features in: Album Chart of 1958 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1950s |
“Jazz As Played In An Exclusive Side Street Club” proclaims the front cover, boldly taking the marketing strategy straight to the record shop shelves. The reverse and labels reveal Nina’s intended title, “Little Girl Blue”, sure to have lost sales had it been allowed. I guess both are accurate descriptions, the latter seems more so. I would love to love Nina, and I very often do, but I freely admit her brand of down-tempo crooning leaves me cold more often than not. The clear winner is “My Baby Just Cares For Me”, a magnificent re-interpretation of an old tune which had first appeared away back in 1930 in the movie “Whoopee!”. Now that’s what I call a cover version. Somewhat tragically, the lady never benefitted from her excellent piece of work, having sold her rights to Bethlehem Records cheaply, losing an estimated million dollars in the process. Somewhat disappointingly, the only other track which connects with me is “Plain Gold Ring”, the familiar old tale of “it should have been me”… “In my heart it will never be spring, long as he wears a plain gold ring”. Here, the moodiness of music and vocal seems to work a treat, completely focused, with no freeform deviance to spoil things. Elsewhere on the album, the jazz hounds are welcome to their psuedo-classical complexities. Boredum-de-dum.
The Jukebox Rebel
21–Aug–2009
Tracklist |
A1 | [04:00] Nina Simone - Mood Indigo [1959 album version] (Barney Bigard, Edward Ellington, Irving Mills) Jazz |
A2 | [03:09] Nina Simone - Don’t Smoke In Bed (Willard Robison) Crooner / Cabaret |
A3 | [02:26] Nina Simone - He Needs Me (Arthur Hamilton) Crooner / Cabaret |
A4 | [04:12] Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) Moodcore |
A5 | [03:18] Nina Simone - Love Me Or Leave Me (Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson) Jazz |
A6 | [03:33] Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares For Me (Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
B1 | [03:25] Nina Simone - Good Bait [instrumental] (Tadd Dameron, Count Basie) Jazz |
B2 | [03:50] Nina Simone - Plain Gold Ring (Earl S. Burroughs) Songwriter |
B3 | [03:58] Nina Simone - You’ll Never Walk Alone (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) Classical |
B4 | [04:03] Nina Simone - I Loves You, Porgy (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) Jazz |
B5 | [03:05] Nina Simone - Central Park Blues [instrumental] (Nina Simone) Jazz |