She was the daughter of the legendary Nat King Cole, whose recording of “Unforgettable” remains one of the ultimate pop standards. Cole, the daughter of j…
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“I am sorry to hear about Natalie Cole’s passing”.
Though Nat “King” Cole died when Natalie was 15, his music lived on through many of Natalie’s albums. In 2009, she underwent a kidney transplant after being diagnosed with Hepatitis C in April 2008 and undergoing chemotherapy. She is survived by her son, Robert Yancy, and two sisters, Timolin and Casey Cole.
Cole was too young to die. She fought for so long. “She represented the Cole legend of excellence and class quite well”.
A month before that, her R&B elder Etta James passed away from leukaemia at the age of 73.
NAT KING COLE: (Singing) Unforgettable, that’s what you are. “She connected her father’s generation… and the great pop singers of that time with the generation that cane right after her, or alongside her, of great women – Whitney, Patti LaBelle, Mariah, Celine”. She sang on stage with Frank Sinatra, but also covered Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac”.
Natalie and Ruben Studdard, “When I Fall in Love”.
“I had to make peace with my past, because I can’t change it”, she told People magazine at the time. I think it just came to a point where I made a decision to do better with my life and health. I had to hold back the tears. “It took me weeks to recover”. “But, I sure remember her standing next to me, voice so pure & clear as a bell”.
In Angel On My Shoulder, her 2000 memoir, Cole said she turned to drugs because of unresolved issues, including being molested as a child and her father’s death. She eventually entered rehab in 1983. Which of her songs or albums is your favorite?
On the title cut, “Unforgettable”, she sang along with her father’s taped version to create a memorable duet. The album is special to me, and here I am sick. “Then when we did the last song, I had to say goodbye again”.
She was also nominated for an Emmy award in 1992 for a televised performance of her father’s songs. “I owed that to him”. But she continued to perform well into 2015.
Cole’s mother, Maria Cole, also had been a singer with the Duke Ellington and Count Basie bands. She was always so kind & exuded so much grace.
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After her visit, the pair maintained a relationship, one so personal that Sichko said he secretly went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for tests to see if he could donate a kidney to an ailing Cole. It was the first of nine Grammy Awards she won during her musical career. Even though Cole was able to beat her drug habit and stayed clean for the last thirty-plus years of her life, she did have residual illnesses from her time using cocaine and other substances. In 2007, it had been nearly 25 years since Cole used the drug when she received bad news from her doctors. Her sister died the morning Cole got a successful kidney transplant in May 2009. Additionally, she released three live albums, in which one ranked gold in the United States. But you know the saying: These are the best of times and the worst of times.
