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.
El Dia Que Me Quieras
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
El suave murmullo
De tu suspirar
Como ríe la vida
Si tus ojos negros
Me quieren mirar
Y si es mío el amparo
De tu risa leve
Ella aquieta mi herida
Todo, todo se olvida
El día que me quieras
La rosa que engalana
Se vestirá de fiesta
Con su mejor color
Y al viento las campanas
Dirán que ya eres mía
Y locas las fontanas
Se contarán su amor
La noche que me quieras
Desde el azul del cielo
Las estrellas celosas
Nos mirarán pasar
Y un rayo misterioso
Hará nido en tu pelo
Luciérnagas curiosas que verán
Que eres mi consuelo
El día que me quieras
No habrá más que armonía
Será clara la aurora
Y alegre el manantial
Traerá quieta la brisa
Rumor de melodía.
Y nos darán las fuentes
Su canto de cristal
El día que me quieras
Endulzará sus cuerdas
El pájaro cantor
Florecerá la vida
No existirá el dolor
La noche que me quieras
In Natalie Cole's song "El Día Que Me Quieras," the lyrics describe the beauty of being loved by someone and the happiness it brings. The first verse talks about the soothing sound of the loved one's sigh and the joy that comes from looking into their eyes. The second verse speaks about how everything will be perfect on the day the loved one reciprocates feelings. The roses will be in full bloom, the bells will ring out, and fountains will bubble with joy. The third verse describes how even the stars in the blue sky will shine brighter on this day, and a ray of light will rest in the loved one's hair. Fireflies will observe how happy they are together, and there will be no more pain. The fourth verse mentions how the day will be filled with harmonious music, joyous springs, and singing birds. Life will be full of colors, and pain will become a distant memory.
Overall, the song is a beautiful ode to the emotions that love brings. It speaks to the power of being loved and the joy that comes from reciprocated feelings.
Line by Line Meaning
Acaricia mi ensueño
Caress my dream
El suave murmullo
The gentle murmur
De tu suspirar
Of your sighing
Como ríe la vida
How life laughs
Si tus ojos negros
If your black eyes
Me quieren mirar
Want to look at me
Y si es mío el amparo
And if I have the refuge
De tu risa leve
Of your mild laughter
Que es como un cantar
Which is like a song
Ella aquieta mi herida
It quiets my wound
Todo, todo se olvida
Everything is forgotten
El día que me quieras
The day you love me
La rosa que engalana
The rose that adorns
Se vestirá de fiesta
Will dress up for the party
Con su mejor color
With its best color
Y al viento las campanas
And in the wind, the bells
Dirán que ya eres mía
Will say that you are already mine
Y locas las fontanas
And crazy fountains
Se contarán su amor
Will tell their love
La noche que me quieras
The night you love me
Desde el azul del cielo
From the blue sky
Las estrellas celosas
The jealous stars
Nos mirarán pasar
Will watch us go by
Y un rayo misterioso
And a mysterious ray
Hará nido en tu pelo
Will nest in your hair
Luciérnagas curiosas que verán
Curious fireflies that will see
Que eres mi consuelo
That you are my consolation
No habrá más que armonía
There will be nothing but harmony
Será clara la aurora
The dawn will be clear
Y alegre el manantial
And the spring will be happy
Traerá quieta la brisa
The breeze will bring quiet
Rumor de melodía.
A rumor of melody.
Y nos darán las fuentes
And the fountains will give us
Su canto de cristal
Their crystal song
Endulzará sus cuerdas
It will sweeten its strings
El pájaro cantor
The singing bird
Florecerá la vida
Life will flourish
No existirá el dolor
There will be no pain
Lyrics © Freibank Musikverlags und vermarktungs GmbH, Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, O/B/O DistroKid, Unison Rights S.L.
Written by: Carlos Gardel, Alfredo Le Pera
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind