

She was beloved as much for the emotional force of her showmanship as she was for the lyrical, instrumental, and political force of her virtuosity. “Our Nina”-as she is sometimes called by black feminists who feel especially possessive and protective of her-was a musician whose body of work pushed us and challenged us to know more about ourselves, what we longed for, and who we were as women navigating intersectional injuries and negations of mattering in the American body politic. We were suspended for a moment between the grief of having lost our Nina some three weeks before (April 21, the day that Prince would die 13 years later) and ecstatic remembrance as this then-unknown singer, Alice Smith, summoned the potency of our lost patron saint. Her crooning felt sexy and dangerous and inquisitive as she declared, “I want a little sweetness down in my soul.I want a little steam on my clothes.” The crowd swooned. Armed with a startling mezzo-soprano that dipped into the outer limits of audible desire, she was covering “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl” like her life depended on it. She was rocking garden-green pants and a yellow spaghetti-strap tank top, and she came out late in the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra’s Nina Simone tribute set in New York on June 13, 2003. A bespectacled, lanky, light-skinned sister sporting two braided pigtails stepped up to the mic. Dim the lights and dive into the top Nina Simone records and the greatest Nina Simone songs.I remember how it ended. If you want to know the Best Nina Simone album of all time, you've come to the right place. This list of Nina Simone CDs has been voted on by jazz fans around the world, so the order isn't just one person's opinion. Make sure you don't just vote for critically acclaimed Nina Simone records if you have a favorite Nina Simone album, then vote it up, even if it's not necessarily the most popular. If you think the greatest Nina Simone album isn't high enough on the list, then be sure to vote for it so it receives the credit it deserves. To make it easy for you, we haven't included Nina Simone singles, EPs, or compilations, so everything you see here should only be studio albums. Perhaps her best known jazz standard is "My Baby Just Cares for Me."

Though she's primarily remembered as a jazz singer, Simone was also adept at blues, classical, gospel, R&B, and pop. The Nina Simone discography is ranked from best to worst, so the top Nina Simone albums can be found at the top of the list. This is a crowd-ranked list of the best Nina Simone albums, including pictures of the album covers when available. Nina Simone was one of the best jazz artists of all time, a truly distinctive female jazz vocalist who was not afraid to say what was on her mind.
