Nature Boy from Brooklyn

The record men had raked Tin Pan Alley from one end (Broadway) to the other (Hollywood) to get every foreseeable hit on to wax before James Caesar Petrillo put an end to it all on Dec. 31. But who could have guessed that a long-haired Hollywood "hermit," a bearded and usually barefoot character, had a hit song in his pocket? No one did--except Nat ("King") Cole. And last week, with Eden Ahbez' Nature Boy, King Cole and Capitol Records had the biggest musical scoop since the ban.

Last fall Eden, who wears his hair shoulder-length, practices breath control and eats only fruits, nuts and vegetables, shuffled into Los Angeles' Lincoln Theater. He had a manuscript he wanted Cole to see ("I like the gentleness with which he plays"). Then he took off for the desert to commune with Avak the Healer ("Although we needed an interpreter, we spoke the same language inside").

Head Start. When he got back, Cole was waiting for him with a contract for his song. Capitol made a sneak recording of it, backing Cole's voice with a rich, fluty orchestral accompaniment. Fascinated by its haunting melody (it sounds something like an old Marlene Dietrich special), disc jockeys in three weeks have played it into No. 3 on Variety's jukebox hit parade. Other record companies last week scrambled to catch up. Unable to use Petrillo's men, Columbia recorded Frank Sinatra against a chorus of singers; Decca did the same with Dick Haymes. Nature Boy's lyrics, also by Ahbez, were a cut above the usual Tin Pan Alley doggerel:

There was a boy,

A very strange, enchanted boy . . .

A little shy and sad of eye,

But very wise was he . . .

This he said to me:

The greatest thing you'll ever learn

Is just to love and be loved in return.-

Head Music. Eden Ahbez (who signs his name with small letters because he believes that "only God and the Infinite should be capitalized") looks like a fugitive from Mysore, but is actually from Brooklyn by way of Kansas. Now 35, Eden says he has been hearing wonderful music in his head ever since he can remember.

He started composing Nature Boy after he became interested in yoga and other Eastern philosophies four years ago (says he: "In my body, I am of the West; in my soul, I am of the East. In my music, I am trying to bring the two together").

With an estimated $20,000 beginning to roll in from Nature Boy, Eden is feeling quite a pull from the West. He still likes to sleep outdoors (he is married, expecting a child), but is now pestered by reporters who ask him about his song, his beard, and what yoga means. He is about to give up his bicycle for a car--something hard-seated like a jeep.

Tin Pan Alley publishers are already thinking about grinding up five other songs he wrote (Nature Boy is one of a suite of six). They don't always like his lyrics, but they can fix that. Sample (from Brother Song):

If he's black or white or brown or red or yellow,

Just give him love and he's a real good fellow

is now changed to something more surefire:

You can take it from a guy who's been all over,

That love works better than a four-leaf clover.*

* Published by Burke & Van Heusen, Inc., by arrangement with Crestview Music Corp. Copyright 1948.

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