Nina Simone

A pianist, singer, composer and activist from Tryon, North Carolina, known as the High Priestess of Soul, who joined classical technique, jazz, blues and gospel and recorded "Mississippi Goddam" and "I Put a Spell on You".

Origin: Tryon, North Carolina
Years active: 1954-2003
Genres: jazz, soul, blues, gospel, folk
Labels: Bethlehem, Colpix, Philips, RCA Victor, Elektra
Also known as: Eunice Kathleen Waymon, High Priestess of Soul

Tryon to Atlantic City

Eunice Kathleen Waymon was born on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, the sixth of eight children, and began piano at three or four. She studied at Juilliard for a summer and was denied admission to the Curtis Institute in 1950; she attributed it to racism, which Curtis staff denied. She took the stage name Nina Simone in 1954 playing a bar in Atlantic City, though PBS dates her first performance under that name to 1955. Little Girl Blue (Bethlehem), recorded in 1957 and released in February 1959, included "I Loves You, Porgy", her first major US hit; she sold the rights for $3,000. She was married to Donald Ross from 1958 to 1960 and to Andy Stroud from 1961 to 1971, who later managed her, and has a daughter, Lisa Simone.

At Colpix from 1959 to 1964 she had creative control, with Nina Simone at Town Hall (1959), Forbidden Fruit (1961) and Sings Ellington (1962). In 1963 she wrote "Mississippi Goddam" after the murder of Medgar Evers and the Birmingham church bombing; she said it was like throwing ten bullets back at them.

Philips and RCA

At Philips she made Nina Simone in Concert and Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964), I Put a Spell on You (June 1965), Pastel Blues (1965), Let It All Out and Wild Is the Wind (1966) and High Priestess of Soul (1967). I Put a Spell on You was recorded in 1964 and 1965 in New York, produced by Hal Mooney, 34:21 long, with Rudy Stevenson on guitar; it reached 99 on the Billboard 200 and 18 in the UK, and Pitchfork gave it 9.1. NPR ranked it third in its 150 greatest albums made by women in 2017.

At RCA Victor from 1967 she made Sings the Blues and Silk & Soul (October 1967), 'Nuff Said! (recorded at Westbury Music Fair on April 7, 1968, three days after King's assassination), Black Gold (1970), Here Comes the Sun (1971), Emergency Ward (1972) and It Is Finished (1974). She played the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, with footage in Questlove's Summer of Soul. She left the US in 1970 by Wikipedia's date, or 1973 by PBS's, living in Barbados, Liberia, Switzerland and Paris.

Later years and legacy

She played Montreux in 1976, was filmed there, made Baltimore (CTI, 1978), Fodder on My Wings (1982) and Live at Ronnie Scott's (1984), and in 1987 "My Baby Just Cares for Me" became a European hit after a Chanel No. 5 advertisement. Her autobiography I Put a Spell on You came out in 1991 or 1992, and A Single Woman (Elektra, 1993) was her last studio album. She died on April 21, 2003 in Carry-le-Rouet, France, aged 70, two days after learning of an honorary Curtis degree.

She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 by Mary J. Blige, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, and Rolling Stone ranked her 21st among the 200 greatest singers in 2023. "Mississippi Goddam" entered the National Recording Registry in 2019. The film What Happened, Miss Simone?, by Liz Garbus, was nominated for an Oscar; her songs are sampled by Kanye West and Lil Wayne. Maya Angela Smith's book Ne me quitte pas, on Brel's song and Simone's version, appeared from Duke University Press on February 25, 2025.

Records

I Put a Spell on You 1965 · Philips
Her 1965 Philips album, with Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas" and the title song.
Silk & Soul 1967 · RCA Victor
Her second RCA Victor album, with a brother's songs and a Loudermilk cover.

Songs

Turn Me On Silk & Soul · 1967
John D. Loudermilk's song, track seven on Silk & Soul.
Ne me quitte pas I Put a Spell on You · 1965
Jacques Brel's song, sung in French on I Put a Spell on You.

Dorothy Ashby