Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone

This is one of Nina Simone's more subdued mid-'60s LPs, putting the emphasis on her piano rather than band arrangements. It's rather slanted toward torch-blues ballads like Strange Fruit, Trouble In Mind, Billie Holiday's own composition Tell Me More and More and Then Some, and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. Simone's then-husband, Andy Stroud, wrote Be My Husband, an effective adaptation of a traditional blues chant. By far the most impressive track, and the reason for it being an RT Essential, is her frantic ten-minute rendition of the traditional Sinnerman, an explosive tour de force that dwarfs everything else on the album.

The Verve Acoustic Sounds Series version features all-analog, remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Nina Simone

Pastel Blues

Universal
Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
LP +

$39.99

Verve Acoustic Sounds Series

Black
Released 11/13/2020Catalog Number

B003226601

Learn more
Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
LP

$29.99

Black
Released 09/30/2016Catalog Number

5360571

Learn more
Nina Simone

Pastel Blues

Universal
Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
LP +

$39.99

Verve Acoustic Sounds Series

Black
Released 11/13/2020Catalog Number

B003226601

Learn more
Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
LP

$29.99

Black
Released 09/30/2016Catalog Number

5360571

Learn more

This is one of Nina Simone's more subdued mid-'60s LPs, putting the emphasis on her piano rather than band arrangements. It's rather slanted toward torch-blues ballads like Strange Fruit, Trouble In Mind, Billie Holiday's own composition Tell Me More and More and Then Some, and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. Simone's then-husband, Andy Stroud, wrote Be My Husband, an effective adaptation of a traditional blues chant. By far the most impressive track, and the reason for it being an RT Essential, is her frantic ten-minute rendition of the traditional Sinnerman, an explosive tour de force that dwarfs everything else on the album.

The Verve Acoustic Sounds Series version features all-analog, remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.