The End Of A Rainbow
by Larry Williams
In September of 2005, I received a rather desperate call from a bride whose wedding was only one week away. Apparently she could not get a hold of the DJ she booked nearly a year earlier. The e-mails she sent him were returned undeliverable and his cell phone had been disconnected. Of course, I could spend an hour addressing this issue alone . . . but there is so much more to this story.
I quoted her my price. She immediately felt comfortable with my professionalism and booked me on the spot for her North Lake Tahoe wedding at an exclusive yacht club. We worked closely over the next several days (by phone) and put together a great program of music and a functional timeline to make for a smooth running day. She came from a wonderful family and was actually raised in Tahoe City, where her parents still live.
The wedding ceremony and reception ran smoothly. The bride was very happy. So too was her father – whom I enjoyed a great conversation with towards the end of the evening. In this conversation, he recounted the events of his wedding more than forty years ago. He said he had been searching, in vain, all this time for he and his wife’s “first dance” song. Apparently, he had a live band play his wedding in the early 60’s. All he could remember about the song is that it was a Nat King Cole song which had the words “end of the rainbow” in it. Sadly, the lead singer of this hired band died a year later. He went on to tell me that for the last forty years he has asked every DJ and musician about this song. In each case, nobody had ever heard of it.
I returned home, happy that I was able to “save” this wedding for this bride. She had gone through so much having been ripped off by an unscrupulous and unprofessional DJ. I then began to focus on this song with the words “end of the rainbow” by Nat King Cole. I am a big Nat King Cole fan. I actually have an authentic autograph of his hanging in my office. I also own his CD box set and even have original 78 RPM records sitting in my 1947 Wurlitzer Jukebox in my living room.
I began by doing a Google search on my computer for these song lyrics. Several possible choices came up, but nothing with Nat King Cole. There were actually a couple of Nat King Cole songs with the words “rainbow” in it . . . but not in the context that he had recounted. I was becoming quite frustrated but could not walk away from what was now a challenge to solve this mystery. I searched the song lyrics again and this time decided to focus on a time frame of songs from 1955 to 1962. I stumbled upon the Canadian music charts of the period and a song entitled “The End” which charted at # 7 in 1958. It was from a little known Decca recording artist by the name of Earl Grant.
I then did a search for Earl Grant. I found many articles about him. He was a tall, thin black man described as having a voice that was unmistakably similar to Nat King Cole. He had several albums in the late 50’s and 60’s. He was highly regarded as the “next” Nat King Cole. So much so, he even had an album entitled “Earl Grant – Songs Made Famous By Nat Cole”. I then went to i-Tunes and found the song “The End”. It was a beautiful song with the hauntingly similar voice of Nat King Cole.
I called the father of the bride and gave him the good news. He was overjoyed and amazed by my tenacity to track down the song. I purchased Earl Grant’s Greatest Hits CD and made arrangements to drive it up to North Lake Tahoe to give to him. It was a wonderful “end” to a search that meant a great deal to this dad.
I have embedded the following YouTube video where you can hear this song and the amazing voice of Earl Grant. Enjoy!
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