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.
Pink Cadillac
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
For the foolish things I do
You may wonder how come I love you
When you get on my nerves like you do
Well baby, you know you bug me
There ain't no secret about that
Well come on over here and hug me
And, baby, I'll spill the facts
'Cause baby I got plenty of that
I love you for your pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back, oozing down the street
Waving to the girls
Peeling out of sight
Spending all my money on a Saturday night
Honey, I just wonder what you do there in back of your pink Cadillac
Pink Cadillac
Well now way back in the bible, temptations always come along
There's always somebody tempting you
Somebody into doing something they know is wrong
Well they tempt you man with silver and they tempt you sir with gold
And they tempt you with the pleasures that the flesh does surely hold
They say eve tempted Adam with an apple
Man I ain't going for that
I know it was her pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back, oozing down the street
Waving to the girls
Peeling out of sight
Spending all my money on a Saturday night
Honey, I just wonder what you do there in back of your pink Cadillac
Now some folks say it's too big and uses too much gas
Some folks say it's too old and that it goes too fast
But my love is bigger than a honda, it's bigger than a Subaru
Hey man there's only one thing and one car that will do
Anyway we don't have to drive it honey, we can park it out in back
And have a party in your pink Cadillac
In this song, Natalie Cole is talking about the love she has for her partner who has a pink Cadillac. She admits that her partner may bother her at times but she loves them anyway. She loves her partner for the luxurious pink Cadillac that they drive, with its crushed velvet seats and its ability to turn heads as it drives down the street. She enjoys spending time with her partner in the back of the car and spending all her money on a Saturday night, driving around town.
The second verse starts by referencing the story of Adam and Eve, where temptation plays a big role. Natalie sings about how people always try to tempt each other with materialistic things, such as gold and silver. But she knows that in her case, it was the pink Cadillac that tempted her into being with her partner. She goes on to say that people may criticize the car for its size and gas consumption but none of that matters to her because her love for her partner is bigger than anything else. Ultimately, they don't need to drive around in the pink Cadillac to have fun, they can simply park it out back and enjoy each other's company.
Line by Line Meaning
You may think I'm fooling
You might consider me delusional
For the foolish things I do
For my silly actions
You may wonder how come I love you
You might question why I have feelings for you
When you get on my nerves like you do
Even though you irritate me
Well baby, you know you bug me
You know you annoy me
There ain't no secret about that
It's no secret
Well come on over here and hug me
Come closer and embrace me
And, baby, I'll spill the facts
I'll be honest with you about my feelings
Well, honey it ain't your money
It's not because of your wealth
'Cause baby I got plenty of that
Because I have enough money
I love you for your pink Cadillac
I adore you because of your pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
The seats made of crushed velvet material
Riding in the back, oozing down the street
Driving the car, smoothly moving on the street
Waving to the girls
Greeting the girls by waving at them
Peeling out of sight
Going away quickly, disappearing from sight
Spending all my money on a Saturday night
Using up all my money on Saturday night
Well now way back in the bible, temptations always come along
In the past, the bible talked about the constant presence of temptations
There's always somebody tempting you
Someone is always trying to allure you
Somebody into doing something they know is wrong
Someone might entice you to do something you're aware is incorrect
Well they tempt you man with silver and they tempt you sir with gold
They will try to have influence over you by offering precious metals
And they tempt you with the pleasures that the flesh does surely hold
They might allure you with physical pleasures that are very attractive
They say eve tempted Adam with an apple
According to the bible, Eve tricked Adam with an apple
Man I ain't going for that
I don't believe it's true
I know it was her pink Cadillac
I think it was her pink Cadillac
Now some folks say it's too big and uses too much gas
Some people claim that the car is too large and consumes too much gasoline
Some folks say it's too old and that it goes too fast
Others think that the car is too old and drives too fast
But my love is bigger than a honda, it's bigger than a Subaru
My love is greater than Honda or Subaru
Hey man there's only one thing and one car that will do
There's only one vehicle that can fulfill my desires
Anyway we don't have to drive it honey, we can park it out in back
We don't need to drive it, we can park it behind
And have a party in your pink Cadillac
We can have a great time in your pink Cadillac
Pink Cadillac
The pink car mentioned repeatedly in the song
Lyrics Β© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Robert Pace
The 80s was the best and last full decade for pop music. Thank you Natalie for your contribution.
paul frost
Love the 70s and 80s ' less so the 90s ' post milenium is shite.
Stella Carrier
Pink Cadillac by Natalie Cole is a fun 80βs classic pop/rock song that I remember played on the radio when I was a child. The song is extremely thrilling to listen to and even the online music video matches the song well (because of the singer playfully interacting with the driver of the Cadillac car and her friends in the spirit
of the Cadillac song).
TheMaidofMiddleEarth
Same! This was a fave as a kid.
TheMagicStar80
this was a huge hit back in 1988
kanyi joel
yes it was
TheMaidofMiddleEarth
I know because I was there lol
ahhh My friend from Windermere
80s was cool cool cool !!!!!
John Florio
I saw Natalie Cole live; best show ever!
Adam Dalton
I LOVE This Song!