Natalie Cole Trivia
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59 free Natalie Cole trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Natalie Cole trivia quiz follows the singer from Hancock Park and "the black Kennedys" through the Aretha Franklin rivalry, the 1980s comeback and the virtual duet with her father that swept the 1992 Grammys. The easy questions cover Nat King Cole, Inseparable, Best New Artist, Pink Cadillac and Unforgettable... with Love. Medium questions dig into Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy, the Franklin feud, Everlasting, Miss You Like Crazy, the Joe Guercio duet idea and When I Fall in Love. The hard and expert questions are for people who know the deep cuts: Larkin Arnold, Black Magic, The Chipettes, Michael Masser, Ike Cole's piano, the Howie Richmond Award, Big Break, Super Bowl XXVIII and her final show in Manila. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation, so the dates, chart positions and names can be trusted. Difficulty is shown on every question, which makes it easy to build a round for a music quiz night or play the whole set. When you finish, try our other R&B and jazz vocalist quizzes.
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Q 01Natalie Cole's father, Nat King Cole, first found fame in the 1940s as the pianist and leader of what?
A jazz trio
A jazz trio: the King Cole Trio's line-up of piano, guitar and bass made him a star before he turned crooner. Natalie at first refused to sing his songs on stage, wanting to succeed under her own name.
Q 02What was the title of Natalie Cole's 1975 debut album?
Inseparable
Inseparable was written and produced by two Chicago songwriters who had spotted her club act, and it won her two Grammys.
Q 03Natalie Cole was the first African-American act to win which Grammy Award?
Best New Artist
Best New Artist went to Cole at the 1976 ceremony along with a second Grammy for her first hit, four years after she left university unsure whether to pursue a singing career at all.
Q 04Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy shopped Cole's demo to label after label until which company, her father's old home, signed her?
Capitol
Capitol was her father's label, and she had hoped to sign somewhere else to avoid comparisons with him, but after a string of rejections it was the company that made an offer.
Q 05Whose Chicago studio did Cole record her first demos in?
Curtis Mayfield's
Curtis Mayfield's Curtom studio in Chicago was where her producers cut the demo tape, and label after label turned it down before one finally made an offer.
Q 06Which singer, to whom the young Cole was constantly compared, saw her eight-year Grammy winning streak ended by 'This Will Be'?
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin had won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance every year since the award began in 1968, and talk of a 'new Aretha' was said to have started a feud between the two.
Q 07Cole's 1990 single 'Wild Women Do' was written for the soundtrack of which hit film?
Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman's soundtrack opens with 'Wild Women Do', produced by Cole's new husband Andre Fischer, who went on to produce much of her Unforgettable album.
Q 08Cole supplied the singing voice of Sawyer, a jaded secretary, in which 1990s animated musical?
Cats Don't Dance
Cats Don't Dance gave Sawyer two voices: Jasmine Guy spoke the cat secretary's lines, while Cole sang her songs, including the ballad 'Tell Me Lies'.
Q 09Which Lindsay Lohan film closes with Cole's 'This Will Be' playing over wedding photos?
The Parent Trap
The Parent Trap bookends its story with father and daughter: her father's 'L-O-V-E' plays over the first wedding in the opening titles, and 'This Will Be' over photos of the second.
Q 10Which 1976 Cole hit beat her rival's "Something He Can Feel" for the Best Female R&B Vocal Grammy?
Sophisticated Lady
Sophisticated Lady, which Cole co-wrote, gave her a second straight win in a category her rival had owned for its first eight years.
Q 11Cole's third album Unpredictable went platinum on the strength of which No. 1 R&B hit?
I've Got Love on My Mind
I've Got Love on My Mind topped the soul chart for five weeks, but it could not win Cole a third straight Grammy: Thelma Houston's 'Don't Leave Me This Way' beat it in 1978.
Q 12Cole's Emmy-nominated 1992 TV concert lost to which singer's serenade on Johnny Carson's second-to-last Tonight Show?
Bette Midler
Bette Midler won for singing 'One for My Baby' to Carson, but the PBS special in which Cole sang her father's songs did not go home empty-handed: it won the Emmy for its director.
Q 13With which singer did Cole record the 1979 duet album We're the Best of Friends?
Peabo Bryson
Q 21Cole was the first African-American woman to win which Grammy, for her 1991 tribute to her father?
Album of the Year
Album of the Year went to a record her own label had doubted: 'My record company thought I was crazy,' Cole recalled. 'They were like, it'll never sell.'
Q 22How was Cole's hit 'Unforgettable' duet with her late father made?
His old vocal was mixed with hers
His old vocal was mixed with hers after engineers lifted his voice off the original track and matched her phrasing to it. 'Nothing had been attempted like that,' Cole said.
Q 23On her 2006 covers album Leavin', Cole sang 'Old Man', a 1972 hit for which rock veteran?
Peabo Bryson made duets his calling card after this album, later pairing with Roberta Flack and with Celine Dion on Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast'.
Q 14In which state is Hazelden, the clinic where Cole spent six months getting clean from late 1983?
Minnesota
Minnesota's Hazelden clinic worked where a 30-day rehab stay had not: after that first attempt, Cole said, she 'went right back to my drugs'.
Q 15Cole's 1987 comeback album Everlasting featured a dance-pop cover of which Bruce Springsteen song?
Pink Cadillac
Pink Cadillac had been only the B-side of Springsteen's 'Dancing in the Dark' until Cole's version took it into the top five in both the US and UK.
Q 16Cole joined Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder at a 1988 Wembley Stadium concert marking whose 70th birthday?
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was still in prison, so the party went ahead without its guest of honour while the broadcast carried his name to 67 countries.
Q 17Cole sang 'They Can't Take That Away from Me' with which legend on his 1993 album Duets?
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra never met his Duets partners in the studio: each guest sang along to his pre-recorded vocal.
Q 18Which 1989 single became Cole's biggest UK hit, reaching No. 2 there?
Miss You Like Crazy
Miss You Like Crazy topped the R&B and adult contemporary charts at home, yet it climbed higher in Britain, to No. 2, than its No. 7 on the US Hot 100.
Q 19While Cole was undergoing her 2009 kidney transplant, which family member died in another hospital?
Her sister Carole
Her sister Carole, known as Cookie, was in a coma when the transplant centre rang; Cole first told the caller, 'I can't talk to you right now. My sister's dying.'
Q 20After the 2008 Grammys, Cole said it 'sends the wrong message' to honour which big winner?
Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse won five Grammys that night while battling addiction; Cole, a veteran of rehab, said the awards rewarded 'a young girl who's very ill'.
Neil Young
Neil Young's 'Old Man' followed a Fiona Apple cover on Leavin', an album Cole promoted as a turn away from jazz standards and back to pop and R&B.
Q 24About how many copies did Cole's 1991 album of her father's songs sell in the United States?
7 million
7 million is the certified figure for an album that startled the trade; stores, Cole said, reported buyers 'who haven't bought a record in 20 years'.
Q 25Before music won out, which career did the young Cole tell her father she wanted?
Doctor
Doctor was the plan she gave him, so he died never knowing she wanted to sing; she dropped the idea after joining a band at college.
Q 26Which jazz singer joined Cole on 'Better Than Anything', their Grammy-nominated duet of 2002?
Diana Krall
Diana Krall was a natural partner: she had recorded a whole album in tribute to Cole's father, and both women worked with producer Tommy LiPuma.
Q 27Cole's 1996 album Stardust featured a second virtual duet with her father on which standard?
When I Fall in Love
When I Fall in Love won the pair a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 1997, more than three decades after her father's death.
Q 28Which 2008 album won Cole the last of her nine Grammys?
Still Unforgettable
Still Unforgettable returned to the songbook 17 years after her biggest hit. Asked why the follow-up took so long, Cole said, 'It takes a long time to chase greatness.'
Q 29Where did Cole earn her degree in child psychology in 1972?
UMass Amherst
UMass Amherst is where she finished the degree after a brief transfer to USC and back, but she never used it: by graduation, performing had become her first love.
Q 30At the depth of Cole's addiction in 1982, who went to court and won control of her finances?
Her mother
Her mother, Maria, stepped in during years when Cole crashed her car while high and her young son nearly drowned in the family pool.