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.
He Was Too Good to Me
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The thing has ended, regrets are vain
I'll never find another half so sweet
And we'll never meet again
I got impatient, told him goodbye
Sad eyes out in the rain
He was too good to me
So close he stood to me
Everything seems all wrong now
He would have brought me the sun
Making me smile, that was his fun
When I was mean to him
He'd never say go away now
I was a queen to him
Who's gonna make me gay now
It's only natural that I'm blue
He was too good to be true
In Natalie Cole's song, "He Was Too Good to Me," the singer reflects on a past relationship that ended with regret. She laments the loss of her former partner, who was "too good" for her in every way. Despite his kindness and devotion, she became impatient and ended the relationship. Now, she struggles to move on without him, as everything seems wrong without his presence. The singer acknowledges that he would have done anything to make her happy, bringing her the sun and making her smile. Even when she was mean to him, he never pushed her away. She refers to him as her king and acknowledges that she will struggle to find someone who treated her as well as he did.
Through these lyrics, the singer explores the idea that sometimes, we let go of things that are good for us because we become impatient or let our own flaws get in the way. The song encourages listeners to appreciate the people in their lives who are kind and loyal, and not take them for granted. The song's catchy melody and relatable lyrics demonstrate how heartbreak and regret can resonate with people from all walks of life.
Line by Line Meaning
There goes my young intended
My partner has left me
The thing has ended, regrets are vain
Our relationship is over, and there is no use in regretting
I'll never find another half so sweet
I doubt I'll ever find a partner as kind as him
And we'll never meet again
We have parted ways permanently
I got impatient, told him goodbye
I broke up with him because I was impatient
Sad eyes out in the rain
He left with a sad expression in the rain
He was too good to me
He was extremely kind to me
How can I get along now?
I don't know how to cope without him
So close he stood to me
He was very close to me
Everything seems all wrong now
Life seems terrible without him
He would have brought me the sun
He would have given me happiness
Making me smile, that was his fun
He enjoyed making me happy
When I was mean to him
I treated him poorly
He'd never say go away now
He would never tell me to leave
I was a queen to him
He treated me like royalty
Who's gonna make me gay now
Who will make me happy now?
It's only natural that I'm blue
It's normal for me to feel sad
He was too good to be true
He was so wonderful that I couldn't believe he was real
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LORENZ HART, RICHARD RODGERS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind