Track Listing
1. Mood Indigo
2. Don't Smoke In Bed
3. He Needs Me
4. Little Girl Blue
5. Love Me Or Leave Me
6. My Baby Just Cares For Me
7. Good Bait
8. Plain Gold Ring
9. You'll Never Walk Alone
10. I Loves You Porgy
11. Central Park Blues
12. He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
13. For All We Know
14. African Mailman
15. My Baby Just Cares For Me
Review
I really have trouble understanding why this album was not in the previous list of 1001 albums, because this is without a doubt the best collection of Nina Simone tracks you can get. There are of course some missing here like Four Women, Young Black and Gifted, Lilac Wine and Sinnerman, but as an album it works perfectly.
This collection of songs can also be found under the title "Little Girl Blue" but this is the original title of an album which was kind of ignored for a long time but which shows Simone at the height not only of her singing but particularly of her very original piano playing.
Listening to this you can tell perfectly how much she loved classical music, her piano arrengements often point more towards Bach than Jazz. With this you also have some of the best versions of famous songs, Love Me or Leave Me here is the best version of that particular song, no one has the fire that she has in performing it. Another more than excellent album.
Track Highlights
1. Love Me Or Leave Me
2. My Baby Just Cares For Me
3. Don't Smoke in Bed
4. Mood Indigo
Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Nina was in her mid-twenties at the time of this album, and still aspiring to be a classical concert pianist. She immediately sold the rights for the songs on this album to Bethlehem for 3,000 dollars. In the end, this cost her royalty profits of more than a million dollars.
Love Me Or Leave Me live:
1 comment:
Very glad to read your review of this album. It's one of my favourites, and the opening track blows me away every time.
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