The Album
Assembled in 1969 to consolidate highlights from Nina Simone's prolific 1964-67 run on Philips, this compilation gathers signature performances rather than chart hits, since as the original liner notes wryly observe, Simone rarely made conventional 'A-side' pop singles. It draws from the studio and live albums that defined her mid-1960s peak - Pastel Blues, Wild Is the Wind, Broadway-Blues-Ballads and In Concert - spanning her interpretations of Gershwin ('I Loves You, Porgy'), Screamin' Jay Hawkins ('I Put a Spell on You'), and Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht ('Pirate Jenny'), alongside her own civil-rights compositions 'Mississippi Goddam' and 'Four Women'. Simone, classically trained but shut out of the conservatory world because of her race, forged a singular hybrid of jazz, blues, gospel, folk and art song delivered with a dramatic, confrontational intensity that made her as much a civil-rights orator as a singer. The Philips years captured here represent the period when her social conscience became inseparable from her art, and songs like 'Mississippi Goddam' and 'Four Women' remain touchstones of protest music. Critically, this set is valued less as a definitive 'greatest hits' than as an accessible, well-chosen sampler of Simone's most emotionally direct work from a crucial creative stretch, and it introduced many listeners to her artistry. Its legacy endures through the songs' continued cultural resonance and frequent use in film and television, cementing Simone's stature as one of American music's most uncompromising voices.
The Label
The side labels here show the grey Philips shield (stars-and-waves logo) with a horizontal rainbow-spectrum band beneath it, 'STEREO' at upper left, catalogue number and 'Side' number at lower left/right - the standard late-1960s/early-1970s US Philips design used once Mercury Record Corporation began distributing/manufacturing Philips product domestically. The front cover carries the small 'Mercury Record Corporation, 35 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago' address line and the back cover states 'A Product of Mercury Record Productions, Inc.', carrying the manufacturer/distributor credit on the label rim - as opposed to the plainer first-issue black Philips labels that lack that credit line. That places this copy as the second (Mercury-credited) US pressing rather than the very first Philips-only label run, though both share the same 1969 release window and matrix.
Fidelity
This is a standard commercial 1969 Philips/Mercury pressing rather than an audiophile cut; sourced from Simone's 1964-67 studio and live master tapes compiled by producer Hal Mooney, with generally solid if unremarkable dynamics typical of late-60s American pop pressings. Collector commentary on this compilation notes the sound as decent but occasionally quiet, with some listeners preferring a UK-pressed equivalent; there is no known audiophile reissue (Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity, etc.) of this specific compilation to rank it against. Within its own pressing history, this Mercury-credited US stereo copy sits alongside the plainer first-label US pressing as essentially equivalent sonically, both outranking later 1970s/80s reissues and CD transfers for tape generation.
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