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.
What a Difference a Day Made
Natalie Cole Lyrics
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Twenty four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain
My yesterday was blue dear
Today I'm a part of you dear
My lonely nights are through dearSince you said you were mine
What a difference a day makes
There's a rainbow before me
Skies above can't be stormy
Since that moment of bliss, that thrilling kiss
It's heaven when you
Find romance on your menu
What a difference a day made
And the difference is you
What a difference a day makes
There's a rainbow before me
Skies above can't be stormy
Since that moment of bliss, that thrilling kiss
It's heaven when you
Find romance on your menu
What a difference a day makes
And the difference is you
What a difference a day made
Twenty four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain
It's heaven when you
Find romance on your menu
What a difference a day makes
And the difference is you [3x]
Natalie Cole's "What a Difference a Day Made" is a beautiful love song that celebrates the transformative power of love. The song evokes a sense of hope and renewal, as it speaks to the idea that anything can change in just twenty four hours. The lyrics describe how the singer's life went from a place of sadness and rain to one of sun and flowers due to the arrival of love in her life. The song speaks of the joy and relief that come with finding a romantic partner and how that changes one's entire world.
The first stanza of the song emphasizes the idea that in the span of a day, everything can change. The sun can come out and flowers can bloom, replacing the gloomy rain. The second stanza speaks to the transformative power of love, as the singer's life went from being lonely and blue to being shared with her romantic partner. The moment of love is described as a moment of pure bliss, highlighted by the thrilling kiss. When love comes and fills the heart, the skies above can never be stormy again. The chorus of the song repeats the idea that romance is like heaven and the difference between the singer's gloomy past and her bright present is the arrival of her lover.
Line by Line Meaning
What a difference a day made
The transformation from yesterday to today is remarkable
Twenty four little hours
A mere day is all it takes for things to change
Brought the sun and the flowers
The day brought happiness and joy to replace the sadness
Where there used to be rain
The previous state was filled with sorrow and bleakness
My yesterday was blue dear
My past was filled with sadness
Today I'm a part of you dear
Now I have someone to share my life with
My lonely nights are through dear
I no longer have to face the loneliness and despair of the past
Since you said you were mine
Since you committed to loving me
There's a rainbow before me
A bright and colorful future lies ahead
Skies above can't be stormy
Troubles and struggles will no longer dominate my life
Since that moment of bliss, that thrilling kiss
Since the moment we shared our love through a passionate kiss
It's heaven when you
Finding love is like finding a piece of heaven
Find romance on your menu
When life provides you the opportunity to love and be loved
And the difference is you
You are the key to the positive change I am experiencing
Lyrics © Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Maria Grever, Stanley Adams
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind