Natalie Cole Owns Her Life.

Her new book talks about messing up and cleaning up when you're rich and famous

Natalie Cole seldom plays it safe. In her eagerly anticipated autobiography, An Angel on My Shoulder (Warner, November 2000, $25.95, ISBN 0-446-52746-7), written with Digby Diehl, the Grammy Award-winner and multi-platinum singer throws caution to the wind. Cole's meteoric rise and devastating fall from grace is not only detailed in her book, but CBS is airing a Cole biopic on November 17; and for good measure, Elektra is releasing a 25th anniversary album of Cole classics to coincide with the release of the book.

Her tender arms reached out to us from the cover of Inseparable, her 1975 Grammy Award-winning debut album, and since then, we have watched her grow up, mess up, and finally get cleaned up. Looking back, she has traveled a long, drug-hazed road to the confident woman she is today, as her appearances at every A-list concert and charity event (not to mention zillionaire Bill Gates' wedding reception) attest.

"We all come to self-knowledge in different ways and at different times. Sure, I wish I could have been smarter when I was younger" she writes. "Then again, I know women my age and older who still haven't figured this out."

For many, she will always be Nat King Cole's dutiful daughter. Nat King Cole is written all over her face. Over the past decade, as Cole moved closer to fully embracing her father's music legacy, she has gotten increasingly comfortable in her own skin. Now, she has, as old folks say, come into her own face.

Like her ground-breaking, Grammy Award-sweeping album Unforgettable ... With Love, wherein Cole interpreted her father's songs, An Angel on My Shoulder appears headed for the top of bestseller lists, although a celebrity's name and photograph on the cover of a book do not always guarantee blockbuster sales.

Patti LaBelle's Don't Block the Blessings and Sidney Poitier's Measure of Man (both of which benefitted from appearances on "Oprah") had respectable runs on New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestsellers lists, but autobiographies by Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Kirk Franklin, Teddy Pendegrass, Aretha Franklin, Barry White, Cissy Houston, Queen Latifah, Della Reese, Star Jones, Mother Love, Gloria Gaynor, Snoop Dogg, Chris Rock and L.L. Cool J had only brief appearances. Most quickly disappeared into bookstore discount bins.

Biographies by Tina Turner (I, Tina) and perennial Supreme Mary Wilson (Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme) were not only hugely successful, but Turner's was the basis for the smash hit film What's Love Got to Do With It?, starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne.

"Word of mouth is extremely powerful when it comes to celebrity bios, especially since many celebrities do not want to do a regional tour, which is crucial for their sales," says book marketing specialist Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati, president of Philadelphia-based The Literary. "People have been very disappointed when they read some of these biographies. Many of these celebrities are simply not authors and that is reflected on the page. The word on many of these biographies is that they are just not well-written or interesting."

"The key to a well-written celebrity biography is to find the thread that links episodes in their lives," says Malaika Adero, who has edited such award-winning biographies and celebrity titles as Dorothy Dandridge by Donald Bogle, Miles by Quincy Troupe and Spike Lee's Gotta Have It. "We often live out our lives in patterns, and usually when you look at the sequence of events in a person's life, it reveals a pattern, complete with ups and downs and resolutions," Adero says.

In an Angel on My Shoulder, Cole realizes the pattern of her deep-seated insecurities. "I had guilt over not being black enough ... from having too much ... over being my father's daughter," she writes. "I wanted to be liked and I felt that being `The Daughter of Nat King Cole' sometimes worked against me--then, to make matters worse, I felt bad if it worked for me."

Natalie Cole was the second daughter of Negro America's royal couple, Nat King Cole and his stunning, socially ambitious wife Maria Cole. Cole was one of the first African American singers to cross over from the "race" music charts to pop charts with such classic standards as "Mona Lisa," "Route 66,' and "Rambling Rose." In the early '50s, the Cole family integrated upscale Hancock Park in Los Angeles. In 1956, Nat King Cole hosted his own variety program, "The Nat King Cole Show." The show was canceled due to protests from Southern television owners, who weren't quite prepared to see an elegant Black man singing duets with Mel Torme and Tony Bennett. Natalie, her brother Kelly and three sisters lived a charmed life of boarding schools, over-the-top Christmas celebrations, servants and vacations.

"Throughout my childhood, there was always a fascination with the Cole family in the black press," she explains. "Pictures of my parents' honeymoon were all over the magazines, and after that there were spreads from time to time showing the glamorous, affluent Cole family in their Hancock Park mansion with their servants. Stepping back and looking at it, to many people we were the black Kennedys"

The book shifts from a '50s feel-good musical, to a '60s drug-soaked experimental film. One of the strengths of Angel is that while Cole takes her actions seriously, she doesn't take herself seriously at all. Music fans will enjoy the second half of the book, which gives readers an all-access backstage pass into Cole's excesses and conflicts, including her dispute with Aretha Franklin. Each chapter begins with a tabloid headline (a tongue-in-cheek ploy that works more often than not): "Nat King Cole Daughter Dies", etc.

While many autobiographies slow down when its subject settles into domestic tranquility (I enjoyed cooking/I didn't miss me road/My meatloaf is the best), Cole's biography heats up as she soon grows restless and becomes addicted to freebased cocaine. After canceling concert appearances and crashing cars, her mother steps in and checks Cole into the exclusive Hazelden recovery center in Minnesota. Hitting rock bottom, Cole has an epiphany at Hazelden. Appearing to her almost as if in a vision, she communicates with her father, the angel on her shoulder, who assures her that all will work out for his daughter.

"When I was in treatment, I learned about getting comfortable with the negative stuff in your life, and I learned about getting rid of old habits. I learned how you can be your own best friend or your own worst enemy--and it's taken me a long time to become my own best friend."

Patrik Henry Bass, currently Books Editor at Essence magazine, has written and edited articles on publishing and culture for numerous publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and Code. Bass is the co-author (with Karen Pugh) of a photoessay book celebrating the African American family and community traditions that will be published next year by Running Press. Patrik looks at Natalie Cole's life in print on page 28.