On Friday (23 Jul 2021) Ledisi released an album tribute
to Nina Simone with "Ledisi sings Nina" which features seven songs from Simone's extensive catalogue from a
recording career spanning from 1959-93. She is ably supported by Dutch
orchestra
Metropole Orkest. There is a good article on the album at
New York Times.
The album leads with "Feeling Good", a song that every man and their dog seems to want to sing recently on
talent shows! It came as a surprise to me to learn that it was actually
co-written by two Englishmen, actor Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.
Newley was the first to release it in Jan 1965 a couple of months before
Nina Simone's iconic and definitive version which was released in Mar 1965.
There are well over 200 other versions of the song.
Another iconic Nina Simone song was was already a jazz standard before
she recorded it in 1957 for her debut album "Little Girl Blue" released in
1959 (it was originally recorded in 1930 for a movie "Whoopee!") is "My Baby Just Cares For Me" which became a pop smash in 1987 reaching #5 on UK pop chart (it's a
bit confusing as it was reissued in 1982, 85 and 87 and was a hit third
time around) as a result of it featuring in a Chanel No. 5 perfume
commercial! I am led to believe that it was played on the Northern Soul
scene in the 80s, which I find quite hard to believe, but I was off the
scene by then so I'm not really in a position to confirm or deny! There
are also well over 200 recordings for this song. Feeling Good was also a
#40 UK pop hit for her in 1994.
Click icons below for further information or to connect with the
artist.
I Put A Spell On You (not on the album)
| Rating: | 8 |
| Genre/Style: | Jazz/ Cover Versions |
| Format: | Album |
| Media: | Digital |
| Label: | BMG |
| Cat No: | None |
| Year: | 23/07/2021 |
| Value: | £6.93 |
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