I Put a Spell on You by Nina Simone

I Put a Spell on You, Nina Simone's 1965 album for Philips, was cut in New York City across 1964 and 1965, and it's the record she'd later borrow the title of for her autobiography. It finds the High Priestess of Soul at full strength: that dark, smoky contralto, a piano touch schooled on Bach, and arrangements that slide between jazz, blues and pop without ever sounding like anyone else.

The title track is a slow, smoldering take that climbed to 23 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles list and reached 28 on the British singles chart, sung with the menace of a real curse. "Feeling Good" is the showstopper, starting in near-silence and swelling into a brassy, triumphant sunrise, and it has found listener after listener since. The album reached number 99 on the Billboard 200 and number 18 in Britain, and in November 2020 it came back as an audiophile reissue.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.