• Simone first recorded "
I Loves You, Porgy", "Plain Gold Ring", and "
Don't Smoke in Bed" on her debut album
Little Girl Blue (1958). • "
Pirate Jenny" was from
The Threepenny Opera by
Kurt Weill and
Bertold Brecht. Simone used the story within the song as a
metaphor for the civil rights movement at that time. Simone rarely performed the song, though the theatrical piece became one of her signature tunes. • "Old Jim Crow" was a protest song against
Jim Crow laws. • "
Go Limp" was a humorous
folk song about a girl who is warned by her mother not to join the
NAACP because it would cost her her virginity. Halfway through the song Simone forgot the lyrics and improvised the rest of the words. At the end she received a standing ovation. • "
Mississippi Goddam" is a protest song written by Simone in 1963 immediately after the
Alabama Church Bombing that killed four young girls. A minute into the performance, Simone addresses the audience, saying "This is a show tune, but the show hasn't been written for it yet." == Track listing ==