Eden Ahbez

One of the genuinely strange characters of pre-rock American popular music, Eden Ahbez's main claim to fame was as the composer of "Nature Boy." The melodically and lyrically beguiling song was a huge pop hit for <a href="spotify:artist:7v4imS0moSyGdXyLgVTIV7">Nat King Cole</a>; it would be covered by many other reputable performers including <a href="spotify:artist:1Mxqyy3pSjf8kZZL4QVxS0">Frank Sinatra</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2hGh5VOeeqimQFxqXvfCUf">John Coltrane</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1bgyxtWjZwA5PQlDsvs9b8">Sarah Vaughan</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2ukLYCAJW8XDlyobhmWQ8x">the Great Society</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:3wNX7r7t4Vaahrx9XzyYIY">Grace Slick</a>'s pre-<a href="spotify:artist:2qFr8w5sWUITRlzZ9kZotF">Jefferson Airplane</a> band). But Ahbez's modern stature rests on a 1960 album that mixed exotica and beatnik poetry.

Ahbez boasted a résumé as colorful and mysterious as his music. Born Alexander Aberle in Brooklyn in the early 20th century, he changed his name in the 1940s shortly after moving to California. A hippie a good 20 years before his time, he cultivated a Christ-like appearance with his shoulder-length hair and beard. He claimed to live on three dollars a week, sleeping outdoors with his family and eating vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

Ahbez's big success was getting <a href="spotify:artist:7v4imS0moSyGdXyLgVTIV7">Nat King Cole</a> to record "Nature Boy," after diligently pestering some of <a href="spotify:artist:7v4imS0moSyGdXyLgVTIV7">Cole</a>'s associates at the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles, where <a href="spotify:artist:7v4imS0moSyGdXyLgVTIV7">Cole</a> was performing. Some of the luster was taken off that triumph when a publishing company claimed that Ahbez had taken some of the lyrics for "Nature Boy" from one of their copyrights, the Yiddish song "Schweig Mein Hertz" (the parties reached an out-of-court settlement).

Ahbez did manage to place another tune with <a href="spotify:artist:7v4imS0moSyGdXyLgVTIV7">Cole</a>, "Land of Love (Come My Love and Live with Me)." In the mid-'50s, he did some recording with jazz musician <a href="spotify:artist:1OH5IJZ1IM8QvrZC1ZXSUm">Herb Jeffries</a>; he also did some occasional composing and singing, sometimes for rock & roll novelty records. His most comprehensive statement as a recording artist, however, was the 1960 LP Eden's Island, which wedded <a href="spotify:artist:3D9J9nPNW1cBktx5apJq4V">Martin Denny</a>-style exotica to Ahbez's near-stereotypical beatnik poetry. <a href="spotify:artist:7v4imS0moSyGdXyLgVTIV7">Nat King Cole</a>, for one, claimed that Ahbez's hippie-mystical image was no act. His desert-island paradise trip was ripe for revival by space age pop aficionados in the 1990s and reissued on CD in 1995.

Ahbez was photographed with <a href="spotify:artist:4Q82S0VzF8qlCb4PnSDurj">Brian Wilson</a> in the studio in 1966, lending further credence to the theory that the head <a href="spotify:artist:3oDbviiivRWhXwIE8hxkVV">Beach Boy</a> was influenced by exotica during the Pet Sounds and SMiLE sessions. Ahbez died in 1995 after an auto accident. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi