Eleven tracks are on the first LP Little Girl Blue published in the middle of 1958. Two tracks, "I Loves You Porgy" and "He Needs Me" were also published as single in the Summer of the same year, reaching the 13th place on R&B charts.
In the beginning of 1959 Nina signed with Colpix (Colombia Pictures Records) and started the recording sessions. Before the publication of the first Colpix album, Bethlehem released And Her Friends that included the three tracks not yet published, plus "I Loves You Porgy", as well as four other tracks by Chris Connor and four others by Carmen McRae.
"I went into the studio and recorded my songs exactly as I always played them, so when you listen to that Bethlehem album you're hearing the songs played as they were at the Midtown Bar. The only difference is that you don't get to hear the improvisations that I wove around those numbers in my live set. "I Loves You, Porgy" was the song I sang for Ted; "For All We Know" was my usual closing number; "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" I'd sung all my life; and "Plain Gold Ring" was a song I learned from the harpist Kitty White. I made up the arrangement of "Little Girl Blue" and "Good King Wenceslas" one night at the Midtown. I learned "He Needs Me" from Peggy Lee. "African Mailman" was made up on the spot in the studio and recorded in one take. "Central Park Blues" was the same; I called it that because we'd just been out into Central Park to shoot publicity photos for the album cover." (From Nina's autobiography.)
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