The Legend at Her Best (2000)

About this title: Collectables dishes up four Nina Simone recordings from the late '50s and early '60s on a double-disc set. The first two -- The Original Nina Simone and Nina Simone at Town Hall -- were issued on the respected jazz and blues label Bethlehem in 1959, and the latter two -- Nina Simone at Newport (1960) and Forbidden Fruit (1961) -- were released on Colpix. The quality of these fairly early recordings, done in the first half-decade of Simone's recording career, cannot be overestimated. She was already in charge of her game, recording everything from big-band jazz arrangements and blues to more ... read more

Tracks:

1. Blue Prelude [Bishop/Jenkins]
2. Children Go Where I Send You [Simone/Traditional]
3. Tomorrow (We Will Meet Once More) [Silverman/Gale]
4. Stompin' at the Savoy [Goodman/Webb/Sampso]
5. It Might as Well Be Spring [Rodgers/Hammerstein]
6. You've Been Gone Too Long [Sellers]
7. That's Him Over There [Spence/Keith]
8. Chilly Winds Don't Blow [Krasnow/Lovelock]
9. Theme from "Middle of the Night" [Bassman]
10. Can't Get Out of This Mood [Loesser/McHugh]
11. Willow Weep for Me [Ronell]
12. Solitaire [Borck/Guion/Nutter]
13. Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair [Traditional]
14. Exactly Like You [Fields/McHugh]
15. The Other Woman [Robinson/Simone]
16. Under the Lowest [Simone]
17. I Don't Want Him (Anymore) [Enloe]
18. Summertime [Instrumental] [Gershwin/Gershwin]
19. Summertime [Vocal Version] [Gershwin/Gershwin]
20. Cotton Eyed Joe [Traditional]
21. Return Home [Simone]
22. Wild Is the Wind [Tiomkin/Washington]
23. Fine and Mellow [Herzog/Holiday]
24. Rags and Old Iron [Brown/Curtis]
25. No Good Man [Fisher/Gallop/Higgi]
26. Gin House Blues [Henderson/Troy]
27. I'll Look Around [Cory/Cross]
28. I Love to Love [Baker]
29. Work Song [Adderley/Brown]
30. Where Can I Go Without You? [Young/Lee]
31. Just Say I Love Him [Dale/Kalmanoff/Val/]
32. Memphis in June [Webster/Carmichael]
33. Forbidden Fruit [Brown]
34. Trouble in Mind [Jones]
35. Porgy [Gershwin/Gershwin]
36. Li'l Liza Jane [Traditional]
37. You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To [Porter]
38. Flo Me La [Traditional]
39. Nina's Blues [Simone]
40. In the Evening by the Moonlight [Traditional]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.