J-Speaks: An "Unforgettable" Singer Passes On

She was the daughter of legendary jazz pianist Nathaniel “Nat” King Cole, who went on to have major success in music and television. She followed in her father’s footsteps and became a legend in her own right with her remarkable voice and turned that into music that touched the genres of Souls, R&B, pop, soft rock, jazz to name a few. While she also became famous for dealing with some of the pitfalls of fame that lead her to eventually having a transplant, she found the strength to strive on and it made her stronger and an even better on stage. Unfortunately that great voice that contained a fighting spirit unlike any other was silenced just before the start of 2016.

Eight-time Grammy Award Winner, two-time NAACP Image Award Winner and three time American Music Award Winner Natalie Cole passed away on Dec. 31, 2015 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA from congestive heart failure. She was 65 years old. She is survived by her 38-year-old son Robert Adam “Robbie” Yancy from her first marriage to songwriter, producer Marvin Yancy, who was also a former member of the 1970s R&B group “The Independents.” She is also survived by her sisters Casey and Timolin Cole.

“Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived, with dignity, strength and honor,” the Cole family said in a statement on Jan. 1.

“Natalie Cole will remain unforgettable in our hearts forever and so it will be for any whose lives were touched by her music.”

No funeral arrangements have be reported yet.

In tribute to the legendary entertainer, who also found success in television, the marque at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, NY was lit up with “In honor of the Unforgettable Natalie Cole 1950-2015.”

The legendary singer and entertainer Tony Bennett via Instagram said of having the chance to perform alongside Cole, “It was an honor to have sung with her.”

The Rev. Jessie Jackson via twitter said, “#Natalie Cole, sister beloved & of substance and sound. May her sole rest in peace. #Inseparable.”

Another legend Smokey Robinson said to Nischelle Turner on this past Friday’s edition of “Entertainment Tonight” that a big part of Cole’s legacy was that she was “real.”

“She was good people and one of our greatest musical icons ever. She’s going to live on and on and on and on because she made great music and people who knew her loved her.”

Natalie Cole path to greatness began as a pre-teen, or as it is referred to today a “tween,” from her father, who was an established star in the music world by the time she was born on Feb. 6, 1950. Nat Cole died of cancer when she was in high school on Feb. 15, 1965. She called the legacy that her father left both a blessing and a curse.

“Trying to step into those footsteps is literally impossible and people will expect so much of you,” Natalie said to now WABC 7 NY Entertainment Reporter and movie critic Sandy Kenyon back in 1990.

Cole hit her stride in the middle of the 1970s as a Rhythm & Blues (R&B) artist with hit songs “This Will Be,” “Inseparable,” and “Our Love.”

In 1977, Cole became the first female artist to have two platinum albums Unpredictable and Thankful in one year.

That success allowed Cole to star on her own television special, which attracted celebrities like the legendary singing group “Earth, Wind and Fire” and she also appeared on the television special, “Sinatra and Friends. In 1978, Cole released her first live album titled Natalie Live! In 1979, Cole received the highest celebrity honor in being awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and released two albums I Love You So and We’re the Best of Friends, a Peabo Bryson duet. Both albums went gold in the U.S.

Her best-selling album Unforgettable…with Love, which was released in 1991 on Elektra Records had Cole singing songs her father recorded almost 20 years after she initially refused to cover Nat Cole’s songs during a live concert.

Natalie did produce vocal arrangements to those songs, which included a piano accompaniment by her uncle Ike Cole. That was followed by the release of an interactive duet between Cole and her dad on the title song, “Unforgettable,” which reached the No. 14 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as No. 10 on the R&B chart, going gold.

Seven million copies of the album were sold in the U.S. alone and won several Grammys in 1992, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance for the top song.

Cole said to Kenyon back in 1990 about her dad, “To be remembered long after your gone is one of the greatest things that can happen to a human being.”

Over the years of her great success in music and television that continued in the 1990s and 2000s, below the surface Cole had some major personal demons that she was contending with.

In her autobiography, Angel on My Shoulder that came out in 2000, Cole described her battle with drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine.

She was arrested for heroin possession in Toronto, ON in 1975. There was one incident where she refused to evacuate from a burning building and another instance where he son Robert when he was very young almost drowned in the family swimming pool while his mother was binging on drugs. 

It was that moment that led Cole to get help and she did a stint in rehab in 1983.

Those moments would come back to Cole in 2008 when she announced that she was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, a liver disease that is spread through contact with infected blood.

After four months of getting treatment for the disease, Cole went through kidney failure, which required dialysis three times a week for nine months and was in need of a new kidney.

After an appearance on the Larry King Show, Cole was contacted by the organ procurement agency One Legacy in May 2009. The kidney donation was facilitated by a family which requested that if a match was possible, their donor’s kidney be designated for Cole.

In the seven years that have followed, Cole has continued to perform on stage as well as the small screen.

In September of 2010, Cole performed with Andrea Bocelli for his album My Christmas in concert at the then Kodak Theatre, now the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, CA.

On July 22, 2012, Cole was a guest judge on Season 4 of the Logo’s reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race, where the bottom two competitors lip-synced to her award-winning song “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) to decide who would stay and who would go.

On Father’s Day 2013, Cole was in Tina Sinatra’s Father’s Day Special on Sirius Radio alongside Deana Martin, Monica Mancini and Daisy Torme, who all reminisced about their famous dads.

Two memorable moments performances that Cole had in recent memory were her performance at the Apollo in 2014 and when she serenated entertainment host/reporter pioneer Mary Hart of “Entertainment Tonight” on her last episode on May 20, 2011 with her famed song “Unforgettable.”

“Natalie being there for my last day meant the world to me and was one of the highlights of my career and that was Natalie,” Hart, who 29-year run with “ET” ended on the aforementioned day said when she appeared on this past Friday’s show. “Big hearted. Kind. Classy and magnificent voice.”

A few days before her passing, Cole’s aforementioned sisters Casey and Timolin were able to spend this past Christmas Eve together at the hospital and it meant the world to her and to them. The sister also knew that this would be their last one together.

“When we came to the hospital and spent Christmas Eve with her it was a Godsend. It was her favorite time of the year,” Timolin to “ET’s” Kevin Frazier.

Casey told Frazier that when Natalie was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, she kept it a secret from a lot of people for a very long time. Casey said that she kept her diagnosis a secret to protect her family and close friends.

“I don’t think she wanted people to start feeling sorry for her. I think that she really, really thought and prayed that she would overcome this,” Casey Cole told Frazier this past Friday.

The Cole family is keeping Natalie’s spirit alive through the Nat King Cole Generation Hope, Inc. which was started Casey and Timolin, who are twins, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Florida whose mission is to provide music education to children with the greatest need and fewest resources.

She sold 30 million records worldwide. She became one of the greatest voices in the music industry. She made a place for herself and along the way thanks to technology, was able to perform with the sounds of her father in the background. She had to battle her way through drug abuse and the health scares that resulted from that later in life and emerged from that better. Natalie Maria Cole was more than just a singer, actress and entertainer. She was a mother, daughter, sister, wife and friend, who earned the respect of fans through her hard work, dedication and fight to be great and to persevere, which she told Hart six years ago.

“I’m a survivor. I’ don’t know where I really got it from, but I just don’t believe in giving up until the fat lady sings and the fat lady hasn’t sung yet,” Cole said back in 2008.

Information and quotes are courtesy of 1/1/16 4 p.m. edition of WABC 7’s “Eyewitness News First at 4” with Liz Cho, David Navarro and Lee Goldberg; 1/1/16 5 p.m. edition of WABC 7’s “Eyewitness News at 5” with Diana Williams, Sade Baderinwa and Lee Goldberg; 1/4/16 7:30 p.m. edition of “Entertainment Tonight” with Nancy O’Dell, Kevin Fraizer and Mary Hart, report from Nischelle Turner; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Cole; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_King_Cole; http://en.m.wikpedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hart; www.natkingcolegenhope.org/our-background.php,