Background
Lucas was born in Newark, New Jersey, from Italian ancestors.
Lucas was born in Newark, New Jersey, from Italian ancestors.
In 1922, at the age of 25, he gained renown with his hit renditions of "Picking the Guitar" and "Teasing the Frets" for Pathe Records. In 1923, Gibson Guitars proposed to build him a concert guitar with an extra deep body. Known as the "Nick Lucas Special," it has been a popular model with guitarists since.
In the same year, he began a successful career in recording phonograph records for Brunswick and remained one of their exclusive artists until 1932.
By the late 1920s, Lucas had become well known as "The Crooning Troubadour" due to the success of the recordings he made for Brunswick Records. In 1929, he co-starred in the Warner Brothers Technicolor musical, Gold Diggers of Broadway, in which he introduced the two hit songs "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine" and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips".
The latter became Lucas" official theme song. The same year, Lucas was also featured in the studio"s all-star revue, The Show of Shows.
Lucas turned down Warner Brothers" seven-year contract offer, which went instead to fellow crooner Dick Powell.
In April 1930, Warner Brothers bought Brunswick Records. Due to their appreciation of Nick Lucas, Warner Brothers provided him with his own orchestra which was billed on his records as "The Crooning Troubadours". This arrangement lasted until December 1931, when Warner Brothers licensed Brunswick to the American Record Corporation.
The new owners were not as extravagant as Warner Brothers had previously been and Lucas lost his orchestra and eventually left Brunswick in 1932 to go freelance.
He made two recordings for Durium Records in 1932 for their Hit of the Week series. These would prove to be his last major recordings.
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, Colorado of double pneumonia, three weeks before his 85th birthday. Nick Lucas is referenced in Lenny Bruce"s comic routine, The Palladium.