Cole was exposed to the greats of jazz, soul and blues at an early age and began performing at the age of 11. Her debut album in 1975, Inseparable, won her immediate praise, with the smash single This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) (#1 R&B, #6 Pop) winning her a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female, a category that had been monopolized by Aretha Franklin, since its inception in 1967. She also was named the Grammys' Best New Artist of 1975. She attended the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield, MA.
More hits followed through 1980, including her biggest Pop hit, 1977's I've Got Love On My Mind, as well as Sophisticated Lady (She's A Different Lady) (1976), Our Love (1978), and Someone That I Used To Love (1980). "I've Got Love On My Mind" and "Our Love" both earned certifications as Gold singles. But then her career hit a snag in the early 1980s due to a severe drug problem. By 1985, Natalie was clean, sober, and in fine voice, and ready to begin her comeback in earnest with the album Dangerous, released on the Modern label.
In 1987, she released Everlasting (on EMI Manhattan) which sold over 2 million copies in the U.S., and won Cole a Soul Train Award for Female Single of the Year for the #1 R&B ballad I Live for Your Love. This album was the one that put Natalie Cole firmly back in the spotlight, yielding three major hit singles: Jump Start, "I Live For Your Love" (#2 AC and #13 Pop as well as #1 R&B), and a successful remake of Bruce Springsteen's Pink Cadillac (#5 Pop, #16 AC, and #1 Dance). The album also included a taste of things to come in her career with a remake of one of her father's signature hits, "When I Fall In Love," which did moderately well on the AC chart. In 1989, the aptly-titled Good To Be Back gave her another across-the-board smash with "Miss You Like Crazy" (#1 both R&B and AC, and #7 Pop).
However, it was her 1991 album, Unforgettable... with Love, featuring her own arrangements of her father's greatest hits, that gave her the most success. Ironically, when Natalie began her career, she was determined not to capitalize on her father's name and wanted to forge her own identity by going after the soul market in earnest. For many years, she also found the prospect of recording her late father's songs too painful on a personal level. But Unforgettable... With Love certainly paid off. The set sold over 5 million copies in the United States alone, and won Cole several Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. The album featured a duet, the title track, with her father, created by splicing a recording of his vocals into the track. As a single, it reached #14 on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 chart, and went gold. The one sour spot in the album's success was that it strained Natalie's already-tumultuous relationship with her mother, Maria, who said in interviews at the time that she couldn't listen to the album or attend any of her daughter's concerts because she felt that the music really belonged to her late husband.
Natalie has released several more albums of pop standards in the years since; as a result of appealing to the "adult standards" audience, she has made only occasional forays onto the pop singles charts in that time (for example, "A Smile Like Yours," #8 AC and #84 Pop in 1997), although her albums still sell well. Her 1999 album Snowfall On The Sahara marked a return to the easy adult-contemporary soul that categorized her late-1980s hits, but for 2002's critically-praised Ask A Woman Who Knows, she turned more to the jazz side of the spectrum, covering songs made famous by Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, and Sarah Vaughan.
Battle With Drugs
In 2000, Cole released an autobiography, Angel on my Shoulder, which described her battle with drugs during much of her life. In the book, Cole admitted to using LSD, heroin and crack cocaine. Cole said she began experimenting with drugs while attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and was arrested in Toronto, Canada for possession of heroin in 1975. Cole continued to spiral out of control - including an incident in which her young son Robert nearly drowned in the family swimming pool while she and her first husband, the late Reverend Marvin Yancy were on a drug binge - until she entered rehab in 1983.
In concert with the release of the book, her autobiography was turned into a made-for-TV movie, The Natalie Cole Story, which aired December 10, 2000 on NBC.
Natalie has been married three times and has a son Robert Yancy (by Marvin Yancy), born in 1977. She later married former Rufus drummer Andre Fischer, who co-produced the Grammy Award-winning Unforgettable... With Love, Natalie's love offering featuring songs made famous by her father, including a faux-duet between her and her father.
The marriage to Fischer ended in divorce a few years later, amidst rumors of domestic verbal and physical abuse.
It has also been reported that Natalie has recovered from a life-threatening hepatitis illness (most likely the cause of her years of drug abuse) by having a liver transplant.
Miss Cole went on to release more albums after Unforgettable...With Love, with most of them featuring jazz-oriented standard songs or pop-song remakes. None of the albums were nearly as successful as Unforgettable...With Love.
As of 2013, Natalie Cole spent most of her professional time covering the concert circuit entertaining audiences around the world with her hits.
On December 31, 2015, Natalie Cole died from congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was aged 65.
Calling You
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Somewhere better than where you've been
A coffee machine that needs some fixing
In a little cafe' just around the bend
I am calling you, I know you hear me
I am calling you
A hot dry wind blowing right through me
Oh, the baby's crying and I can't sleep
Oh, coming closer, such sweet release
And I am calling you, can you hear me
I am calling you
Oooh, yeah
Desert road from Vegas to nowhere
Somewhere better than where you've been
But we both know that a change is coming
Coming closer around the bend
And I am calling you, don't you hear me
I am calling you
I, honey, I'm calling, I'm calling, I'm calling you
I know you hear me
I am calling you
Mmm, hmm
The lyrics to Natalie Cole's song "Calling You" have multiple interpretations. On one hand, it can be interpreted as a plea from the singer to a loved one who has fallen on hard times, urging them to come to a better place with her. The desert road from Vegas to nowhere could represent the uncertain and difficult journey to a better life. The coffee machine in the little cafe that needs fixing could symbolize the need for improvement and change. The hot, dry wind and crying baby could represent the hardships and struggles the singer and her loved one are facing. However, they both know that change is coming, bringing sweet release and a better future.
On the other hand, the song could also represent a longing for freedom and escape from a difficult situation. The desert road could serve as a metaphor for feeling trapped or stuck. The coffee machine that needs fixing and the crying baby could symbolize the suffocating routine and responsibilities of daily life. The singer is calling out for someone, possibly a lover or a savior, to come and rescue her from this situation with the promise of a better life.
Overall, "Calling You" is a powerful and emotional song with a universal message that can be interpreted in multiple ways.
Line by Line Meaning
Desert road from Vegas to nowhere
A desolate and empty road stretching from a place of excess and indulgence to nowhere; representing emptiness and the void in the singer's life.
Somewhere better than where you've been
A hopeful expectation of a better future or destiny than the past or present.
A coffee machine that needs some fixing
In a little cafe' just around the bend
A humble place of refuge that needs improvement, where you wait for things to get better.
I am calling you, I know you hear me
I am calling you
The singer reaches out to someone she can trust or has a past with, asking them to listen and comfort her.
A hot dry wind blowing right through me
A metaphorical representation of the emptiness and despair the singer feels.
Oh, the baby's crying and I can't sleep
The trials and difficulties of life obstructing the singer's ability to have peace or rest, causing anxiety and worry.
But we both know that a change is coming
Hope prevails that something better will come to pass, and that the despair won't last forever.
Oh, coming closer, such sweet release
An upcoming change or relief from difficulty is anticipated and will be a welcome relief.
And I am calling you, can you hear me
I am calling you
The singer's desire for connection and support is reinforced, reiterating her need for someone to listen and provide solace.
Oooh, yeah
An emotional outburst that highlights the singer's desperation and pain that she seeks to relieve through this call.
Lyrics © DistroKid, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Unison Rights S.L., Songtrust Ave
Written by: BOB TELSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind