Nina Simone’s Little Girl Blue: From Judy’s Record Collection No. 2
What makes you stop what you’re doing and listen to a record?
For the second entry in From Judy’s Record Collection, I’m choosing Nina Simone’s Little Girl Blue (1959). I imagine Judy Keller putting it on with every intention of getting something done, then finding herself standing beside the record player.
This series explores music Judy might have owned by May 27, 1962, when my historical novel, Everything Meant Something, begins in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
Why Nina Simone?
Judy is twenty-one, works as a secretary at Edgar Thomson Works, and wants an apartment of her own. As I develop her imagined record collection, I’m thinking about what she chooses for herself when she has a little money and an evening ahead of her.
Nina Simone interests me because her piano playing gives Judy as much to listen to as her voice. There is confidence, playfulness, and emotional depth in the performances. I can imagine Judy coming back to a song because something in the way Nina sings it catches her attention differently each time.
“My Baby Just Cares for Me” feels like a particularly good introduction. I hear a playful assurance in it that suits Judy’s humor and her capacity for enjoying herself. She has opinions about what she likes. I imagine her knowing quite quickly that she wants to hear this one again.
Listening Beyond the Familiar
Choosing music for a historical novel means thinking about how a character discovers something new. Did Judy hear Nina Simone on the radio? Did her best friend, Nancy, recommend her, or did Judy become curious while looking through records in a shop?
I haven’t settled on how this album might reach her. What interests me is the moment curiosity becomes a preference. Judy might listen first for Nina’s voice, then find herself paying closer attention to the piano. After a few plays, she might have a favorite passage she waits for.
That feels like a useful way to get to know Judy at twenty-one. She is discovering what holds her attention and learning to trust her own taste.
Mental Health in Fiction and Everyday Pleasure
Everything Meant Something follows Judy as she experiences psychosis and faces changes to her independence, work, and relationships. Those experiences require close attention. So do the things she enjoys.
As a psychotherapist and novelist, I want to know what makes her laugh, what she spends money on, and what she anticipates at the end of a workday.
Her imagined record collection gives me another way to explore those questions. A favorite album might become something she shares with Patty, something she keeps to herself, or simply something she enjoys hearing on a Tuesday.
For this week, I’m picturing Judy lowering the needle on Little Girl Blue and giving herself time to listen.
What record makes you stop everything for one more song?