Wild Is the Wind: Rolling Stone's #212 of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2023)

Wild is the Wind
Studio album: Nina Simone
Released: September 16, 1966
Recorded: New York City, 1964-1965
Genre: Jazz, blues, folk, R&B
Label: Philips

Wild is the Wind by Nina Simone is her sixth studio album released by Philips Records in 1966. Pitchfork rated it the 5th best album of the 1960s.

Robert Dimery included the record in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2023, the album was ranked number 212 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

 

As is the case with most of her albums of the time, 
the selections are almost unnervingly diverse.
Richie Unterberger for Allmusic
Wild is the Wind
Single by Johnny Mathis
B-side: No Love (But Your Love)
Released: November 11, 1957
Genre: Pop
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Lyricist: Ned Washington 

Johnny Mathis recorded the title track from Nina Simone's "Wild Is the Wind" album for the 1957 film of the same name. Released as a single, it reached number 22 on Billboard's chart. 

It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Mathis performed the song at the ceremony in March 1958. 



Nina Simone version

Nina Simone first recorded "Wild Is the Wind" live in 1959. Simone reworked the song with slow, sparse instrumentation for her Wild Is the Wind album, stretching the vocal delivery to express soulful, hopeless loss. In November 2013, 54 years after the first release of Simone's version, the song reached number 6 on Billboard's Digital Jazz chart.


David Bowie version

I recorded it as an hommage to Nina.
David Bowie on Wild Is The Wind
After meeting Simone in Los Angeles in 1975, David Bowie was inspired to record the song Wild Is the Wind for his Station to Station album. He followed the 1966 Simone version rather than the Mathis original.


To promote the 1981 compilation album Changestwobowie, Bowie's version of Wild Is the Wind was released as a single, and a black and white promotional video was made. The single reached number 24 in the UK. 

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