Double Take: 'Nature Boy' Nat King Cole / Massive Attack

Robert Webb on cover versions

Made famous by Nat King Cole, "Nature Boy" was written by an extraordinary man. Eden Ahbez, born in Brooklyn in 1908, a keen proselytiser of love and peace, adopted a lifestyle alien to most in the postwar years. By the late Forties, he was living a rustic life in sandals, beard and long hair, camped out below the first L in the Hollywood sign above Los Angeles. He studied Oriental mysticism, ate only fruit and nuts and wrote the occasional song to make ends meet. He was, if you like, the first hippie.

Ahbez began pestering Cole's manager, Mort Ruby, with a song he wanted the jazz star to record. The autobiographical "Nature Boy" tells of a "strange, enchanted boy" who wandered far, only to learn that the greatest gift is "to love and be loved". It was very different to anything in his repertoire but, attracted by the Yiddish melody and sensing crossover appeal, Nat included it in his show.

"Nature Boy" was recorded in August 1947, with a string arrangement by Frank DeVol. Initially a B side, it gained more airplay than the flip, "Lost April", and was Cole's breakthrough vocal hit. But Cole tired of it; when it was suggested that he record a sequel, "Nature Girl", he said, "I damn near hit him with the piano."

"Nature Boy" has proven an endurable standard. The most recent version was by Massive Attack and David Bowie for the 2001 film Moulin Rouge. Bowie cut his vocal in New York and sent it to London. "We took the strings and harps, looped them, and did this digital stretching technique on them," says Robert "3D" Del Naja. "We added some obscure samples, scrubbing the sample in backwards and forwards to give this really undulating feeling." Bowie described the mix as "slinky and mysterious" and said 3D had created "a riveting piece of work".

Ahbez is sadly not around to enjoy Massive Attack. His eccentricity made him a media star for a while after Cole's hit, before he retreated to the Hollywood hills, only to re-emerge briefly in the Sixties in cahoots with Brian Wilson. He died in 1995.