A King’s Legacy : Natalie Cole Shows Father’s Music Is ‘Unforgettable’

Natalie Maria Cole was a few days past her 15th birthday in February, 1965, when her father, the legendary Nat King Cole, died.

Twenty-six years later to the day, she was fulfilling a dream that she had held for all those years--through her own hit records and Grammy Awards. She was finally making an album of his songs.

In the same Capitol studio in Hollywood where her father made some of his most famous recordings, Cole was listening to her dad’s soothing voice through a headset, exchanging lines and singing in unison with him.

“Unforgettable,” sings Nat on a tape of his 1951 ballad. “That’s what you are.”

“Unforgettable,” replies Natalie. “Though near or far.”

And together, backed by soaring strings, the voices blend:

“That’s why, darling, it’s incredible

“That someone so unforgettable

“Thinks that I am

“Unforgettable too.”

“To be able to sing back to him . . . it was great,” Natalie Cole says now of the studio experience. “It was a relief to finally be able to do it, knowing it was going to be put on tape permanently.”

If Cole was thrilled about the project, which contains 22 remakes of her father’s songs, much of the record industry probably considered it just sweet sentimentality. A number of record companies didn’t show any interest when Cole and her manager approached them about the concept.

So, it’s easy to see how the pop world was caught off guard when the album, “Unforgettable,” raced to No. 1 on the charts last week, steamrollering past such other recent No. 1 releases as the assaultive gangster rap of N.W.A and the screeching hard-rock of Skid Row.

“The first reaction is surprise,” said Ken Barnes, senior vice president and editor of the trade magazine Radio and Records. “People are very much buzzing about it. It’s interesting to see anything coming from left field doing that well.”

The nearest parallel to it, Barnes said, is the 1983 Linda Ronstadt album “What’s New,” a collection of ‘40s ballads that reached No. 3 on the charts and sold more than 2 million copies. But Barnes said Cole’s album may eclipse that. “Unforgettable” has sold an estimated 1.2 million copies in the first five weeks.

“Elektra is tapping an underserved market,” Barnes said, adding that whether the audience is new or simply has broadened tastes is an unanswered question.

“From 76-year-old grandparents to rappers, (people) are liking this record. It’s just wonderful,” Cole said. “It’s a little bit of a reality check for those of us who believe in real music.”

The album initially has been marketed to those who may not be regular album buyers, said Cole’s manager Dan Cleary, including advance TV appearances. Cleary suggested the album’s success is only the “initial blush” and that the next wave will be from regular music buyers.

Cole had been mulling over the idea for years; she said friends and fans have urged her on. The decision was made when--after all those rejections--Bob Krasnow, chairman of Elektra Entertainment, leaped at the idea.

“I didn’t need to be sold,” said Krasnow.

At the time, Cole was under contract to Capitol Records/EMI, where she said the reaction was “lukewarm.” So in an arrangement Cole’s manager called a “mutual separation,” Cole walked out the doors of EMI--taking the hit album with her. (EMI officials could not be reached for comment.)

“If you buy a contract from someone and if goes to No. 1, of course you’re ecstatic,” said Krasnow.

Cole’s recording career has had its highs and lows. She won three Grammy Awards in the 1970s, two for her 1975 debut album “Inseparable.” But in 1983, the year she sought treatment for cocaine addiction, she was dropped from Epic Records after an unsuccessful album. Then other albums began the climb back up: “Dangerous” in 1985, “Everlasting” in 1988 and “Good to be Back” in 1989 yielded several Top 40 singles, including “Jump Start” and “Pink Cadillac.”

Despite the success of “Unforgettable,” an earlier release of a Nat King Cole remake, “When I Fall in Love,” only reached No. 95.

For Cole’s current tour, which comes to the Universal Amphitheatre on Aug. 23, she is not performing any regular repertoire, sticking to music of her father’s era.

“This has caught me a little off-guard, because I’m liking this very much,” she said. “I’m really enjoying people (in the audience) getting the feelings that they’re getting. . . . It’s not a sense of power, it’s a great sense of sharing.”

Several musicians on the album also had recorded with Nat King Cole. That was not by design, Cleary said; arrangers and producers simply filled the orchestra chairs with musicians they considered the best.

“There’s a bittersweetness to it all in that my dad couldn’t be there,” said Cole.

For the album, some arrangements were modified by removing components that seemed dated or hokey; for example, a passage for strings in “Unforgettable” was replaced by a saxophone solo.

“It was important that they were my dad’s songs, but it was important that I remember I was the one singing them,” she said. “There’s a transfer of responsibility, almost. You wonder, ‘Can I really carry this?’ I think if Dad was here, he would say, ‘Yes, you can.’ ”