Natalie Cole: Back To Her Roots, And More

Eight-time Grammy winner Natalie Cole has a brand new CD called "Leavin'," a contemporary collection of pop, R&B and rock classics from the likes of Fiona Apple, Sting and Shelby Lynne.

Her new single, "Day Dreaming," is a funky remake of the Aretha Franklin classic and is her first urban/pop single in nearly 16 years.

On The Early Show Monday, Cole told co-anchor Harry Smith: "We went in just to do covers, just to put our little spin on them, trying to make them a little more soulful, the ones that were more pop-ish. What we ended up with, we were very pleasantly surprised."

Smith observed that when he listened to the CD, it was as if he hadn't ever even heard the songs before because of Cole's treatment of them.

"It was that way for me as well when I recorded it," Cole said. "It took on a new meaning, in a way."

There's even a country song on the album, originally done by singer/songwriter Shelby Lynne.

"She told me it was the first song she'd ever written by herself," Cole recalled. "Shelby has been through a lot of ups and downs in her life and I have, too, so the songs and the lyrics, I was like, 'Oh, this is so me. This is so me!' Then, I added a couple of other things to it."

Of course, there are other songs on the CD that are, as Smith put it, "so true R&B, unadorned, straight ahead."

"Well," Cole remarked, "if anybody should know how to do that, it should be me!"

She added that other artists actually, unwittingly, helped her decide to move away from the standards after a big hit of hers.

"After the 'Unforgettable' record, in the years that followed, what happened was so many artists started doing those kinds of standards. And I just didn't feel like everybody (had the talent to) do that. I just have to say that!" she chuckled. "The room was getting crowded for me, and I was happy to be able to leave that genre and to do something else. The reason I did this is because I can. Because I came from R&B. That was originally my career."

Cole admitted doing a Franklin song is risky, so she chose what is "probably one of her least intimidating songs. No one would think of doing 'Respect' or 'Natural Woman' or anything like that. You have to pick something that's a little more obscure, because she had just great stuff and you will get slammed if you don't do it right. I'm glad to say that she loves this version."