To Love Somebody by Nina Simone

To Love Somebody found Nina Simone on RCA in 1969, hurrying out a mostly covers record to keep the momentum going after 'Nuff Said! had turned into an unexpected hit. The title comes from the Bee Gees song, and her version of it became her second British hit single, following "Ain't Got No, I Got Life".

Rushed or not, it is pure Simone: jazz, soul and pop blurred together, her piano carrying a classical backbone, and that deep contralto turning other people's songs into sermons and confessions. The High Priestess of Soul could take a pop tune and make it sound like it had always belonged to her, and her reading of "Suzanne" is the track from this set that later turned up on the countdowns.

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