If Verve’s recently released four-CD collection of late singer Nina Simone’s sides for the Philips label is altogether too much for you, consider RCA/BMG Heritage’s Nina Simone: Anthology, a two-disc collection of the singer’s songs that includes cuts from the Verve set.
While the Verve box only contained tunes Simone recorded in the 1960s (a great period for the singer, no doubt), Anthology draws from Simone’s entire career, including songs she recorded for her first label, Bethlehem, and tracks from her 1993 album on Elektra, A Single Woman. The new set has one unreleased cut, “The Glory of Love,” a tune penned by William Hill that Simone recorded in 1967 while Simone was under contract with RCA. Danny Davis, who was overseeing much of Simone’s work at the time, produced the track and the music was arranged and conducted by Jimmy Wisner.
Nina Simone: Anthology has liner notes by David Nathan, author of The Soulful Divas and should be on your local CD shop’s shelves right now.
Track list:
DISC ONE
I LOVES YOU, PORGY
MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME
THE OTHER WOMAN
BLACK IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE’S HAIR
NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT
TROUBLE IN MIND
MISSISSIPPI GODDAM
SEE LINE WOMAN
DON’T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD
I PUT A SPELL ON YOU
NE ME QUITTE PAS
STRANGE FRUIT
SINNERMAN
FOUR WOMEN
DO I MOVE YOU?
DISC TWO
I WANT A LITTLE SUGAR IN MY BOWL
I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE
THE GLORY OF LOVE (previously unreleased)
TO LOVE SOMEBODY
DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO
AIN’T GOT NO – I GOT LIFE
WHY? (THE KING OF LOVE IS DEAD)
EVERYONE’S GONE TO THE MOON
REVOLUTION
TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK
WHO KNOWS WHERE THE TIME GOES
HERE COMES THE SUN
JUST LIKE A WOMAN
FUNKIER THAN A MOSQUITO’S TWEETER
RICH GIRL
A SINGLE WOMAN