy first gained some attention in 1953 when he recorded "Whispering Grass" for Okeh. His varied career included records, a lot of touring, and session work, including commercial jingles. A documentary was done on him in 2006 aptly titled "The Cole Nobody Knows."
Fans of the blog know that there's ANOTHER "Cole Nobody Knows," and that's my very late friend Bobby Cole, who died back on December 19th, 1996. In his tumultuous lifetime, he had Top 40 success once, via the very first cover version of "Mr. Bojangles." He'd heard its author Jerry Jeff Walker perform a folk version in Greenwich Village, and knew it would be fantastic given a more Sgt. Pepper-type arrangement...adding a bit of "Mr. Kite" calliope and "Day in the Life" somberness. Bobby's version and Jeff's version ended up dueling for chart position across the country. Where Columbia/Date had more influence, the radio stations played Bobby, and where Atlantic/Atco had more clout, it was Walker. Also I think the North tended to prefer Bobby's urban version (which was copied by Sammy Davis Jr. and George Burns) and the South Walker's (which was copied by Bob Dylan and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band).
As for people covering Bobby's songs...only two people anyone's heard of tried to wax him. Nancy Sinatra performed "Flowers" on one of her albums, and late in his career, when Bobby was long gone, Freddy offered a cover of the
smoke-dream ballad, "You Could Hear a Pin Drop."
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