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.
Sophisticated Lady
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sophisticated lady
Sophisticated lady
Sophisticated lady
Everybody knows how she got her name, yeah, yeah
She's a different lady with a different style
She stands tall and ready like the Eiffel Tower
She is hip to politics, but loves her jazz
Everybody knows how she got her name, yeah, yeah
Oh, huh
She wears knee-length dresses with her high-high steppers
She's not no back-stabber, but she's sure a pleaser
She talks quiet and gentle, she acts very cool
She sticks close to her lover, she obeys God's rule (whoa)
Sophisticated lady (sophisticated lady, yeah)
Sophisticated lady (oh)
Sophisticated lady (that's her name, that's her name)
Sophisticated lady (whoa, whoa)
Everybody knows how she got her name, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi, whoa, oh
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
She's the kind of person that you'd like to meet
'Cause she's always smilin' and she's always neat
She can start a fire in the coldest man
She's a hip slick sister known throughout the land, oh
Sophisticated lady (that's her name)
Sophisticated lady (sophisticated lady)
Oh, well, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo
Hoo, that's her name, yeah
Sophisticated lady (lady, lady)
Sophisticated lady (oh)
Sophisticated lady (ah, ah, ah)
Sophisticated lady (ooh, ooh)
Sophisticated lady (ooh)
Sophisticated lady
Sophisticated lady
Natalie Cole's song Sophisticated Lady describes a woman who embodies sophistication, elegance, and class. The lyrics highlight how she's well-versed in politics but also loves jazz music. She's compared to the Eiffel Tower, connoting her stature and elegance. She's spoken of in terms of how she dresses, wears knee-length dresses with high-high steppers, which refers to shoes with high heels. The lyrics also emphasize how she's well-behaved, polite, and courteous, never betraying anyone. The song speaks about how she is in a stable and committed relationship, follows God's teachings, and is pleasant to be around. The chorus repeats several times, emphasizing that she is a sophisticated lady, a name that everyone knows.
Overall, the song sets up the idea of a woman who embodies class, sophistication and she has values that are traditional. She is a stunning model of the new independent woman from the 1980s, who is intelligent, well-behaved, respectful of traditional values, and confident in her own skin.
Line by Line Meaning
Sophisticated lady
The woman being described is elegant, mature, and worldly.
Everybody knows how she got her name, yeah, yeah
Her sophistication is well-known among those who know her.
She's a different lady with a different style
She stands out from other women due to her unique character and demeanor.
She stands tall and ready like the Eiffel Tower
She exudes confidence and poise, similar to the iconic Parisian landmark.
She is hip to politics, but loves her jazz
She is aware of current events and politics while also having a passion for jazz music.
She's got lots of rhythm, she's got lots of class
She is both stylish and sophisticated, with an inherent sense of rhythm and grace.
She wears knee-length dresses with her high-high steppers
She dresses elegantly and stylishly, with knee-length dresses and high-heeled shoes.
She's not no back-stabber, but she's sure a pleaser
She is not deceitful or untrustworthy, but she does like to make others happy and comfortable.
She talks quiet and gentle, she acts very cool
She speaks softly and calmly, maintaining a composed and collected demeanor.
She sticks close to her lover, she obeys God's rule (whoa)
She is loyal to and supportive of her partner, as well as having a devout faith in God.
She's the kind of person that you'd like to meet
She is a personable and likable individual that others would enjoy getting to know.
She can start a fire in the coldest man
Her charm and charisma can win over even the most unemotional or disengaged people.
She's a hip slick sister known throughout the land, oh
She is a fashionable and cool woman who is widely recognized and renowned.
Lyrics Β© Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Chuck Jackson, Marvin Yancy, Natalie Cole
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
laarbe
Natalie has always been Sophisticated, Beautiful, Talented, Elegant and Classy. This was and is still the jam.
Jako32
Beyond underrated not just 70s (but any decade) JAM in every possible way. Chaka-esque but Natalie *nailed this!
1970s Culture fan
Good βsofistifunkβ from the summer of β76; dont know for sure, but it sounds like some of Little Feat is backing Natalie here!
John Barron
JaKo32, "Sophisticated Lady," was a MONSTER HIT. It was BAAAAD ALL THE WAY AROUND. It was SEVERELY UNDERRATED. It "HIT THE SPOT" during the summer of 1976. It reminds me of my cousin Janie. REST IN PEACE BABY.
agapereign
Natalie has always been a woman of class and style. LOVE her!!!
Kim Hughes
This was one of my jams when I was a little girl, (like 6) it was my goal to grow up to be a sophisticated lady!
Shante Barze
This woman's music is what my mom played , all of the time I was growing up. She is all I play now I'm grown.
This will forever be my favorite music, nothing like oldies.
PookieHemanes
I was 19 when this came out, it was my theme song, it made me the LADY that I am today
John Barron
I Feel You Pookie.
Tyrone Tate
I was 5 years old when this came out