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.
Smile
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Now I'm not so sure I've really seen anything at all
I thought life could show me no surprises
And then you came and showed me I was wrong
I have seen the bluest skies, rainbows that would make you cry
I have seen miracles that moved my soul, days that changed my life
I have seen the brightest stars shine like diamonds in the dark
As beautiful as yours
I thought I'd been everywhere, I've climbed a mountain so high
Sailed the sea, crossed the sky and still I was nowhere at all
Until that day, oh, you came to my senses
And your smile, it made sense out of it all
I have seen the bluest skies, rainbows that would make you cry
I have seen miracles that moved my soul, days that changed my life
I have seen the brightest stars shine like diamonds in the dark
Seen all the wonders of the world, but I've never seen a smile
As beautiful as yours
So beautiful, comes one time in a lifetime
A smile this beautiful, I've never dreamed I'd ever see
I have seen the bluest skies, rainbows that would make you cry
I've seen miracles moved my soul and days that changed my life
I have seen the brightest stars shine like diamonds in the dark
Oh, I've seen the wonders of this world but I've never seen a smile
So beautiful, oh, I've never seen a smile before as beautiful as yours
Natalie Cole’s “Smile” is a song about discovery and love, and how one person can change your entire perspective. The lyrics detail how the singer, who thought she had seen everything the world had to offer, was proven wrong when she met someone who showed her a smile so beautiful she had never seen anything like it before. The lyrics express the singer's amazement at this newfound discovery, and how this smile made sense out of everything that came before.
The song highlights the idea that true beauty is rare and exceptional, something that we may not even realize until we see it. The singer's journey towards recognizing the beauty in this smile can be seen as a metaphor for how we can take things for granted, only to see their worth when we encounter something truly special. It is a reminder that we should keep our hearts and minds open to the world because we never know when we might encounter something that will change our lives forever.
Line by Line Meaning
Thought I'd seen everything there was to see in this world
I believed I had experienced all there was to life
Now I'm not so sure I've really seen anything at all
My perception of life has been altered since experiencing something new
I thought life could show me no surprises
I believed I had seen all there was to see and that nothing could surprise me
And then you came and showed me I was wrong
You proved me wrong by introducing me to something unexpected
I have seen the bluest skies, rainbows that would make you cry
I have witnessed some of the most beautiful sights in life
I have seen miracles that moved my soul, days that changed my life
I have experienced life-altering events and moments that have touched me deeply
I have seen the brightest stars shine like diamonds in the dark
I have seen some of the most magnificent celestial bodies in the sky
Seen all the wonders of the world, but I've never seen a smile
As beautiful as yours
I have experienced many amazing things, but none compare to the beauty of your smile
I thought I'd been everywhere, I've climbed a mountain so high
I believed I had traveled and seen all there was to see
Sailed the sea, crossed the sky and still I was nowhere at all
Despite all my travels and experiences, I still did not feel fulfilled
Until that day, oh, you came to my senses
You brought new meaning and purpose to my life
And your smile, it made sense out of it all
Your smile brought clarity and understanding to my life
So beautiful, comes one time in a lifetime
A smile as beautiful as yours only comes once in a lifetime
A smile this beautiful, I've never dreamed I'd ever see
I never imagined I would witness a smile as stunning as yours
Oh, I've seen the wonders of this world but I've never seen a smile
So beautiful, oh, I've never seen a smile before as beautiful as yours
Despite all my experiences, I have never encountered a smile as breathtaking as yours
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Realsongs
Written by: DIANE EVE WARREN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind