Natalie Cole has died

Legendary singer Natalie Cole died December 31, 2015, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was 65. Cause of death was complications from ongoing illness. Cole had a liver transplant on 2009, after battling hepatitis C.

One of the great singers of her generation, she burst on to the music scene in 1975 with the album Inseparable that had the hits “This will be (an Everlasting Love)” and the title track.

The daughter of Nat King Cole, she refused to cover her father’s songs until 1991 when she recorded the best-selling album of her career, Unforgettable … With Love, which featured the music of Nat King Cole.

In her early years Cole released such hit albums like Natalie, Unpredictable, Thankful and Natalie Live. They produced hit songs “I Got Love on My Mind” and “Our Love.”

Natalie Cole had a drug habit that eventually took its toll and in the 1980s she spent six months in rehab to clean herself up. Her recording career had all but died by then and she had hepatitis C, but when she re-emerged Cole set about rebuilding her music career with albums Dangerous and Everlasting. Then she released Unforgettable … With Love.

Cole continued to record and she expanded her career into acting. In 2000 her autobiography, Angel on My Shoulder, was published and made into a TV movie.

Natalie Cole has won nine Grammy Awards over a career that produced 21 albums. She sang the National Anthem for Super Bowl XXVIII, January 30, 1994.

Natalie Cole is one of the great singers of her generation.