Little Girl Blue by Nina Simone

Little Girl Blue, Nina Simone's debut album, arrived on Bethlehem Records under the full title Little Girl Blue: Jazz as Played in an Exclusive Side Street Club, a fitting tag for a pianist who'd started out in an Atlantic City nightclub, where she was told she'd have to sing to her own accompaniment. She recorded it in late 1957, then waited while the label sat on it, with no single to announce it. Fed up, she signed with Colpix in April 1959.

The jazz in here rests on a piano steeped in baroque and classical discipline, Bach never far away, and that dark contralto phrasing every line like it cost her something. Bethlehem finally pulled out "I Loves You, Porgy", which gave her a first hit at 18 on the pop charts and 2 on R&B, and pulled the album up with it. Then, in 1987, "My Baby Just Cares for Me" became a massive hit in Britain and Europe, and the album was reissued under that song's title.

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