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.
I Live for Your Love
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You can make it alone, but where does it say I have to move
Far away from you to prove I'm strong
Oh when all it really proves is I'm lonely without you
And loneliness has to be wrong
I live for your love (everyday), every minute
I live for your love (in my life), want you in it
I wake up with no one to kiss, sometimes I wonder (wonder, wonder)
If I just exist, I know there are people I can see
Places I could be, and friends who call
Oh but what good does it do, there's no substitute for you
I want you or nothing at all
I live for your love (every day), every minute
I live for your love (in my life), want you in it
I live for your love, I admit it
I live for your love and your kisses, and know how I'm missing
Your sweet tender touch (tender touch), I need you so much
That I just can't go on anymore, what I wouldn't give for
'Cause darling
I live for your love (everyday), every minute
I live for your love (got one life) want you in it
I live for your love, I hate to admit it, but oh, I live for, I'd die for
What I wouldn't give for your love (every day)
I live for your love, (got one life) every day, every minute
(I live for your love) I have only got one life, I want you in it
Oh, my baby, yes, yes, I live for your love, ooh, ooh
The lyrics of Natalie Cole’s song ‘I Live for Your Love’ narrate the deep yearning that the singer has for her lover. The song opens with the stereotypical advice that people often give to those who are going through tough times; that is, to stand up and move on. She is told that she needs to prove her strength by being able to go on without her lover, but she is resistant to the idea of moving away from him. She argues that the loneliness that would come with such a decision would be a wrong kind of strong.
The chorus reveals the extent of her love for her partner, as she admits that she lives for his love every day and minute. She acknowledges that she wants him in her life and that she lives for his love, an admission that shows that her lover is essential to her happiness. The second verse launches a lamentation that she has no one to kiss when she wakes up in the morning, and ponders whether she merely exists without her lover. She acknowledges that there might be people she can see, places she could be, and friends who call, but none of these things can substitute the love she shares with her partner.
The song’s message is fundamentally about the power of romantic love in life, and how it provides one with a will to keep going despite the trials that may come. There is an intense and unbreakable bond that Cole has with her lover, and she cannot substitute it for anything else. The repetition of the line “I live for your love” throughout the song reinforces the strength of the bond, and the depth of Cole’s emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
Stand up, stand on your own, that's what they tell me
People tell me to be independent and rely on myself.
You can make it alone, but where does it say I have to move
I am capable of being alone, but why should I distance myself from you?
Far away from you to prove I'm strong
Proving my strength by being far from you is unnecessary.
Oh when all it really proves is I'm lonely without you
Being away from you just makes me feel lonely.
And loneliness has to be wrong
Being lonely is not right for me.
I live for your love (everyday), every minute
Your love is what I live for constantly.
I live for your love (in my life), want you in it
Your presence is what I desire in my life.
I live for your love, I admit it, I live for your love
I confess that your love is the reason for my existence.
I wake up with no one to kiss, sometimes I wonder (wonder, wonder)
I wake up alone and wonder if I really matter to anyone.
If I just exist, I know there are people I can see
I feel like I'm just existing without you, but I know there are other people around me.
Places I could be, and friends who call
There are places I can go and friends who reach out to me.
Oh but what good does it do, there's no substitute for you
But they don't fill the void you leave behind.
I want you or nothing at all
I either want you or nothing in my life.
I live for your love and your kisses, and know how I'm missing
I crave your love and long for your kisses, and I'm aware of what I'm missing out on.
Your sweet tender touch (tender touch), I need you so much
I crave the tenderness of your touch, I need you in my life so badly.
That I just can't go on anymore, what I wouldn't give for
I can't keep living like this, I'm willing to do anything for your love.
'Cause darling
My love for you is so strong that I refer to you as darling.
I live for your love (everyday), every minute
I rely on your love all the time.
I live for your love (got one life) want you in it
I only have one life and I want you in it.
I live for your love, I hate to admit it, but oh, I live for, I'd die for
I regret to say that I live only for your love, I'm willing to die for it.
What I wouldn't give for your love (every day)
I would trade anything for your love every single day.
I live for your love, (got one life) every day, every minute
My life revolves around your love every day and every minute.
(I live for your love) I have only got one life, I want you in it
I only have one life and I want to spend it with you because I live for your love.
Oh, my baby, yes, yes, I live for your love, ooh, ooh
My darling, I'm saying this again - I live for your love.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Spirit Music Group, O/B/O CAPASSO
Written by: ALLAN RICH, PAMELA P. RESWICK, STEVE WERFEL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@McDonnell-Douglas_DC-10
She is one of the rare singers who don't need instruments.
@LERONMORTON-fz8em
THANK YOU QUEEN NATALIE COLE FOR THE GREAT MUSIC LEGACY YOU LEFT BEHIND 🤗🤗 I MISS MY FAVORITE FEMALE SONGSTRESS OF ALL TIME 😥😥 MY FIRST CRUSH 😍😍 ... REST WELL SWEETIE 🙏
@rosespeakstruthlikeitis155
I'm Melt with happiness, when Natalie slays This Amazing song 🎶💖🤗
@nativeroscoe64
My second concert was with Natalie's "Everlasting" tour. Valentine's Day in Portland, Oregon. She earned rave reviews. This was the song I waited for. Love me some Natalie.
@dampergoldenrod4156
that must have been feb 1988.
@Masonrogers-ml1ux
Wonderful
@LERONMORTON-fz8em
I LIVE FOR YOUR WONDERFUL MUSIC QUEEN NATALIE COLE 🤗🤗 MISS YOU ICON 😥😥
@LERONMORTON-fz8em
R.I.P. UNFORGETTABLE NATALIE COLE 🙏🙏
@rosespeakstruthlikeitis155
Forget about it all, be happy, and live for your love 💕 hug your family, Call just reach out, and give them your Love 🥳
@lindzimcolzwane6761
This Song Always Reminds Me of That Young Lady from Wentworth Durban who performed the Song Backed by a Band Outside the Durban City Hall one Saturday in 1989.❤.Beautifu Song By Natalie Cole.