And after that, I gave a short eulogy for my father. We just had a really small service, so we had probably five or six people there, and we had a Buddhist monk come to the funeral home and perform a Buddhist funeral service. NGUYEN-HABERMANN: He passed in May of 2020. That someone so unforgettable thinks that I am unforgettable, too. NAT KING COLE AND NATALIE COLE: (Singing). NGUYEN-HABERMANN: And once it hit, then his eyes clearly lit up. NAT KING COLE AND NATALIE COLE: (Singing) That's why, darling. Like, oh, hey do you recognize the song that we're dancing to? NGUYEN-HABERMANN: Later in my life, you know, the song became significant again because we actually danced to it together at my wedding for our father-daughter dance. NATALIE COLE: (Singing) Unforgettable in every way. So he would sing a few bars of it every now and then. But we would always, like, sing in the car or, like, you know, sing while cooking or that kind of stuff. It wasn't like, you know, blasting Natalie Cole on a boombox. NGUYEN-HABERMANN: I never really listened to it all the time growing up. NAT KING COLE: (Singing) Unforgettable - that's what you are. NGUYEN-HABERMANN: So when I received the package and opened it, I was obviously ecstatic because I got "Too Legit To Quit." And then I also got the Natalie Cole CD. (SOUNDBITE OF NAT KING COLE AND NATALIE COLE SONG, "UNFORGETTABLE") NGUYEN-HABERMANN: And maybe for good measure, he was like, you know what? I'm just going to toss in this Natalie Cole CD to balance it out and introduce her to some better music. NGUYEN-HABERMANN: And at this point, he was a middle aged, like, Vietnamese man walking into a record store and, you know, trying to be a good dad. MC HAMMER: (Rapping) Sweat running all over my chest. Like, this is before you could buy a CD and not, like, be physically associated with making this purchase. NGUYEN-HABERMANN: And this also cracks me up because when I think about it, this is before Amazon. MC HAMMER: (Rapping) Too legit, too legit to quit. And I remember one year, I really, really wanted the MC Hammer "Too Legit To Quit" album. Here's Annie.ĪNNIE NGUYEN-HABERMANN: Every year, my dad would ask me what I would want for my birthday or what do I want for Christmas. The song "Unforgettable" by Natalie Cole is a duet with her father, Nat King Cole, and it came to have special meaning to Annie and her dad. They settled in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., and had a daughter named Annie. After the fall of Saigon, Hung and his then-wife fled to the U.S. He was born in Cambodia and grew up in Vietnam. Today we're remembering Hung Vinh Nguyen. We are calling our tribute Songs of Remembrance. To remember some of those who've lost their lives, NPR is sharing the music that moved them and hearing stories from their friends and families. have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic hit this country last year. More than half a million people in the U.S.
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