I’ll keep this post short and sweet. I just wanted share a song that I love. It’s the old jazz standard Nature Boy, by a pianist called Roger Williams. I first heard this version watching a movie called Untamed Heart (an old Christian Slater classic) back in the days before the internet. As the years rolled by and the internet became easier and better, I managed to find out the name of the song and who recorded it and yet still it was not available to hear or buy anywhere online.
I bought it on an LP from eBay, from a collection of his called Music of the 1940s. I had to wait patiently while my brother kindly transferred it to CD. And so here we are. I got around to putting it on YouTube so I could share it with anyone who cared. Ignore the cheesy visuals, I just used photos from my collection to make ‘the video’.
Nature Boy, written by Eden Ahbez performed by Roger Williams.
If you like this melancholy melody, there are some other fine versions by Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Jon Hassell and Ella Fitzgerald,or how about these interpretations by David Bowie & Massive Attack and Gandalf.
In 1955 Williams recorded Autumn Leaves which was the only piano instrumental to reach number one on the Billboard pop charts. It remains the best-selling piano record of all time, with more than 2 million sold. Roger Williams died last year in October.
Roger Williams’ Nature Boy is now available on the album Fabulous Forties on iTunes.
