Nina Simone with Strings
| Nina Simone with Strings | ||||
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| Studio album by Nina Simone | ||||
| Released | 1966 | |||
| Recorded | 1961–1964, New York City | |||
| Genre | Vocal, jazz, blues, folk | |||
| Label | Colpix 496 | |||
| Nina Simone chronology | ||||
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Nina Simone with Strings is an album by Nina Simone. The album was released without her knowing after she had left Colpix Records, and had already made albums for Philips Records. To make the tracks on the album (a hodgepodge of live and studio recordings left over from previous recording sessions) more commercial, strings were added on some of the tracks, occasionally burying Simone's vocals under a wall of sound.
Particularly notable is the version of "I Loves You Porgy", Simone's performance being markedly slower than her earlier account. The added strings are required to play abnormally slowly to match the tempo of Simone's delivery. In the UK, this particular version was used in television commercials in 1997 by the mobile telephone operator Orange.[1]
Despite (or perhaps: because of) the post-production efforts the album remains one of Simone's least accomplished works, mainly a collection of different songs in terms of subject, style and quality. On later releases of Simone's Colpix years, some of the tracks on this album were remastered (without the strings) and different takes were released attached to the albums that the songs were intended for.
About the cover
The cover photo was used out of a photo shoot for the earlier album Nina Simone Sings Ellington (1962). See details in the article about that album.
Track listing
- "I Loves You Porgy" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) - 4:00
- "Blackbird" (Nina Simone) - 2:06
- "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" (Friedrich Hollaender, Sammy Lerner) - 2:38
- "Baubles Bangles and Beads" (Robert Wright, George Forrest) - 2:04
- "Spring Is Here" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) - 2:37
- "That's All" (Bob Haymes, Alan Brandt) - 2:24
- "Chain Gang (The Work Song)" (Nat Adderley) - 2:40
- "The Man with a Horn" (Eddie DeLange, Jack Jenney, Bonnie Lake) - 3:17
- "Porgy I Is Your Woman Now (Bess, You is My Woman)" (George and Ira Gershwin) - 3:22
- "Gimme Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)" (Bessie Smith) - 2:05
Notes to the songs on this album
- "Baubles Bangles and Beads", a song originally intended for the 1961 studio album Forbidden Fruit.
- "Chain Gang" is Nat Adderley's "Work Song", throughout her career Simone did several versions of the soul jazz classic.
- "The Man with a Horn", Simone recorded this song later for Nina Simone and Piano (1969), but it did not make it onto the album.
