Little Girl Blue

Little Girl Blue, released in 1957, was Nina Simone's first recording, originally issued on the Bethlehem label. Backed by bassist Jimmy Bond and Albert "Tootie" Heath, it captures her ballad voice in all its mystery and sensuality, while her up-tempo jazz style comes through with real authority and an elegant, down-home feel.

It also introduced a fine jazz pianist. Simone was a solid improviser who never strayed far from the blues, and that balance is all over this record. The opener, her reading of Duke Ellington's Mood Indigo, finger-pops and swings while keeping the phrasing deep blue.

That is followed by one of the, if not the, definitive versions of Willard Robison's steamy leave-your-lover ballad Don't Smoke in Bed. The title track, written by Rodgers & Hart, opens with Good King Wenceslas as a classical prelude to one of the most beautiful pop ballads ever written.

From there, Love Me or Leave Me lands with funky swing and a smoking little piano solo in the bridge, where Bach meets Horace Silver and Bobby Timmons.