Although criticised by some as morbid, the album sold some 14 million copies and won six Grammys, including Album of the Year as well as Record and Song of the Year for the title track duet.
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“It is with heavy hearts that we bring to you all the news of our Mother and sister’s passing. May her soul rest in peace”, tweeted the Rev. Jesse Jackson on New Year’s Day. “With Love.” No longer trying to keep up with current sounds, Cole paid tribute to her father with reworked versions of some of his best-known songs, including “That Sunday That Summer”, “Too Young” and “Mona Lisa”. She sang R&B, jazz, and pop music.
A physically weakened Cole, victor of nine Grammy Awards, was forced to cancel a string of concert performances over the last three months after a recurrence of hepatitis C linked to her earlier drug abuse. She was, after all, the daughter of Nat King Cole, whose velvety baritone was one of the most distinctive voices of the 20th century.
The daughter of the legendary Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, who died yesterday at age 65, began singing with her father as a child. In 1991, she released her best-selling album, “Unforgettable…”
Natalie Cole’s health remained tentative from that point on, sadly ironic in that breakthrough hepatitis-C-specific drug treatments that can cure less advanced stages of the disease have recently gone on the market.
Natalie’s talent was eclipsed only by her extraordinary strength of character.
“I am sorry to hear about Natalie Cole’s passing”. In Angel On My Shoulder, her autobiography from 2000, Natalie Cole wrote that her drug addiction nearly resulted in her failing to escape from a fire in 1981 that occurred in her Las Vegas hotel.
“Her sumptuous, buttery, vocals are the kind of rare treasure that needs only the twinkling of a piano, the snapping of fingers, and the thump-thump-thump of a stand-up bass”. And Natalie Cole really does ascend to this position of being one of the most sought-after R&B vocalists of her time.
More important, the album’s success established Natalie Cole as a vocal artist who was as credible a force with jazz aficionados as she was popular with pop music lovers.
For Cole, the duet was a way to recconect with her father after years of trying to get away from him as an artist.
I see the influence of Natalie Cole all over me.
When Cole was 15, and attending boarding school across the country, her father died of lung cancer.
I am thankful to have Laughed, Talked, and Sang with her on several occasions.
Cole was set to make her Broadway debut in 2014 as a guest star in Warren Carlyle’s After Midnight, following in the footsteps of Fantasia Barrino, Vanessa Williams, and Patti LaBelle, from August 5-31. The organ procurement agency One Legacy facilitated the donation from a family that had requested that their donor’s organ go to Cole if it was a match.
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Natalie Cole didn’t have this problem.
