Nick Lucas

Nick Lucas (1897 - 1982) was an American singer and pioneer jazz guitarist, remembered as "the grandfather of the jazz guitar", whose peak of popularity lasted from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s.

Nick Lucas spent the rest of his career performing on radio as well as in night clubs and dance halls. He made a number of recordings for various small or independent labels, including Cavalier Records, where he was billed as the "Cavalier Troubadour." In 1944 he reprised some of his old hits in Soundies movie musicals, and filmed another group of songs for Snader Telescriptions in 1951. In 1974, his renditions of the songs, "I'm Gonna Charleston Back to Charleston", "When You and I Were Seventeen" and "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" were featured on the soundtrack of Paramount Pictures' The Great Gatsby (1974) with Robert Redford.

Nick Lucas died in Colorado Springs of double pneumonia, three weeks before his 85th birthday. By the end of his career, he had sold over 84 million records.