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.
Carol Of The Bells
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sweet silver bells,
All seem to say,
Throw cares away
Christmas is here,
Bringing good cheer,
To young and old,
Ding dong ding dong
Their Christmas song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From everywhere
Filling the air
Oh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,
Gaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer,
Christmas is here,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
On on they send ,
On without end,
Their joyful tone
To every home
Hark how the bells,
Sweet silver bells,
All seem to say,
Throw cares away
All seem to say,
Throw cares away
Hark how the bells,
Sweet silver bells,
All seem to say,
Throw cares away
Christmas is here,
Bringing good cheer,
To young and old,
Meek and the bold,
Ding dong ding dong
Their Christmas song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From everywhere
Filling the air
Oh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,
Oh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,
Gaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer,
Christmas is here,
Gaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer,
Christmas is here,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
On on they send ,
On without end,
Their joyful tone
To every home
On on they send ,
On without end,
Their joyful tone
To every home
On on they send ,
On without end,
Their joyful tone
To every home
Ding Dong Ding Dong
The lyrics to the popular Christmas carol 'Carol of the Bells' by Natalie Cole are full of joy and wonder. The song starts by inviting the audience to listen to the sound of the bells that ring out a sweet melody that invites all to forget their worries and cares. The song then acknowledges that Christmas has arrived and is bringing with it a message of goodwill and cheer that resonates with both young and old, weak and strong. The bells continue to ring joyfully, spreading their message of hope and peace to all who hear them.
The carol uses the metaphor of the bells ringing over hills and dales, essentially telling their story to anyone who is willing to listen. The lyrics then emphasize that the bells are ringing happily while people are singing songs of joy and peace. Finally, the song ends with the repeated chorus of 'Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas', reminding the audience that the message of goodwill and cheer that the song represents is being sent out to every home.
Overall, the song is a beautiful representation of the spirit of Christmas, spreading a message of hope and peace to all who hear it.
Line by Line Meaning
Hark how the bells,
Listen to the Bells,
Sweet silver bells,
They sound gentle and musical like silver.
All seem to say,
All together they seem to be conveying a message.
Throw cares away
Forget your worries and enjoy the moment.
Christmas is here,
The festival of Christmas has arrived.
Bringing good cheer,
It is symbolizing the happiness that Christmas brings with it.
To young and old,
It brings happiness to everyone, regardless of their age.
Meek and the bold,
People who are gentle and people who are brave.
Ding dong ding dong
The constant ringing of the bells.
Their Christmas song
The song of the bells is tied to Christmas.
With joyful ring
The sound of the bells is filled with joy.
All caroling
The bells are singing together in celebration.
One seems to hear
It feels like you can hear everywhere you go.
Words of good cheer
Words that bring everyone happiness.
From everywhere
It's coming from all over the place.
Filling the air
It's surrounding us and drowning out all other sounds.
Oh how they pound,
The sound of the bells is strong and full.
Raising the sound,
They are becoming louder and more intense.
O'er hill and dale,
You can hear them over hills and valleys.
Telling their tale,
The bells are conveying a story through their sound.
Gaily they ring
They are ringing in happiness.
While people sing
People are also singing along with the bells.
Songs of good cheer,
The songs being sung are filled with happiness and joy.
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
A happy and repetitive call of Christmas.
On on they send,
The sound of the bells continues to travel.
On without end,
It seems like it will never stop.
Their joyful tone
The bells' sound is filled with joy and happiness.
To every home
It reaches every home.
Ding Dong Ding Dong
The bells continue to ring, bringing joy and happiness to people during Christmas.
Lyrics © CARL FISCHER, LLC
Written by: DAVID ROSE, DAVID D. ROSE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
EʟAʏᴇ
Forrest ❤ this jazzyscat arrangement!