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.
Where Can I Go Without You
Natalie Cole Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Then on to Paris for the fun I couldn't find
I found I couldn't leave my memories behind
Where can I go without you?
Tried seeing Singapore but that wouldn't do
Went to Vienna but I found you there, too
Even in Switzerland, your memory came through
I wanted travel, I wanted romance
I chased that rainbow across the sea
I'm tired of faces and quaint old places
If you can't be there with me
Back on the boat again and farewell to France
Farewell to London town they haven't a chance
I'll trade the sights I've seen for just one loving glance
Where can I go without you?
I'm tired of faces and quaint old places
If you can't be there with me
Back on the boat again and farewell to France
Farewell to London town they haven't a chance
I'll trade the sights I've seen for just one loving glance
Where can I go without you?
In Natalie Cole's song "Where Can I Go Without You," she sings about searching for relief from the memories of a past love, but ultimately finding that no matter where she goes, the memories of the person she's trying to forget always come flooding back. The lyrics are an expression of the frustration and despair that anyone who's tried to move on from a past love can relate to. The singer tries to escape the memories by traveling to different places, but finds that the memories follow her everywhere. The line "I found I couldn't leave my memories behind" speaks to the idea that one doesn't necessarily need to be physically present to hold a significant place in someone's life.
The second verse touches on the same theme, but this time the singer has traveled to Asia and Europe, hoping to leave the past behind. However, as the song progresses, it becomes clear that the singer is actually searching for a new love to replace the old one. She's tired of traveling and seeing new sights if she can't share the experience with someone special. She wants to trade the places she's seen for just one loving glance. The singer realizes that no matter how much she tries to escape her past, the only way to move forward is to open herself up to the possibility of new love.
"Where Can I Go Without You" is a powerful song about the struggle to move on from past relationships, and finding the strength to let go and move forward. It's a common theme in many songs, but Natalie Cole's delivery and the haunting melody make this song stand out.
Line by Line Meaning
I went to London town to clear up my mind
I visited London to try and forget you
Then on to Paris for the fun I couldn't find
I went to Paris to find joy, but I couldn't find it
I found I couldn't leave my memories behind
I realized that my memories of you are still with me
Where can I go without you?
I can't escape thoughts of you no matter where I go
Tried seeing Singapore but that wouldn't do
I tried going to Singapore, but it didn't ease my mind
Went to Vienna but I found you there, too
Even in Vienna, I couldn't escape memories of you
Even in Switzerland, your memory came through
Memories of you still haunted me in Switzerland
I wanted travel, I wanted romance
I craved adventure and love
I chased that rainbow across the sea
I pursued the idea of finding happiness far away
I'm tired of faces and quaint old places
I'm exhausted with seeing new faces and visiting charming locations
If you can't be there with me
If you're not by my side
Back on the boat again and farewell to France
Leaving France on a boat, I bid it goodbye
Farewell to London town they haven't a chance
Even saying goodbye to London seems futile
I'll trade the sights I've seen for just one loving glance
I'd give up all the places I've visited for one look of love from you
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: VICTOR YOUNG, PEGGY LEE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind