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.
Que Sera Sera
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I want you to know the words for today is let go
(Well) ha, I want you to let go
And I want you to just sit back
And relax and open you hearts, your mind and
Let it go, go, go, go, go
We'd like to tell you a story this evening
It's a story about you and me
Oh, yeah
This is how it goes
When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother what will I be
(Ooh, will I be pretty) yeah (will I be rich)
Here's what she said to me
Que, sera, sera, whatever will be
Hee, hee, hee, hee
Ha, oh, oh, oh, because, because
The future is not for us to see, no
Que sera (que sera) que sera (que sera)
Que sera, oh, yeah
When I grew up and fell in love
I asked my lover, ooh, baby
Baby what will I be (hm, oh, oh, oh)
What will I be
(Will I have)
Here's what my baby said to me
He said que sera, sera
I just wanna say that whatever will be
Hee, hee, hee, hee
(Oh)
Que, que sera, oh, oh, oh, oh (sera) oh (sera)
Oh, hey, hey, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever
Whatever will be, will be
Surely, surely, surely, surely, surely
Surely be, hoo
All because the future is not for us to see
(Ooh, no, no, no, no) que sera
(Que sera) que sera (que sera)
Que sera, I want yaul to
Oh, oh, oh
Que sera, oh
Sera, oh
Sera, whatever, hoo, will be, hoo, yeah
I know, I know, at least I hope that you know
The future is not for us to see
Que sera (que sera) que sera (que sera)
Oh well, well , well, well, well, well, well
Que, hey, sera,
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Que, oh, oh, oh!
Natalie Cole's Que Sera Sera is a song that encourages the listener to let go and relax, as the future is not for us to see. The opening lines urge the audience to let go and testify, indicating a shared experience that they are supposed to let go of whatever is troubling them and focus. Then, the singer reports a story about her childhood, asking her mother about what her future would hold, and her mother responds with the Spanish phrase "Que Sera Sera," meaning "Whatever will be, will be." She credits this phrase with changing her life and avoids worrying about what the future may hold. This leads to a repetition of the chorus about not worrying and letting the future happen: "whatever will be, will be."
As the song progresses to the second half, the singer grows up and falls in love. She once again asks about her future, but this time it is with her lover. He too responds with the phrase "Que Sera Sera", which leads the singer to accept that the future is unwritten and will unfold as it should. The chorus then repeats as before with an even greater sense of assurance and comfort, passing on the important wisdom that the future is not for us to see. Cole's performance in the song is not only heavenly, but it encourages exposure, acceptance, and trust.
Line by Line Meaning
We're gathered here this evening to testify
We've gathered today to share a story
And I want you to know the words for today is let go
Let's be open and relax
(Well) ha, I want you to let go
I want you to let go
And I want you to just sit back
Just relax and open your hearts and minds
And relax and open you hearts, your mind and
Just open your hearts and minds and let it go
Let it go, go, go, go, go
Just let it go
We'd like to tell you a story this evening
We want to share a story today
Haven't not so long, long, long ago
Not that long ago
It's a story about you and me
It's a story about us
When I was just a little girl
When I was young
I asked my mother what will I be
I asked my mother about my future
(Ooh, will I be pretty) yeah (will I be rich)
(Will I be pretty?) (Will I be rich?)
Here's what she said to me
Here's what she told me
Que, sera, sera, whatever will be
The future is not for us to see
Hee, hee, hee, hee
Ha, oh, oh, oh, because, because
The future is not for us to see, no
The future is not predictable
Que sera (que sera) que sera (que sera)
Whatever will be
Que sera, oh, yeah
Whatever will be
When I grew up and fell in love
When I grew up and fell in love
I asked my lover, ooh, baby
I asked my lover about my future
Baby what will I be (hm, oh, oh, oh)
What will I become?
Here's what my baby said to me
Here's what my lover said to me
He said que sera, sera
Whatever will be
I just wanna say that whatever will be
Whatever will be
(Oh)
Que, que sera, oh, oh, oh, oh (sera) oh (sera)
Whatever will be
Oh, hey, hey, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever
Surely, surely, surely, surely, surely
Surely be, hoo
All because the future is not for us to see
The future is unpredictable
(Ooh, no, no, no, no) que sera
The future is unpredictable
(Que sera) que sera (que sera)
Whatever will be
Que sera, I want yaul to
Whatever will be
Oh, oh, oh
Que sera, oh
Whatever will be
Sera, oh
Sera, whatever, hoo, will be, hoo, yeah
Whatever will be
I know, I know, at least I hope that you know
I know, I hope you know
The future is not for us to see
The future is unpredictable
Que sera (que sera) que sera (que sera)
Whatever will be
Oh well, well , well, well, well, well, well
Que, hey, sera,
Whatever will be
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Que, oh, oh, oh!
Whatever will be
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Jay Livingston, Ray Evans
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind