Natalie Cole

Pop Square Comeback Corner
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For some people it’s Barbra, Bette, Adele or Celine - but my MOR torch singer of choice has always been the one and only Natalie Cole.

An OG Nepo Baby who had one of the cleanest and purest pop vocals in the business and QUITE the tumultuous personal life - not done justice by the TV movie in which she was played by… Natalie Cole.

Anyway, a few undisputed classics -

Recently covered by Olivia Dean

One of the first BPG house remixes (leading to Aretha, Diana… and many others following suit) - written for her by Bruce Springsteen

Rejected by Bette Midler, her signature ballad in my opinion

70s funk perfection…

Majestic 80s smooth to an extent that it circles right back around to pure yearning…

And that’s before we even get to her awards and chart-hoovering duet album with her dad in the 90s, Pretty Woman, her iconic Whitney duet…

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Oh, I love Natalie too! I remember the first time I heard her on the radio.

This is one of my favorites (among many…Dangerous, anybody?)

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Natalie was amazing. There’s so much to enjoy in her '70s and '80s records - this isn’t her best, but the melodrama is absolutely amazing: Nothing but a Fool

And of course her mid-'80s bop ‘heavily indebted to’ the Pointer Sisters: Dangerous

And I love her random Fiona Apple cover: Criminal. Shit quality, but I was impressed she performed it live.

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