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.
Straighten Up And Fly Right
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The monkey thought that ev'rything was on the square
The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back
The monkey grabbed his neck and said, "Now, listen, Jack
Straighten up and fly right, straighten up and fly right
Straighten up and fly right, cool down papa, don't you blow your top
Ain't no use in divin'. What's the use of jivin'?
Straighten up and fly right, cool down papa, don't you blow your top"The buzzard told the monkey, "You're choking me
Release your hold and I'll set you free"
The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye and said
"Your story's touching, but is sounds like a lie"
Straighten up and fly right, straighten up and stay right
Straighten up and fly right, cool down papa, don't you blow your top
The opening lines "The buzzard took the monkey for a ride in the air, The monkey thought that ev'rything was on the square" describe a situation where the monkey trusts the buzzard and believes that whatever is happening is normal or justified. The buzzard tries to shake off the monkey during the ride, and the monkey catches his neck, warning him to listen and straighten up. The common phrase "Straighten up and fly right" indicates that the buzzard, who is taking an undue advantage of the monkey, needs to take the right direction ahead without creating any commotion. The monkey asks him to "cool down papa, don't you blow your top," referring to staying calm and level-headed.
However, the buzzard denies the accusations and requests the monkey to loosen his grip, hoping to escape from the situation. The phrase "Straighten up and stay right" suggests that the buzzard needs to correct his misdeeds and fraudulent behavior. The monkey feels that the buzzard's story is untrue and suggests to him that he needs to start flying straight and hold up his side of things. The lines "Ain't no use in diving, What's the use of jiving" tell the buzzard that there is no point in dodging or avoiding the monkey's concerns because he knows the truth.
Overall, the song has a theme of trust, responsibility, honesty, and accountability. It portrays a scenario where a stronger entity takes advantage of a weaker one, and the victim must assert their rights, demand fairness, and hold the offender accountable.
Line by Line Meaning
The buzzard took the monkey for a ride in the air
The buzzard deceived the monkey into flying with him
The monkey thought that ev'rything was on the square
The monkey believed that everything was safe and honest
The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back
The buzzard attempted to betray the monkey's trust and cause him harm
The monkey grabbed his neck and said, "Now, listen, Jack
The monkey took control of the situation and addressed the buzzard directly
Straighten up and fly right, straighten up and fly right
Get your act together and behave properly
Straighten up and fly right, cool down papa, don't you blow your top
Settle down and don't get angry
Ain't no use in divin'. What's the use of jivin'?
There's no point in getting upset or arguing
The buzzard told the monkey, "You're choking me
The buzzard tried to shift blame onto the monkey
Release your hold and I'll set you free"
Let go of your control and I'll let you go
The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye and said
The monkey challenged the buzzard to be honest and forthright
"Your story's touching, but is sounds like a lie"
"I don't believe what you're telling me"
Straighten up and fly right, straighten up and stay right
Get yourself together and act properly from now on
Straighten up and fly right, cool down papa, don't you blow your top
Calm down and don't get upset
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Sentric Music
Written by: Irving Mills, Nat King Cole
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind