I Love You So

Natalie Cole | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 21, 1997)
• Original Release Date: 1979
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: One Way Records Inc
• ASIN: B000002R28
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #367,893 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Love You So

2. You're So Good

3. It's Been You

4. Your Lonely Heart

5. The Winter

6. Oh Daddy

7. Sorry

8. Stand By

9. Who Will Carry On

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Natalie As Creative Follower, Not Leader, May 31, 2005

By 

KRA (East End of LI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Love You So (Audio CD)

By 1978 Natalie was riding a crest and her music career could seemto do no wrong. With a string of hit, well crafted albums from 1975 to 1977, and a hit double live album the year prior, she managed to develop a unigue style all her own that fused R & B, and Pop with tinges of Funk, Jazz and Gospel.

"I love You So", released in 1979 seemed to brake the chain, there are some strong tracks here, but the mix of Disco, Pop, and Countryesque songs seemed like a poor cousin to Donna Summer's 1979 blockbuster "Bad Girls" that also mixed these musical genres, but with a better flow.

The lead single "Stand By" failed to catch fire, and the followup "Your Lonely Heart" (the albums best track to me) took Natalie's core following by suprise. The same Natalie who a year earlier was packing them in to her concerts and taking her mega crossover hit "Our Love" to the top of the charts seemed to loose her way.

This album also got caught in the tabloid stories about Natalie's alleged Drug Abuse, and I remember when I first bought this album on vinyl at the Wiz in downtown Newark the week it first came out, a person on line behind me made a derogatory remark about her and that he would never buy another one of her albums. A superstars demons should not take the focus off of their artistry, but 1979 was turing out to be not Natalie's year.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Natalie Cole I Love You So, June 29, 2004

By 

Nathaniel Marsaleno McGhee (Cleveland, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Love You So (Audio CD)

Natalie Cole's 6th Album and First 1979 Album I Love You So marks her Official Forray into Disco and Country.This Album fits perfectly into the late 1970's at the height of the Disco Era.The Disco Songs are I Love You So,You're So Good,The Winner,and Stand By,with The Country Songs bieng It's Been You,Your Lonely Heart,and Sorry,and Oh,Daddy,and Who Will Carry On? finish out the Song List.Finally Comparisons to her father the late Nat King Cole,Aretha Franklin,Diana Ross,Chaka Khan,Ella Fitzgerald,and Nancy Wilson are beginning to subside.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Natalie's First Post-Childbirth, Gold Classic Album from 1979!, May 3, 2009

By 

Starr S. (Portland, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Love You So (Audio CD)

I absolutely LOVED "Stand By" the first time I heard it. It's what prompted me to buy the album in the first place because of its positive message and feel-good groove. I LOVE how in the coda of the song, she declares, "I need a HUSBAAAAAAAND, YEAH!"

The first two cuts are undeniably Disco-oriented material. This is apparent. However, they're NOT the kind of Disco that Gloria Gaynor, Anita Ward, Donna Summer, Vicki Sue Robinson or Thelma Houston were doing. It was R&B with a Disco backbeat.

Next, we move into more familiar Cole territory with the beautiful ballad, "It's Been You." Had this song been the first single, she might have known another huge hit a la "Our Love," but "Stand By" peaked in the Top Ten anyway (#9 U.S. R&B.)

"Your Lonely Heart" is another ballad and was the 3rd single. It (strangely) features pedal steel guitar and the soul siren attempting yodeling; It's a little weird, but completely palatable once you let go and really give it a few listens. It's actually pretty, but falls more into Country formats. If Capitol had marketed it as a "Country" song, it might have crossed over! It's interesting and commendable where she was trying out new things. Not really "single" material, but hey...it was worth a shot, right?

Next up is "The Winner," which finds us in a more jazzy place (not quite the tropical jazz of "La Costa," but CLOSE.)

After this comes an R&B/Rock-styled remake of Fleetwood Mac's "Oh, Daddy." It's got electric guitar flourishes (in places) and gives off a somber, darker kind of vibe by its minor keys.

Another beautiful ballad in the 2nd single, "Sorry" follows. Again, a potential #1 single might have been apparent here had Capitol known what it was doing because it's such a powerful and beautiful song, alas, it charted fairly low.

"Stand By" comes in toward the end of the album (the 8th cut) and closes out with a final (and beautiful) ballad, "Who Will Carry On," which finds Natalie in a place that is reminiscent of the song "Take A Look" from 1993; in so far as that it features a plea for societal betterment.

Mind you, she had just come off her concert tour and her vocals seemed a bit tired, but still energized; obviously lacking the vocal energy from only a year prior naturally. All that sca-REAMIN' probably fried her vocal chords! LOL!

Be that as it may, I like to look at "I Love You So" as the last "great R&B album" that she would record before a masterful duets album with Peabo Bryson ("We're the Best of Friends") later that year and two duds ("Don't Look Back" and "Happy Love") that ended her string of seven years on Capitol. I might add that "Happy Love" was the better of the latter two as far as production values and overall sequencing go.

"I Love You So" would end up being her last Gold album ("We're the Best of Friends" with Peabo Bryson also went Gold.) before she'd resurface in more hit-friendly territory after a bout with drug abuse and subsequent rehab around 1985.

I STILL play it fairly often and think she looks stunning on the cover with the longer hair and gorgeous amber eyes. This album is also available (on Amazon, maybe Ebay) as a vinyl picture disc in the ballpark of about $25.00.