Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Tracing Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" to an Old Yiddish Song

Nature Boy is a song first recorded by American jazz singer Nat King Cole. It was released on March 29, 1948, as a single by Capitol Records. The song has a very unusual history that goes back to a Yiddish song that was written in 1935 by Herman Yablokoff, a veteran of the Yiddish theatre. 

The song was written for Yablokoff's play Papirosn, with a title song that also became very popular with Yiddish theatre-goers.

Yablokoff's song was the basis for a song written by eden ahbez, a hippie before there were hippies, who refused to capitalize his name because in his view only God and Infinity deserved capitalization.

This video explains the evolution of the song from the Yiddish theatre to becoming one of the most enchanting songs of all time and the song most associated with Nat King Cole.

Enjoy!