Soul Strutter: Ledisi [2021] - Ledisi Sings Nina [BMG] (Full Album)

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.

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