Natalie Cole’s recent death at age 65 naturally brings to mind her father Nat King Cole’s untimely death at age 45. But even though Natalie’s legendary father passed away when she was only teenager, a duet with him 26 years after his death became one of her biggest hits.
Groundbreaking technology at the time, the 1991 duet of the hit “Unforgettable” paired the father and daughter on a recording for the first time since she appeared on his Christmas album as a child. The track mixed the elder Cole’s vocals from a 1961 stereo rerecording of the 1951 hit with a new recording of his daughter’s vocals.
“No one really knew what to expect,” Cole recalled of the recording in a 2010 interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” “Technologically, we had never done anything like that. Nothing had been attempted like that, to lift Dad’s voice, literally, off of that track and put it on a brand-new one, and then line it up, match it up, get the phrasing right.”
The recording and album of the same name went on to win a combined six Grammys in 1992.
“I thank my dad for leaving me such a wonderful, wonderful heritage,” Cole said of her father when accepting one of her awards.
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