Edited by Donald Clarke, Penguin Books, 1990

SIMONE, Nina (b Eunice Waymon, 21 Feb. '33, Tryon, N.C.) Cabaret singer, songwriter, pianist; an interpreter of unique emotional power with a world-wide audience. Parents were both Methodist clergy; one of eight children, all musical; her brother Samuel, the youngest, was her manager in '84. To Philadelphia at 17, then to NYC; studied at Juilliard, accompanied singers, began to sing herself.

Debut on Bethlehem incl. top 20 single "I Loves You Porgy" '59 (LP now on Charly as My Baby Just Cares For Me); her material and her career has defied category, with equal amounts of blues, jazz, folk, gospel, show tunes, adding up to love and protest. Renounced the USA late '60s, went to Barbados, then Liberia (Miriam Makeba is a close friend), then France; her career has been dogged by personal problems leading to unreliability: engagement at Ronnie Scott's in London '84 was standing-room only at premium prices; she was booked to return a few weeks later and didn't turn up.

Her best-know composition is "To Be Young, Gifted And Black" '69; her own single on RCA reached Hot 100 and the song often covered (incl. Aretha Franklin '72) Albums incl. Here Comes The Sun, Sings The Blues, The Artistry Of Nina Simone, Pure Gold, Black Soul in various RCA edition; Fine And Mellow and Nina Simone from PRT UK; I Loves You Porgy on CBS UK incl. Willard Robinson song "Don't Smoke In Bed" (a hit by Peggy Lee '48) and her own powerful "Mississippi Goddam" and "Central Park Blues". 

Also Cry Before I Go and I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl on Manhattan; A Very Rare Evening With Nina Simone on PM, Baltimore '78 on CTI; Fodder On My Wings '82 on Polygram, a concept LP partly in French about rejection of the USA. Other French sets incl. 2-disc A Portrait on Musidisc and Our Love on Barclay; Music For The Millions on Philips is a compilation; other titles are Little Girl Blue on SalSoul, Best Of sets on RCA and Philips, all in USA.

Bethlehem track "My Baby Just Cares For Me" was used in TV adverts for Chanel No. 5 perfume '87; as a singles it sold 175,000 copies in the first week and reached No. 5 on UK chart; Charly, having licensed the material from American owners, was not required to pay her anything but offered $20,000 royalties.