NATALIE COLE: OUR FIRST INTERVIEW

1975 - "Inseparable" The Start Of An Amazing Journey...

My association with the late and ‘Miss-You-Like-Crazy’ Natalie Cole goes back to a day in the spring of 1975. I was in New York, writing for Blues & Soul and my mandate was to write as much as possible to justify my presence as the on-the-ground correspondent for the British publication.

What that meant was getting interviews with newly-signed artists that US labels were interested in promoting internationally and as such, I would get calls from record company publicists eager to get exposure for their latest R&B acts.

I got a call from Matt Parsons, who worked in the burgeoning Black music department at Capitol Records in New York inviting me to come to the label’s Manhattan offices to get a sneak preview of Natalie Cole’s first album, “Inseparable.” In my “Dateline USA” column in late June of 1975, just a few weeks after hearing it, I raved, “From the daughter of the late Nat King Cole comes an album which will catapult Natalie Cole into superstardom in very short order….Don’t say we didn’t warn you - just get ready for a lady who’s gonna give every other female singer around some tough competition!”

A few weeks later, I was back at Capitol’s offices for a phone conversation with Natalie, apparently her very first interview about the album!

It was the beginning of a treasured association and friendship that would span close to forty years, filled with many personal memories, including attending church in Chicago with her late husband, Reverend Marvin Yancy all the way through to a ‘Janet Jackson’ moment that Natalie had when we were having tea in the cafe of a posh London hotel!

It seems fitting to reprint the original article virtually 40 years after it was published….

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