Nina puts a spell on you ...

My pal Martin has been raving (and raving) about that new Nina Simone (1933-2003) documentary WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? so its got me compiling some favourite Nina tracks - we have liked her since the 1960s, I first had an EP (ask your grand-dad) of hers circa 1965, with those great tracks "I Put A Spell On You" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", and I think "I Loves You Porgy". I loved that early live album of hers NINA AT TOWN HALL, and of course now there are endless compilations. 

We also got her late sixties stuff like "Ain't Got No, I Got Life" when she was wooing the hippie HAIR crowd, but I really preferred her recordings from a decade earlier. We saw one of her last concerts too, one of the most bizarre I have been to, where she stomped on, played some, ignored the audience, and then stomped off, complete with plastic carrier bag. A difficult life and a difficult woman, obviously, with lots of demons, but she when was on form she was dynamic - that voice ... and that piano playing too (like Aretha Franklin, also able to play with soul). Here's a top dozen Nina's, and seek out the documentary:

• I Put A Spell On You
• Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
• Be My Husband
• Sinnerman
• Fine and Mellow
• The Other Woman
• Seeline Woman
• Four Women
• My Baby Just Cares For Me
• Feeling Good
• Wild Is The Wind
• I Want More and More and Then Some