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.
If You Could See Me Now
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
One look is all you'd need to see the mood I'm in.
Perhaps then you'd realize I'm still in love with you.
If you could see me now, you'd find me being brave
And trying awfully hard to make my tears behave
But that's quite impossible, I'm still in love with you.
You'll happen my way on some mem'rable day
I'll try to smile but can I play the part
Without my heart behind the smile?
The way I feel for you I never could disguise
The look of love is written plainly in my eyes.
I think you'd be mine again if you could see me now.
The opening line of Natalie Cole's "If You Could See Me Now" sets the tone for the entire song: sadness, loneliness, and the weight of a love that once was. The singer addresses someone, expressing that if they could see her now, they would see how blue she's been since their relationship ended. Despite her attempts to hide or suppress her feelings, her emotions are clearly visible, apparent to anyone who takes a moment to look at her. She hopes that if they could see her now, they'd understand that she's still in love with them, despite the distance between them.
The song then transitions into a more hopeful, almost wishful tone, with the singer imagining a future day where the person she's addressing "happens [her] way" in the month of May. Though she acknowledges that she'll try to put on a brave face and smile, she knows that deep within, she still loves them with her entire heart. She references the "look of love" being "written plainly" in her eyes, a symbol for how she's never been able to hide her true feelings for this person. As the song draws to a close, the singer expresses a final hopeful thought: "I think you'd be mine again if you could see me now." While it's unclear if this will ever actually happen, the sentiment speaks to the power of hope and the belief that anything is possible if one's heart is set on it.
Line by Line Meaning
If you could see me now, you'd know how blue I've been
My sadness is clearly apparent in my appearance.
One look is all you'd need to see the mood I'm in.
A single glance would reveal the emotions I am currently experiencing.
Perhaps then you'd realize I'm still in love with you.
The sight of my love for you would become evident.
If you could see me now, you'd find me being brave
In situations where I am seen, I attempt to act courageous.
And trying awfully hard to make my tears behave
I exert great effort in trying to keep my sadness from being exposed.
But that's quite impossible, I'm still in love with you.
Despite my efforts, my love for you is impossible to hide.
You'll happen my way on some mem'rable day
At some point, you will likely come across me.
And the month will be May for a while.
The time of year could be significant for various reasons.
I'll try to smile but can I play the part
I may try to appear happy, but it could be challenging to maintain this facade.
Without my heart behind the smile?
The question is raised if the smile is genuine or not.
The way I feel for you I never could disguise
It is impossible for me to hide my feelings for you.
The look of love is written plainly in my eyes.
My love for you is evident in the way I look at you.
I think you'd be mine again if you could see me now.
I believe that if you saw me presently, you would return to me.
Lyrics © SEVENTH HOUSE LTD.
Written by: CARL SIGMAN, TADD DAMERON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind