Natalie Cole - Unforgettable With Love (1991)

When Natalie Cole released Unforgettable With Love, an album full of her Dad's songs, it may have seemed like a sellout with a bit of cheating and, because the CD contained twenty-two tracks that clocked in at over an hour and thirteen minutes, it could have also been considered highly self-indulgent. But then you listen to it and think, "like father, like daughter" because she was born to sing these songs.

On this impressive set, the R&B and pop Cole recorded since the dawn of her career in 1975 was abandoned completely. Whether she covered hits from the days of her Father's outstanding jazz trio ("Paper Moon" and "Route 66")" or "Mona Lisa" and "Nature Boy" from his subsequent, pop, superstar years, Cole effortlessly made these songs her own because she cared so deeply about each one of them. Only a curmudgeon would fail to understand why.

Cole wasn't at all concerned about the retro vibe of the album. The co-ed harmony singers that the elder Cole and so many of his 60s contemporaries employed regularly on their records definitely sound quite dated today but she used them effectively to capture the spirit of the times on "That Sunday, That Summer."

The cheating involved the fake duet she sang with her Father on the title track. The updated, but superbly done, theft job was a massive hit and won four Grammys.

Unforgettable With Love was certified platinum seven times over and it won the 1992 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. As of 2016 it sold 6.2 million copies.

If you're in a mood for the Great American Songbook listen to Natalie Cole instead of Rod Stewart. You won't regret it.


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