Nina Simone was born on 21 February 1933 as Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tyron, North Carolina. Her parents had eight children; four boys and four girls. It quickly became clear that Waymon had musical talent. From the age of five, she played piano and sang in a church choir. Her first performance took place in a library. It marked her for the rest of her life, because alongside overwhelming applause, the young girl was confronted with racism for the first time. During the performance, her parents were removed from the front row to make room for white visitors. This incident left a huge impression on the singer. In the 1950s, she adopted the name Nina Simone. Her stage name is a combination of the pet name of her then-boyfriend (niña means ‘girl’ in Spanish) and her favourite actress, Simone Signoret.
Civil Rights Movement
In February 1959, her first album Little Girl Blue was released, which had been recorded more than a year earlier for Bethlehem Records. Her rendition of the George Gershwin ballad I Loves You Porgy, from the musical Porgy & Bess, became her first hit in the US and earned her performances at various jazz festivals and the prestigious Carnegie Hall. Nina Simone played songs in various genres, such as blues, folk and gospel, which helped her attract a wide audience. She was a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and even wrote some sharp protest songs for the time, including Mississippi Goddam and Old Jim Crow, found on her live album In Concert from 1964. She was so fed up with racism in her own country that in 1969 she decided to leave the US for good. She lived in various parts of the world, including Switzerland, Barbados, Liberia, Great Britain and Belgium.
My Baby Just Cares For Me
At the beginning of 1969, Nina Simone spent six weeks at number one in the charts with I Ain’t Got No - I Got Life. A few months later, her version of the Bee Gees hit To Love Somebody was in the top 10. Her album ‘Nuff Said! was also among the ten best-selling LPs. Throughout the seventies and eighties, she continued to perform concerts for jazz lovers, including the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1977 and 1983. However, the general public seemed to have forgotten her, until the song My Baby Just Cares For Me, from her debut album, was used in a 1985 commercial for Chanel N˚ 5. A clay animation video was made in 1987, after which the song shot to the top of the charts thirty years after it was recorded.
Passing
The singer moved to the Netherlands in 1988. She first stayed in Nijmegen, then in Amsterdam. In 1992, she left for France. Ten years after My Baby Just Cares For Me was in the charts, another song was used in a commercial. This time the earlier number 1 hit Ain’t Got No - I Got Life, for insurance company AMEV. The single just missed the top 10 in February 1998. Nina Simone died on 21 April 2003 at the age of seventy in her home in France. She died in her sleep in her residence in Carry-le-Rouet, just outside Marseille. Four years after her death, Ain’t Got No - I Got Life was used again in a commercial, this time for yoghurt brand Müller. It was a remixed version by Groovefinder, a pseudonym of British producer Barry Barnett. This version reached the UK Top 40 but was not a big hit in the Netherlands.
Top 2000
In the 23rd edition of the Top 2000, Nina Simone is listed as follows:
Sunday Morning Classics
On 7 August 2022, Nina was featured as Sunday Morning Classics with her 6th studio album Wild Is The Wind (1966).
Our Sunday Morning Classic is ranked number 212 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album is full of powerful tracks recorded by a still young Nina. The atmosphere surrounding the songs is at least unsettling; an effect only enhanced by Nina Simone’s beautiful, somewhat strange voice, which expresses a whole spectrum of emotions. She can sound melancholic, then sweet, only to snap almost biting the next moment. It’s a fantastic album that rightly deserves a place in our Sunday Morning Classic list.
David Bowie recorded a version of "Wild Is the Wind" for his 1976 album Station to Station. Bowie was an admirer of Simone's style and, after meeting her in Los Angeles in 1975, was inspired to record the song for his album. Bowie later said that Simone's version "really impressed me... I recorded it as a tribute to Nina."
Source: NPO and Wikipedia Photo: Gerrit de Bruin
Nina recorded a large number of albums during her life. Below is just a small selection. If you are looking for a specific album, please let us know. Perhaps we can help you with that.
