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Finally the True "Best of Nina Simone"

Leon Harris | Chicago, Illinois United States | 02/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like many artists who recorded for many labels there are as many "Best of Nina Simone" albums as there are labels she recorded for (Philips, Bethlehem, RCA, etc.....) Each album typically has the versions of the hits that she recorded for that label, plus remakes (often not so great) of hits she recorded for other labels.
What RCA has cleverly done is to go back to all the companies that Ms. Simone recorded for and got rights to the original hits, so this is the only Simone collection of which I am aware that has the ORIGINAL version of the many hit recordings from the several different companies she recorded for over the last 40 or so years."

Good Overview

katrina ford | dc | 01/07/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I happen NOT to like late 60's/early 70's anthem-like, join-the-bandwagon-for-a-cause type music (and in fact, am not fond of any genre of that era), so I simply programme my player to skip tracks 12-15. The mark of a work of art is timelessness, and several of La Simone's pieces are extraordinary: My Man's Gone Now, Mississippi Gaddam, I Put a Spell on You, and Ne me quitte pas particularly. She is better in old school blues and songs of slow tempi, rather than pop-esque music as some vocal strain shows in a machine-gun vibrato. If you are unfamiliar with Nina Simone this is good place to start since this disque presents a compilation from a number of her periods of growth as an artist."

This CD Has Been Bettered By Other Nina Simone Compilation C

Peter | East of Los Angeles | 05/26/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"When "Bittersweet: Best of Nina Simone" was released in 2000, it was extraordinary for a major label like RCA to encompass recordings of a big-time artist like Nina Simone from all the labels she recorded (Bethlehem, Colpix, Philips, and RCA). At the time, it seemed almost revolutionary for a record label to do this.



Since then an influx of newer, bigger, better Nina Simone Anthologies and "Best Of" series have glutted the market and this one really seems dated. And no compilation CD of Nina Simone really does her any justice by squeezing the songs onto only one CD, when a double-CD set is required. The producers didn't even bother to extend the number of songs beyond the minimal 16 selections. They could have at least try to go with 20 or 22 songs (one disc can fit that many). It is hard to fault the selections here, most if not all are signature songs by "The High Priestess of Soul". I would question the inclusion of "Jelly Roll" or maybe "Ain't Got No-I Got Life". Sound quality ranges from OK (RCA years) to Excellent (Colpix).



If you are just discovering Nina Simone, I would suggest the great double-disc set "Nina Simone Anthology" with 31 songs, also released by RCA in 2003 (hmm....maybe RCA learned their lesson?). "Anthology" is an excellent intro and is a good place to start. It also covers her material from all four major different labels and gives you a better song selection and range of this remarkable woman's talents. The sound remaster quality has improved as well. It includes the remarkable track "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" not found on previous Nina Simone compilations."