Recording In spring 1957, while playing gigs in
Philadelphia, Simone recorded a demo (which is believed to be the basis of the unofficial Simone album
Gifted & Black, released in 1970). A few months later, as Alan Light tells it in
What Happened, Miss Simone? – A Biography (2011), someone at Bethlehem Records in New York heard the demo recordings and became "interested in signing her to the label". Nadine Cohodas, in
Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone (2010), writes: Bethlehem "employed Lee Kraft as an occasional talent scout. He brought musical prospects to Gus Wildi, Bethlehem’s founder, and then Wildi and his associates decided if they wanted to make a record. Kraft had heard Nina at a club in Philadelphia and thought Bethlehem should record her." However, continues Cohodas, there is another version to the story. "Vivian Bailey, a Philadelphia businessman who first heard Nina at the Rittenhouse, said he had arranged for her to make a demo [...] He took the tape to New York and played it for Wildi. 'Her beautiful and unique vocal quality caused us to sign her immediately to a recording contract,' Wildi recalled." In December 1957, writes Light, Simone "went to New York and recorded thirteen songs backed by bassist Jimmy Bond and drummer Tootie Heath [...] The selections were essentially the songs she played as her set at the time but, given the time restraints of a studio recording, without her extended improvisations." Mauro Boscarol (of the
Nina Simone Timeline) writes that the album was recorded in late 1957, possibly December, but the precise date is not known; and that the session lasted 13 hours and 14 songs were recorded. Cohodas agrees with the problem about designating the correct date, and corroborates 14 as the number of tracks recorded. Given that the session was the only one Simone ever recorded for Bethlehem, the songs eventually released show that there were, as Boscarol and Cohodas claim, 14 tracks recorded at the session. At the time of the recording session, Simone was in her mid-20s and still aspiring to be a classical concert pianist, so she immediately sold the rights for the album to Bethlehem for $3,000 (equal to US$ in ). According to Simone's later account, she did not really enjoy the session, no more than her gigs at the time, as she "still considered herself on a musical detour dictated by financial necessity"; upon returning to Philadelphia, she "immersed herself in Beethoven for three days straight". The Bethlehem deal would eventually cost her royalty profits of more than a million dollars.
Release Simone was also dissatisfied by the time it took for Bethlehem to release the album and the lack of effort the record company took in promoting her. However, unbeknownst to Simone, Bethlehem was in financial trouble. "Wildi found himself in a cash crunch, and in the middle of 1958 he sold a half interest in Bethlehem to
Syd Nathan, who ran
King Records out of Cincinnati"; furthermore, there were to be "professional differences between Wildi and Nathan". All these factors led to disruption at Bethlehem, and affected the release of Simone's album significantly. The album was first announced around a year after it had been recorded in
Billboard magazine in December 1958. But nothing happened. Then in the January 10, 1959, issue of
Cash Box, the "Record Ramblings" column posted news out of Philadelphia: "Now that the Xmas rush is over the entire wax business in town is looking forward, with great expectancy, towards ’59 [...] King's Al Farrio back from the vacation scene while Mario D'Aullaria goes on his after the hectic Christmas weeks. The boys both very high on the new [...] femme-jazz newcomer Nina Simone." The album was released in February 1959. This had "apparently been one of the proposed titles for
Little Girl Blue and was featured as a subtitle in some versions." Furthermore, while
Cash Box had listed the album's title as
Little Girl Blue in its February 14 edition "February Album Releases", when the album entered the charts later in the year, it would list it as simply
Nina Simone. For instance, the August 22 edition of
Cash Box still lists the album as
Nina Simone (while at position number 32 on its Top 100 Best Selling Tunes), the title
Little Girl Blue being used for the August 29 edition onward (as it reached position number 27). Later releases of the album would sometimes use one title or the other, such as
Little Girl Blue (1992 Extended Version) and
Jazz as Played in an Exclusive Side Street Club (2002 Extended Version and Remaster). When Bethlehem became aware of this, they apparently rushed to issue it as a single. "I Loves You, Porgy" was released in May 1959, the May 30 edition of
Cash Box writing in their "Record Reviews" section that it was "a beautifully sensitive performance". Within a few months it had become a hit, peaking at number 18 on the pop charts, and number 2 on the R&B charts. Helped by the success of the single, the album too went on to become a hit.
Aftermath However, in the meantime, Simone had already began talking to
Colpix Records about a new contract, going on to sign with them in April 1959. So soon after
Little Girl Blue was out, and before Bethlehem had released "I Loves You, Porgy", Simone recorded her second album:
The Amazing Nina Simone. Colpix released the lead single "Chilly Winds Don't Blow" in June 1959, just a week or so after Bethlehem rush-released "I Loves You, Porgy". Ironically, "I Loves You, Porgy" was a hit single, and "Chilly Winds Don't Blow" did not chart.Ref. missing The success of "I Loves You, Porgy" resulted in Bethlehem going on to exploit their Simone recordings for the next couple of years, all without her consent. On the one hand, the following March they released the album
Nina Simone and Her Friends (1960). This compilation album had four tracks each from Simone,
Carmen McRae, and
Chris Connor (all three artists had left the label by this time). With respect to the Simone tracks, the album featured, along with "I Loves You, Porgy", the remaining three cuts from the 1957 recording session. On the other hand, Bethlehem would go on to release a series of singles. Thus over the next couple of years Simone singles would come both from the new material she was recording for Colpix, and from the 1957 Bethlehem session. Bethlehem would go on to release every track from that session either as A-side or B-side (and sometimes both) with the final single appearing in August 1962. == Track listing ==