Nat King Cole & Natalie Cole

Some voices define an era. Nat King Cole's was the sound of elegance itself—a velvet baritone that made every listener feel like the only person in the room. His daughter Natalie inherited that gift and built her own extraordinary career, but her most breathtaking moment came when she reached across time to sing with the father she'd lost at age fifteen. Their posthumous duet of "Unforgettable" became one of the most beloved recordings in music history—a father-daughter love story told in song.

His Story

The King of Cool

Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1919 and raised on the South Side of Chicago. He learned piano in church—his mother was the choir director—and by his teens was playing jazz in clubs around the city. He dropped the "s" from his last name and became Nat King Cole, forming the King Cole Trio in Los Angeles in 1937. The group pioneered a new sound: a small jazz combo built around piano, guitar, and bass that influenced countless musicians who followed.

But it was Nat's voice that would make him immortal. He hadn't planned to be a singer—the story goes that a drunk patron demanded he sing one night, and the rest is history. His smooth, intimate delivery turned songs into conversations. "Mona Lisa," "Too Young," "When I Fall in Love," and "Unforgettable" became standards that have never gone out of style.

Breaking Barriers with Grace

In 1956, Nat King Cole became the first African American to host a national television variety show—The Nat King Cole Show on NBC. Despite critical acclaim and loyal viewership, no national sponsor would back a show hosted by a Black man. Cole sustained it for over a year, partly out of his own pocket, before it was canceled. He bore the indignity with characteristic grace but didn't mince words: the show died, he said, because Madison Avenue was afraid of the dark.

He had already faced violence for breaking barriers. In 1948, when he purchased a home in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on his lawn. Neighbors tried to buy him out. He stayed. In 1956, during a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, a group of white supremacists rushed the stage and attacked him. He finished the show with a different audience that same night. Nat King Cole never stopped performing, never stopped smiling, and never stopped demanding his place at the table.

A Legacy Cut Short

Nat King Cole died of lung cancer on February 15, 1965. He was just 45 years old. He left behind an extraordinary catalog of music, five children, and a hole in the culture that could never quite be filled. Among those children was a fifteen-year-old girl named Natalie, who had her father's eyes, his talent, and a voice all her own.

Her Story

Natalie Steps Into the Light

Natalie Maria Cole grew up in the shadow of an icon, but she refused to be defined by it. After studying at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she pursued music on her own terms—not her father's pop ballads, but R&B, soul, and funk. Her 1975 debut album, Inseparable, earned her two Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist. She was just 25.

Hits like "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" and "Our Love" established her as one of the premier voices in R&B. She wasn't just Nat King Cole's daughter—she was Natalie Cole, a star in her own right. But the music industry's pressures, combined with the weight of her father's legacy and personal struggles, took a toll. Natalie battled addiction through the late 1970s and '80s, nearly losing everything before finding the strength to rebuild.

Unforgettable, in Every Way

In 1991, Natalie did something no one had imagined possible. Using modern recording technology, she sang a duet with her father—layering her voice over his original 1951 recording of "Unforgettable." The result was breathtaking: father and daughter, separated by decades and death, singing together in perfect harmony.

The album, Unforgettable... with Love, was a collection of standards her father had made famous, reimagined through Natalie's voice. It sold over seven million copies and swept the 1992 Grammy Awards, winning Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year. It was more than a tribute—it was a conversation between generations, a daughter telling her father she understood, that his music lived on, that love doesn't end.

For millions of listeners, the duet captured something universal: the ache of missing someone you love and the miracle of hearing their voice again. It remains one of the most emotionally powerful recordings ever made.

A Family's Music Lives On

Natalie continued performing and recording for two more decades, battling health challenges including hepatitis C and a kidney transplant in 2009. She never stopped. She died on December 31, 2015, at age 65—joining her father in the silence between the notes.

Together, Nat and Natalie Cole represent something rare in American music: a family legacy built not on imitation but on transformation. He broke barriers with quiet dignity. She broke barriers with fierce independence. And in one unforgettable recording, they proved that the bond between parent and child is stronger than time itself.

On Valentine's Day, we celebrate Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole—not just for the music they made, but for the love they shared across a lifetime and beyond. His voice was the definition of romance. Her voice was the definition of resilience. And together, they created something truly unforgettable.