Watch Nat King Cole’s ‘Ask Me’ Ed Sullivan Show Performance
The performance, which aired in 1956, comes in the middle of Cole’s streak of appearances on the classic show.
Another classic performance from The Ed Sullivan Show is out of the vault and now on YouTube. “Ask Me,” performed by Nat King Cole on the show on March 18, 1956 is online now. The live performance of the song has also been made available on Spotify, allowing fans to listen to Cole’s rendition of the standard anywhere their headphones take them.
Cole appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 13 times over the years, starting with his performance of “Down In Mexico” in 1949.
The addition of “Ask Me” to YouTube comes amid renewed appreciation for Cole’s music in the way most people first heard it: on vinyl. Cole’s seminal holiday album, 1960’s The Christmas Song, was among the first works selected by UMe for its new Vinylphyle series. Featuring Cole’s classic recording of “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You),” the album also features his renditions of holiday standards like “Deck The Halls,” “O Tannenbaum,” “Joy To The World,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” The album also comes with deluxe packaging, liner notes, and a new essay. Says RTI President Don McInnis, “It’s something to hold, to read, to study while the record spins. That’s part of the magic of vinyl.”
But it’s not just Cole’s Christmas music that has continued to earn acclaim and adoration throughout the decades. In September, the official Nat King Cole YouTube channel uploaded an all-new visualizer for his track “Orange Colored Sky,” pairing the music with a warm autumnal visual. Before that, the channel also shared a new visualizer for “I Don’t Want To See Tomorrow,” which comes from Cole’s 1964 album I Don’t Want to Be Hurt Anymore, and was prominently featured in the Amazon series Fallout.
Buy Nat ‘King’ Cole’s ‘The Christmas Song’ as an exclusive Vinylphyle edition here.
