Natalie Cole Biography

Fast Facts

• Didn't become serious about pursuing a music career until her junior year in college, when she began singing in clubs up and down the East Coast
• Scored five No
• 1 R&B hits from 1975 to '77, including her debut single "This Will Be
• " Found similar success on the album front, with her first five LPs achieving either gold or platinum status
• Topped the pop album charts in 1991 with Unforgettable: With Love, on which she covered many of her dad's classic songs
• Underwent a kidney transplant in 2009, which led her to become a spokesperson for the University Kidney Research Organization
• Involved with Tune In to Hep C, a public health campaign educating people about hepatitis C (which she had and overcame)
• Wrote two memoirs: Angel on My Shoulder (2000), about her life, career and battles with drug dependency; and Love Brought Me Back (2009), about her kidney problems, the donor whose death gave her life and her sister Carole "Cookie" King