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.
Until the Real Thing Comes Along
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'd slave for you
I'd be a beggar
Or a knave for you
If that isn't love
It will have to do
Until the real thing
Comes along
I'd gladly move
The earth for you
To prove my love, dear
And its worth for you
I that isn't love
It will have to do
Until the real thing
Comes along
With all the words
Dear, at my command
I just can't make
You understand
I'll always love you
Darling
Come what may
My heart is yours
What more can I say?
I'd lie for you
I'd sigh for you
I'd tear the stars
Down
From the sky for you
If that isn't love
It will have to do
Until the real thing
Comes along
With all the words
Dear, at my command
I just can't make
You understand
I'll always
Love you baby
Come what may
My heart is yours
What more can I say?
I'd lie for you
I'd cry for you
I'd lay my body down
And die tor you
If that isn't love
It will have to do
Until the real thing
Comes along
Natalie Cole's Until the Real Thing Comes Along is a song about unrequited love. The singer is deeply in love with someone, and they are willing to do anything to prove their love, to the point where they would become a beggar or a knave. This illustrates just how much the singer is willing to sacrifice for love. They would even move the earth for their loved one, which signifies that they would go to any length to prove their love's worth. However, despite all of their efforts and devotion, their love remains unreciprocated. At the end of the song, the singer admits that until the real thing comes along, they will settle for this unrequited love.
The lyrics of the song are very poignant, and they are also a reflection of the society of the time in which it came out. In the mid-70s and early 80s, the women's liberation movement had been in full swing, and there was a shift towards gender equality. However, Until the Real Thing Comes Along reflects a more traditional ideal of love, where the woman is subservient to her partner and would do anything for them. The singer is in a position of powerlessness, and there is a sense of desperation and vulnerability that pervades the lyrics. Ultimately, the song makes us question the lengths to which we would go for love and whether it is worth it to settle for less than what we truly deserve.
Line by Line Meaning
I'd wait for you
I am willing to be patient and wait for you
I'd slave for you
I would work tirelessly to make you happy
I'd be a beggar
I am willing to give up everything and beg for you
Or a knave for you
I am willing to act dishonorably for you
If that isn't love
If all the sacrifices I am willing to make are not love
It will have to do
It is all I can offer
Until the real thing
Until true love comes along
Comes along
Arrives
I'd gladly move
I am willing to do anything
The earth for you
Even move mountains
To prove my love, dear
To demonstrate my feelings for you
And its worth for you
And how much you mean to me
With all the words
Despite having an abundance of language skills
Dear, at my command
At my disposal
I just can't make
I cannot express
You understand
How much I truly love you
I'll always love you
My love for you is eternal
Darling
Term of endearment
Come what may
No matter what happens
My heart is yours
You own my heart
What more can I say?
There is nothing else I can express about my love for you
I'd lie for you
I am willing to be dishonest for you
I'd sigh for you
I am willing to express my longing for you
I'd tear the stars
I am willing to perform impossible tasks
Down
From their place in the sky
From the sky for you
To show my dedication to you
I'd cry for you
I am willing to express my emotions for you
I'd lay my body down
I am willing to sacrifice myself for you
And die for you
Even give up my life for you
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Alberta Nichols, L.E. Freeman, Mann Holiner, Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind