Song:This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)
Album:Greatest Hits, Volume 1
Of course we all know that Natalie Cole is the daughter of the legendary Nat King Cole. She has had her own successful career since This Will Be hit the charts in 1975. She has changed her musical style significantly over the years. I prefer her early R & B material to the type of easy listening sound she has today. She was born Feb. 6, 1950 in Los Angeles. We all know about her dad but her mom Maria Cole sang with Duke Ellington and her uncle Freddie Cole is a jazz piano legend. When her dad died in 1965, she was away at a boarding school in Massachusetts. She started singing in clubs in the early 70s And that's where she met producers Marvin Yancy and Chuck Jackson. Of course Jackson had several hits of his own in the 60s including Any Day Now. Yancy was a pianist who usually backed up touring gospel acts when they came to Chicago. The two started working together and their group The Independents topped the R & B charts with Leaving Me in 1973. When that group split up, they met Natalie after talking to her manager and the three started working together. Natalie signed with Capitol and This Will Be topped the R & B Singles chart and reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975. She had several other hits and the album Inseparable went Gold. If you think This Will Be sounds like Aretha Franklin, that's not a coincidence because Yancy and Jackson offered the song to Aretha before they met Natalie and she turned it down. Natalie married Yancy in 1976 and she continued to have success through the late 70s. They have a son Robbie Yancy who now tours with his mom. They divorced in 1980 and Marvin Yancy died of a heart attack in 1985 at age 34. Meanwhile Natalie's career had faded and she was addicted to drugs. Her 1987 career rebirth and recovery came after she married record producer Andre Fischer and he got her a contract with Elektra. And of course she had her biggest hit with the duet with Nat King Cole Unforgettable in 1991. This comp was released in tandem with a TV biopic in 2000 and is a good intro to her music. Natalie Cole was diagnosed with hepatitis in 2008 and after a liver transplant, she has returned to touring mostly as a nostalgia act. As I said, I don't like her recent music but I do like her early R & B stuff. Here's Natalie Cole performing This Will Be on The Midnight Special 1975. This video is not on Youtube.
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