THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

277-Nina Simone-My Baby Just Cares for Me.

1958-It did not chart in the UK until 1987, when it reached Number 5.

Best Bit-At 1.12. It is said that Sybil Burton (1929-2013) the ex wife of the actor Richard Burton (1925-1984) became incensed when she heard this song, having heard the lyric ‘Liz Taylor is not his style.’ Sybil and Richard had recently divorced, after Richard had left her for Liz Taylor.

‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’ is considered a ‘Jazz Standard.’ A Jazz Standard is a song that is widely known, and performed often by many Jazz musicians. The song was written for the 1928 American Musical Comedy ‘Whoopee!’ which starred the American actor/dancer/singer/songwriter Eddie Cantor, (1892-1964) who first introduced the song in the film, and it went onto become one of his signature tunes. ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’ was co-written by Walter Donaldson, (1893-1947) who provided the lyrics, and Gus Khan, (1886-1941) who wrote the melody, both had been commissioned to write the soundtrack for ‘Whoopee!’ which also included the other notable song ‘Makin’ Whoopee,’ also introduced by Cantor.

Walter Donaldson was born on February 15th, 1893, in New York City, United States, he died on July 15th, 1947, after being ill for a year with kidney problems, at the age of 54. Donaldson who was primarily known as a composer, rather than as a lyricist, and published in excess of 600 songs, first began working with Gus Khan in 1915. At the end of the 1920s, Donaldson moved to Hollywood, California, and worked composing and arranging music for motion pictures. His film credits include work on such pictures as ‘Glorifying the American Girl,’ (1929) ‘Suzy,’ (1936) and ‘The Great Ziegfeld,’ (1936.) Gus Khan was born Gustav Gerson Kahn on November 6th, 1886, in Bruschied, in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was part of the German Empire, he died on October 8th, 1941, of a heart attack, at the age of 54. By 1933, Kahn had become a full-time motion picture songwriter, contributing to movies such as ‘Flying Down to Rio,’ (1933) ‘A Day at the Races,’ (1937) and ‘Ziegfeld Girl’ (1941.)

In 1957 Nina Simone recorded ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’ for her debut studio Album ‘Little Girl Blue,’ (also known as ‘Jazz As Played in an Exclusive Side Street Club,’) it was released on the ‘Bethlehem Records’ label in February 1959. Simone only recorded the Album as a way to financing her true love which was to become a Classical concert pianist, so she immediately sold the rights for the Album to ‘Bethleham Records’ for $3,000 (around 28,000 in 2020.) ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’ remained relatively obscure until it was used in a 1987 television commercial for ‘Chanel No. 5’ perfume. To follow up the exposure the song was receiving, record companies fought over the rights to release the song as a single, with ‘Charly Records’ winning the battle. Nina Simone who had sold her rights to the song many years earlier, and had always had a tenuous relationship with record labels was outraged, claiming she didn’t receive any royalties.’They went behind my back and stole from each other like I was a slave. They took me and sold me, from one record company to another, because they couldn’t deal with me openly.’ It is probably the case that Nina Simone selling the rights to the song cost her well over $1,000,000.

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21st, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, United States, she had suffered from breast cancer for several years, before she died in her sleep on April 21st, 2003, at the age of 70. In 1954 in order to make a living she played piano in a nightclub in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and because her parents didn’t approve of her playing the ‘devils music’ she changed her name to ‘Nina Simone,’ ‘nina’ was a nickname given to her by a boyfriend, and ‘Simone’ was taken from the French actress ‘Simone Signoret,’ (1921-1985) whom she had seen in the 1952 movie ‘Casque d’Or.’ Nina Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the late 1980’s. She was known for her temper, and outbursts of aggression, and after an incident in 1995, when she shot and wounded her neighbour’s son with an air gun, she was sentenced to eight month in prison, which was suspended pending a psychiatric evaluation, and treatment. In the 1960’s Simone was a prominent public figure as a civil rights activist for ‘The American Civil Rights Movement,’ with her own composition ‘Mississippi Goddam,’ from 1964 becoming a well known song during the civil rights years. Another of Nina Simone’s best known songs is ‘To Be Young, Gifted and Black,’ which has famously been recorded by Aretha Franklin in 1972, and was a 1970 UK Number 5 hit for the Reggae duo of Bob and Marcia. Among the many awards accrued by Nina Simone, include being posthumously inducted into the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ by fellow R&B artist Mary J. Blige (see also best songs 359) in 2018.

The discography of Nina Simone includes 19 studio Albums released between 1959-1993, and 71 singles released between 1959-2003, there are also 83 official compilation Albums, of which 14 of them are live recordings, issued between between 1960-2022. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 her only chart entry is her debut single ‘I Love You, Porgy,’ which made Number 18 in 1959, while in the UK, she has had seven top 40 hit singles, with ‘Ain’t Got No, I Got Life,’ (1968) and ‘Do What You Gotta Do,’ (1968) both peaking the highest at Number 2.

‘My baby don’t care for shows,my baby don’t care for clothes, my baby just cares for me. My baby don’t care for cars and races, my baby don’t care for high-tone places.’