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.
Good Morning Heartache
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Good morning heartache, you old gloomy site
Good morning heartache
Thought we said goodbye last night
I tossed and turned until it seemed that you had gone
But here you are with the dawn
Ho, wish I'd forget you, but you're here to stay, yeah
It seems I met ya, when my love had gone away
Good morning heartache, what's new
Stop haunting me now, can't shake you no how
Why don't you just leave me alone
I've got those Monday blues
Those straight through Sunday blues
Oh, good morning heartache, here we go
Here we go, here we go again, well
Good morning heartache
You're the one who knew me when
I guess I might as well get used to you hanging around
Good morning heartache, I see you're back in town
Good morning heartache, why don't ya sit on down, sit down
In Natalie Cole's song "Good Morning Heartache," the lyrics describe the overwhelming feeling of waking up to the realization that heartache has once again crept up on the singer. The lyrics begin with the phrase, "Good morning heartache, you old gloomy site" which sets the tone for the rest of the song. The singer speaks to the heartache as if it's a person, stating that they had said goodbye to it the night before, yet it still remains with them in the morning. Even after tossing and turning, the singer is unable to rid themselves of the heartache.
The lyrics express the singer's frustration with their inability to forget and move on from the heartache. The phrase, "I start each day out just by saying to you, Good morning heartache, what's new" expresses their resignation to the fact that the heartache will remain a constant presence in their life. The repetition of the phrase "Here we go again" emphasizes the cyclical nature of heartache and how it always seems to find a way back into one's life.
Overall, the lyrics demonstrate the complex emotions surrounding heartache, including frustration, resignation, and a sense of helplessness. The singer is forced to confront the heartache each day, unable to escape its grasp.
Line by Line Meaning
Good morning heartache, you old gloomy site
Starting the day off with despair and sadness, greeting the pain of heartache that is always present.
Good morning heartache
Acknowledging the unwelcome presence of heartache at the beginning of yet another day.
Thought we said goodbye last night
Believing that the pain of heartache was left in the past, but waking up to find it still persisting.
I tossed and turned until it seemed that you had gone
Having a fitful sleep, trying to overcome heartache, only to wake up and find it still present.
But here you are with the dawn
Realizing that heartache is a constant companion, always there when the sun rises.
Ho, wish I'd forget you, but you're here to stay, yeah
Desiring to be rid of the pain of heartache, but realizing that it's a long-term visitor and may never leave.
It seems I met ya, when my love had gone away
Realizing that heartache arrived when the love that was once present left, making it all the more difficult to bear.
I start each day out just by saying to you
Acknowledging the presence of heartache and the need to confront it at the start of each new day.
Good morning heartache, what's new
Asking heartache if there is any new level of pain or despair that it wants to bring to the day ahead.
Stop haunting me now, can't shake you no how
Trying to rid oneself of heartache, but feeling like it is a ghost that cannot be chased away.
Why don't you just leave me alone
Expressing a strong desire for heartache to depart and not interfere with daily life.
I've got those Monday blues
Feeling down and hopeless, as if a case of the blues extends beyond just one day of the week.
Those straight through Sunday blues
Implying that heartache does not take a break on weekends or holidays, but persists non-stop throughout each day.
Oh, good morning heartache, here we go
Grimly acknowledging that yet another day of struggling with heartache is about to begin.
Here we go, here we go again, well
Echoing the feeling of repetitive, relentless pain and struggle caused by heartache over an extended period of time.
You're the one who knew me when
Recognizing that heartache has been a longtime presence in one's life, having experienced its effects in the past as well.
I guess I might as well get used to you hanging around
Resigning oneself to the presence of heartache, accepting that it may never leave and will continue to cause pain and heartache for the foreseeable future.
Good morning heartache, I see you're back in town
Noticing the return of the pain of heartache, as if it's a familiar and unwelcome guest who has come back to stay.
Good morning heartache, why don't ya sit on down, sit down
Confronting the pain of heartache, as if it's a guest who needs to be acknowledged and confronted face-to-face each day.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Ervin Drake, Dan Fisher, Irene Higginbotham Padellan
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind