Natalie Cole

Natalie Cole was a gifted R&B and pop singer who carried on her famous father Nat King Cole’s musical legacy. Charting her own path, she won nine Grammys and scored six No. 1 R&B hits. • Cole was born into a musical family. Her father was Nat King Cole, and her mother, Maria, was a jazz singer who worked with Count Basie and Duke Ellington. • At age six, she dueted with her father on a Christmas song. She began performing in her native Los Angeles by age 11. • After her father’s death in 1965, Cole enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she graduated with a degree in child psychology. • In 1975, Cole signed with Capitol Records and released her debut album, Inseparable. The LP yielded the No. 1 R&B hits “This Will Be” and “Inseparable”. The former earned her a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. She also picked up Best New Artist. • “I’ve Got Love”, off her third album, 1977’s Unpredictable, became her first Top 5 pop hit and fourth R&B chart-topper. • Cole remained a steady presence on the R&B charts in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Her next major pop hit came with her 1987 cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac”. The single reached No. 5 in both the US and the UK. • Cole enjoyed a massive comeback with 1991’s Unforgettable: With Love, an album of standards previously recorded by her father. Featuring “Unforgettable”—a virtual duet with her late father—the album became her first to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200. • Unforgettable: With Love won the Grammy for Album of the Year, while “Unforgettable” picked up Record of the Year. • In 2000, Cole starred as herself in the TV movie Livin’ for Love: The Natalie Cole Story, adapted from her autobiography Angel on my Shoulder. • She released her 23rd and final album, Natalie Cole en Español, in 2013. It marked her first Spanish-language album. • She died in December 2015 at age 65.