“I was just ready.”

In 1991, after more than 15 years in the music industry, Natalie Cole dug into her roots and found the biggest success of her career. The one thing Natalie Cole avoided early on in her career was her father’s music, she was determined to be her own musician. She achieved that, and emerged in 1991 with a 22-song album dedicated to her father: Unforgettable… With Love.

The mid-1970’s were Natalie’s coming out party as a musician. She was a force to be reckoned with in R&B, a far cry from the jazz & pop standards her father championed in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Her success positioned her as vying for the crown against the biggest female names in R&B at the time: Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross. Fueling her ascent, she famously ended Aretha’s undefeated 8-year winning streak of Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance with “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love),” her now-signature song.

Natalie continued to shine until addiction reared its ugly head and sidetracked her throughout much of the 1980’s. Less-than-stellar musical pairings also did not help keep her career on track. Albums such as Dangerous and I’m Ready, have some quality material, but failed to ignite a lasting spark. 1987’s Everlasting found Natalie returning to the charts thanks to a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac,” but when 1991 rolled around, Natalie’s career would change forever.

“(I)t took 15 years into my career before I felt comfortable and confident enough to even attempt at singing my father’s music” she would later say. Much of the album was recorded at Capitol Records studios in Los Angeles, where her father recorded many of his own hits. It was clearly the magic touch. “I felt my father everywhere” she told Ebony Magazine in 1991 of the recording sessions.

The album is nothing short of a masterwork and a testament to the talent gene being passed from parent to child. While Nat’s voice is unmistakable and inimitable, Natalie’s holds a certain tonal quality that recalls her father. Not only is the album powerful, it’s dense, clocking in at an impressive 22 songs. Recording the album however, presented a few challenges.

First off, there were the label issues. Her label at the time, EMI was scared shitless to let her go off on what they considered a musical tangent. They felt that going so far left would alienate her audience and destroy her career. Suffice it to say they ate their words when Natalie struck a deal with Elektra Records and went full-steam ahead turning her tribute to her father into a reality.

Second, there were the vocal challenges. As Natalie said in 1991, she had to “throw out every R&B lick that I had ever learned and every pop trick I had ever learned. With him, the music was in the background and the voice was in the front.” It is an impressive feat for her to seemingly transition from R&B/pop to the much more challenging techniques and accuracies required in a jazz/pop/standards world of music.

Many of these songs are, for all intensive purposes, Nat’s songs. He sang them first, and he made them the hits they continue to be. Natalie’s renditions and arrangements are more than quality, but Nat’s versions remain superior. Those include “Nature Boy,” “Smile,” and “Mona Lisa.” “L-O-V-E” however, is a par for the course example of Natalie delivering a performance memorable enough to challenge her father’s. “Paper Moon” and “Lush Life” also fall into this category.

Interestingly, there are songs where Natalie outshines her father’s originals, most notably “Orange Colored Sky.” The arrangement she bestows, combined with her spot-on rapid delivery of the lines “’Cause the ceiling fell in, and the bottom fell out, I went into a spin, and I started to shout, “I’ve been hit, this is it, this is it!” upstage Nat’s original vocal performance. Not only that, but her delivery recalls the climactic “Hugging and squeezing, and kissing and pleasing, Together forever throughever whatever” & “So long as I’m living, true love I’ll be giving, To you I’ll be serving, cause you’re so deserving” from “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)”.

The crowning jewel of course, is the title track and album closer “Unforgettable.” It created a revolution in the recording industry, pairing Natalie with her late father, for a chilling, incredible performance. It was a transcendent experience for all involved. As producer David Foster recalled, “the orchestra… could barely play… they were gasping when his voice came in and hearing her sing. It was almost like he was alive again.”

To call the success of Unforgettable… With Love ‘massive’, would be an understatement. The album became Natalie’s first number one record within a few weeks of being released. The single “Unforgettable” shot from number 78 to peak at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single week. As Natalie said at the time, “It’s absolutely shocking to see it between Van Halen and Skid Row on the charts, totally out of its element.” The album went on to be certified 7 times Platinum, the single “Unforgettable” Gold, and the video for “Unforgettable” Platinum. It also landed at number 47 on the Billboard 200’s End of Decade Album Chart.

At the Grammy Awards in 1992, the album swept. Including David Foster’s win as Producer of the Year, Non-Classical Unforgettable… With Love walked away with 7 Grammy Awards. It also achieved the rare feat of winning Album, Record, and Song of the Year. The Song Of The Year win was so controversial (due to the song being written 40 years prior) that the rules were changed for the following year.

As a result of the massive success of Unforgettable… With Love, Natalie continued to drift towards the Great American Songbook. She released two more albums in its vein along with two Christmas albums. Her return to R&B and pop came with 1999’s magical Snowfall On The Sahara. Another few albums passed through a variety of musical styles, although her final two releases both returned to focus on her father.

2008’s Still Unforgettable was billed as the official sequel to the 1991 album. Her final album, 2013’s Natalie Cole En Español paid homage to her father’s catalog of Spanish music. Both contain a new duet with her father, and their pairings have never tired on listener’s ears. Her death earlier this year was a tragic loss to the music world, but like her father, she will remain ‘unforgettable.’

Sources

“Natalie Cole.” Intimate Portrait. 1 Aug. 1999. Lifetime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_CVxyXAw5I

“100 Essential CDs – Number 29 – Unforgettable With Love –Natalie Cole (1991).”

Reviewsrevues. N.p., 19 July 2015. Web.

https://reviewsrevues.com/2015/07/19/100-essential-cds-number-29-unforgettable-with-love-natalie-cole-1991/

“Natalie Cole Dead at 65.” Billboard. N.p., 1 Jan. 2016. Web.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6828859/natalie-cole-nat-king-cole-dead-at-65

“34^th Annual Grammy Awards”

http://www.grammy.com/awards/34th-annual-grammy-awards

“Natalie Cole.” – Chart History. N.p., n.d. Web. 2016.http://www.billboard.com/artist/277011/natalie-cole/chart

Pareles, Jon. “Natalie Cole, ‘Unforgettable’ Voice and Million-Selling Hitmaker, Dies at 65.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Jan. 2016. Web.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/arts/music/natalie-cole-grammy-award-winning-singer-dies-at-65.html?_r=0

Simon, Scott. “Remembering Natalie Cole, Who Made A Name All Her Own.” NPR. NPR, 2 Jan. 2016. Web.

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/02/461700672/natalie-cole-gone-but-not-forgotten

Randolph, Laura B. “The Untold Story of Natalie Cole’s Comeback Tribute To Her Father, Nat King Cole”. Ebony. October 1991, 112-118. Print.

https://books.google.com/books?id=NdQDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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I never really listened to Nina Simone until a few years ago. I was familiar with her name, knew her voice a bit especially from samples in hip hop (Common, Lil’ Wayne, Kanye West & Jay-Z). Then I listened to Nina Simone, and I have yet to slow down.

Nina is a complicated figure in music history, in part because she will not fit into a traditional genre box, and she preferred it that way. Born Eunice Waymon on February 21, 1933 in segregated Tryon, North Carolina, she was a classical piano prodigy from the age of 3. Her first act of civil rights activism was during her first recital at the age of 12. Her parents were moved from the front row to the back to accommodate white attendees, and she refused to play until her parents were given back front row seats.

From there, she auditioned and was rejected from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music (supposedly due to her race), and began playing piano and singing in Atlantic City, which is where she was reborn under the moniker Nina Simone. The stage name was an effort to keep her secular performances from her mother, a Methodist minister. Her repertoire at this time was classical, jazz, and blues.

She found success with a rendition of “I Loves You Porgy” (her only Billboard Top 20 record), and began her ascent to prominence. Her notability grew when her music began to politically reflect the times, first in 1963’s “Mississippi Goddam”. As she progressed further into politically charged lyrics and tones, her music also began to incorporate more soul & R&B, while effortlessly juggling her other genres, which by this point also included showtunes.

After the Civil Rights era began to crumble, so did Nina. She effectively vacated the United States and spent time living here and there before finally settling in France. after leaving the US in the 1970’s, she recorded and released just 4 more studios albums (and a handful of live albums). Her final album, A Single Woman, was released in 1993.

What draws me to Nina, is not only her sporadic and diverse catalog, but her unmistakable voice. I love how she described her singing voice: “Sometimes I sound like gravel and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream”. Her soulfulness mixed with occasional agitation is spellbinding, and her cadence is nothing short of incredible. And her skill as a pianist is genius. This is also the woman who incorporates a classical solo in the style of Bach in the middle of a cover of “Love Me Or Leave Me”, effortlessly. It works so well, it is always on any Nina playlist I create.

Her diverse representation of black women on “Four Women” is a chilling masterpiece, as is her demanding rendition of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell on You”. Lyrically, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”, as she sings about breaking the chains holding her and wanting to giving all she can give, could be read as a plea. Somehow, she delivers it with such optimism and motivation and hope, it is a true awakening. Even when she sings in another language, such as French song “Ne Me Quitte Pas”, her soulfulness properly conveys the song’s meaning, ‘please don’t leave me’.

My favorite Nina song will forever be “Sinnerman”. It’s a 10-minute spiritual awakening that shakes me to my core, every single time I listen. From the opening notes of the piano, through each change and progression of the song, I quiver.

Though Nina remained somewhat unsung over the years, thankfully her influence continues. Last year Netflix released a family-approved documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? to examine and explain Nina’s complicated life (mostly through clips of Nina herself speaking). The film went on to be nominated for an Academy Award. Nina has been gone for over a decade but her music and her genius will continue to inspire generations to come. I guarantee it.

Explore Nina further with this playlist:

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It works.  It’s believable.  When the song opens, an unsuspecting listener probably wouldn’t guess it’s Lady Gaga singing.  She sounds fantastic and authentic.  Tony Bennett of course provides a stellar performance as well.  Here’s my only issue: the two of them together doesn’t work that well.

Something about it is endearing, yes, but not exactly in the best way.  It’s more like I’m at a wedding and my grandpa and my cousin just took the microphone to do karaoke (except, neither of my grandfathers nor cousins can sing as well as Tony and Gaga).  It just seems like an odd combination.  And, while it’s cute, I’d rather hear them singing solo than with each other.  Hopefully, one day Gaga will release an album of jazz standards alone, because she sounds right at home.

As for this project, titled Cheek to Cheek, due out September 23rd, I am not sure how to feel.  I will definitely be giving it a listen, but whether it’ll become a staple in my music collection is to be determined.

Grade:

75/97

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