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.
The Very Thought Of You
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I forget to do
The little ordinary things
That everyone ought to do
I'm living in a kind of daydream
I'm happy as a king
And foolish though it may seem
The mere idea of you
The longing here for you
You'll never know how slow the moments go
'Til I'm near to you
I see your face in every flower
Your eyes in stars above
It's just the thought of you
The very thought of you
My love
The mere idea of you
The longing here for you
You'll never know how slow the moments go
'Til I'm near to you
I see your face in every flower
Your eyes in stars above
It's just the thought of you
The very thought of you
My love
Natalie Cole's "The Very Thought of You" is a song that expresses the overwhelming emotions and thoughts someone goes through when they are in love. The lyrics paint a portrait of someone who is so consumed by their love for the other person that they can barely focus on anything other than the idea of them. They are unable to complete even the simplest of tasks because their mind is too preoccupied with thoughts of their love. The feeling is so intense that the person feels as though they are living in a daydream or fairy tale.
The chorus of the song describes the deep longing the singer feels for their love. The person is lost in a fantasy world where they see their love's face in every flower and their eyes in the stars above. The very thought of their love is consuming, and they recognize that they are happiest when they are in the presence of the person they love. The song reaches a climax as the singer repeats the title line, "The very thought of you," emphasizing just how much their love means to them.
Line by Line Meaning
The very thought of you
The mere thought of you is enough to take over my mind.
And I forget to do
I get so lost in thoughts of you that I forget to do everyday things.
The little ordinary things
Everyday things that are insignificant but still important to do.
That everyone ought to do
Things that are expected of everyone, no matter how small.
I'm living in a kind of daydream
My thoughts of you are so intense that they feel like a dream.
I'm happy as a king
My thoughts of you are enough to make me feel happy and content.
And foolish though it may seem
Even though it might seem silly, to me it's everything.
To me, that's everything
Thoughts of you are everything to me, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem.
The mere idea of you
Just thinking about the idea of you is enough to fill me with longing and desire.
The longing here for you
My desire for you is strong and intense.
You'll never know how slow the moments go
Time seems to stand still when I'm not near you.
'Til I'm near to you
Only when I'm near you do the moments seem to speed up and fly by.
I see your face in every flower
Every flower reminds me of you and your beauty.
Your eyes in stars above
The stars in the sky remind me of your eyes and their beauty.
It's just the thought of you
My thoughts of you are enough to bring me joy, no matter how small or fleeting.
The very thought of you
Just the thought of you is enough to fill my mind and heart with longing and desire.
My love
All my thoughts and feelings of longing and desire are directed towards you, my love.
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, CONSALAD CO., Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ray Noble
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@marurod3583
Solo pensar en ti
y me olvido de hacer
esas pequeñas cosas normales
que todo el mundo debe hacer
Estoy viviendo en una especie de sueño
Soy feliz como una reina
Y por tonto que parezca
para mí eso es todo
La sola idea de ti
la añoranza aquí por ti
Tú no sabes lo lento que son los momentos
Hasta que estoy contigo.
Veo tu rostro en cada flor
Tus ojos en las estrellas del cielo
Es sólo que pienso mucho en tí
Pienso mucho en tí
Mi amor
La sola idea de ti
la añoranza aquí por ti
Tú no sabes lo lento que son los momentos
Hasta que estoy contigo.
Veo tu rostro en cada flor
Tus ojos en las estrellas del cielo
Es sólo que pienso mucho en tí
Pienso mucho en tí
Mi amor
Fuimos hechos el uno para el otro, nunca creas otra cosa. Te amo
@sterlingrock7769
Wow! Just pure musical athleticism by one of the greatest female singers of all time. Sadly, I don't believe Etta James got her roses while she was alive. Such a great talent that in my opinion will grow in stature and more important as a singer and songwriter as time passes.
@LERONMORTON-fz8em
SIMPLY OUTSTANDING NATALIE COLE 🤗🤗 THANK YOU FOR THIS WONDERFUL VERSION OF THIS CLASSIC SONG 👍👍😘❤️
@rhodneyvanstaden8994
The world lost a great singer and actor. Keep on singing in heaven
@b.shakuntalabaliga8028
What a beautiful voice...perhaps the best female singer version..what a range 👍.love her songs, especially Unforgettable..RIP🙏🙏
@LERONMORTON-fz8em
R.I.P. LEGEND NATALIE COLE 🙏🙏 MISS YOU QUEEN 😥😥
@chatsagain
She has music in each note. Some artists know how to sing a tune but she has music in each note. Beautiful
@cynthiawilliams6641
Looove me some Natalie Cole! Love the Unforgettable album/cd. What a stunning tribute and duet with her famous father Nat King Cole. Natalies voice was hauntingly beautiful her voice was perfect for each song. Also love Mr. Melody, Touch Me, Inseparable, I've Got Love On My Mind, Miss You Like Crazy, Someone I Used To Love. RIP Natalie Cole.. eternally. You are already missed.
@sherrythompson2667
Shut your eyes and listen. Beautiful.
@kirneyc.thibodeaux649
Really love and enjoyed this arrangement
Charles
@tekestenegash120
This song is so much better at this tempo. And actually showcases her voice.