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Still Unforgettable
06/21/1999 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor
Natalie Cole has earned what Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin sang about: respect. Her 20-plus-year career has had its ups and downs, but she's come out the other side in one piece and all the better for the wear. Her 1991 album of posthumous duets with her late father Nat "King" Cole, Unforgettable, was exactly that to the album-buying public, which boosted it over 5 million sold. But that album did something beyond sales. It redefined Cole's image, better enabling her to expand her musical palette. Her latest album, Snowfall On The Sahara, touches on her diverse influences, reaching back for Leon Russell's "A Song for You," Judy Collins's "Since You Asked," and Jerry Ragavoy & George David Weiss's "Stay With Me."
"We ended up with a real colorful pattern of different music styles, different music types, different sounds, being able to utilize my voice in different ways, which was fun for me," says Cole. "And I don't think there was anything I did that I wasn't comfortable with, which is also a first. Even when I did Unforgettable, I wasn't totally comfortable. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. It was scary."
Teaming up with legendary producer Phil Ramone (Frank Sinatra, Elton John), Cole set out to make an album that did nothing to betray her status as a singer of class and taste.
"In choosing [Ramone], I stayed in a place where I was comfortable," she says. "I didn't want to do hip-hop. I didn't want to make that transition. I couldn't see me making that transition and then having to perform it onstage. It would have been slightly laughable. It might have gained me some little entrance into some worlds. On a real regular basis, would that be what I would want? No."
Cole has a way of making things work. Her sister had suggested Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" as a possible cover. Cole brought it up to Ramone and he immediately got excited about the track. Dylan ended up submitting two additional verses for Cole to sing in place of the "You can call me Zimmy" verse that makes reference to himself. This is not something the bard is known to do.
For the title track Cole worked with producer David Foster, who enjoyed Cole's demo of the song so much that he ended up building the track from it. "All we did was add guitar, strings, an extra beat, and some vocal pads," recalls Cole.
When it came time to mix the track, the Internet came in handy. Mixer Mick Guzauski was in his studio in upstate New York while Ramone and Cole were in New York City. "Through the computer he could talk to us, put up the track, and we were able to tell him how we wanted the levels, different sounds. It was amazing. We did everything but see him," she laughs.
Cole is satisfied with this album. She's had her problems with drugs and failed romantic relationships (yep, VH1's going to do a Natalie Cole Behind The Music), but she remains hopeful.
"I've had my share of doing things that I really wish I hadn't done," Cole states. "It doesn't mean I'm not going to make mistakes again, but don't let it be in the studio. Let that be at least one place where I can kinda get it right."
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