At Hollywood and Vine, the Capitol Records Tower rises above the neighborhood like a stack of records waiting to be played. It is one of Hollywood’s most recognizable landmarks—but its story begins before the building existed, with a songwriter, a record-store owner, an unforgettable singer and a mysterious nature-loving composer who reportedly slept beneath the Hollywood Sign.
Their intertwined stories reveal something essential about Hollywood: extraordinary things can happen when unlikely people, chance encounters and creative ambition converge in one place.
Johnny Mercer Brings a Record Company West
In 1942, acclaimed songwriter and singer Johnny Mercer joined songwriter and film producer Buddy DeSylva and music retailer Glenn Wallichs to establish Capitol Records.
It was the first major record label based on the West Coast. Until then, the American recording business was largely centered in New York. Creating Capitol in Hollywood placed the record industry closer to the musicians, singers, filmmakers and radio performers already working here.
Capitol’s early offices were located near Sunset and Vine, and the fledgling company’s roster grew rapidly. One of its most important artists was a gifted pianist and vocalist named Nat King Cole. Learn more about the iconic studios and filming locations that have shaped Hollywood’s rich history and continue to influence the entertainment industry today.
Nat King Cole Helps Build Capitol
Cole had already made a name for himself with the King Cole Trio when his smooth, unmistakable voice began moving to the foreground. His Capitol recordings attracted an enormous audience and helped transform him into one of America’s most important popular singers.
His success was so consequential that the future Capitol Records Building would become known as “the House That Nat Built.”
But one of the defining songs of Cole’s career came from far outside the established music business.
The composer was Eden Ahbez, a long-haired, sandaled wanderer whose life bore little resemblance to conventional Hollywood. Ahbez embraced vegetarianism, nature and a simple way of living years before the counterculture movements of the 1960s. According to Hollywood legend, he sometimes camped beneath the Hollywoodland Sign on Mt. Lee.
His unlikely path to Capitol Records began with a song called “Nature Boy.”
Eden Ahbez Comes Down From the Hills
In 1947, Ahbez tried repeatedly to get “Nature Boy” into Nat King Cole’s hands. Accounts of the precise delivery differ, adding to the story’s mythology, but the song eventually reached Cole.
Cole recorded it in August 1947. Released the following year, “Nature Boy” became a phenomenal success, spending eight weeks at the top of the charts.
Its haunting melody and message of love seemed to come from another world. Yet it emerged from Hollywood—from its hills, cafés, music rooms and community of outsiders and dreamers.
The song also arrived during a time when racial segregation remained part of Los Angeles life. Cole, a Black artist, and Ahbez, an unconventional composer living on society’s margins, created a recording that reached listeners across those divisions. For anyone planning a visit, our guide to Hollywood Walk of Fame Stars 2026 shares the latest ceremony details, honorees, and helpful tips for attending.
“Nature Boy” became one of Cole’s signature songs and strengthened Capitol’s position as a major force in American music. It also established Ahbez as one of Hollywood’s most unusual songwriters.
The Tower Rises at Hollywood and Vine
By the 1950s, Capitol Records had outgrown its earlier Hollywood locations. The company’s famous tower at 1750 Vine Street was completed in 1956.
Designed by Louis Naidorf of Welton Becket Associates, the 13-story landmark is widely recognized as the world’s first circular office building. Its curved floors and rooftop spire give it the appearance of records stacked on a turntable, although its architect maintained that resemblance was coincidental.
Inside, Capitol Studios became nearly as legendary as the building itself. Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, the Beach Boys and countless other artists created music there. Specially constructed underground echo chambers gave recordings a richness that could not easily be duplicated elsewhere.
Through it all, Nat King Cole remained central to the Capitol story—the artist whose record sales helped make the company’s extraordinary growth possible.
A Landmark Enters Another Chapter
Capitol Records and Capitol Music Group are now part of Universal Music Group. In 2023, Universal Music Group acquired a 50 percent interest in the entity that owns the Capitol Records Building. The company also secured a long-term lease, reinforcing its connection to the landmark and the recording legacy housed within it.
That distinction is important: Universal did not simply purchase the entire tower. It became a half-owner of the building-owning entity while continuing to operate Capitol Music Group from the Hollywood landmark.
The arrangement represents another chapter in a story that has already survived dramatic changes in technology, ownership, musical tastes and the recording business itself. For a deeper understanding of Hollywood’s major studios and their lasting influence on the entertainment industry, read our detailed feature on Universal Studios and its remarkable corporate journey.
Hollywood, the Place Where It Happened
The Capitol Records Tower is often photographed as an architectural curiosity or used as shorthand for the entertainment industry. But its deeper meaning comes from the people and events connected to it.
Johnny Mercer believed a major record company could be built in Hollywood. Glenn Wallichs and Buddy DeSylva helped turn that belief into a business. Nat King Cole’s artistry helped the company flourish. Eden Ahbez descended from the Hollywood Hills with a song unlike anything else on the radio.
Together, they created a chain of events that could have happened only in Hollywood.
Today, the Tower still stands above Hollywood and Vine—not merely as a monument to famous recordings, but as evidence of Hollywood’s capacity to bring together the established and the unconventional, commerce and creativity, aspiration and accident.
Sometimes the mythology of Hollywood can obscure the real place beneath it. The Capitol Records story reminds us that the real Hollywood is often more remarkable than the myth.