{"id":633232,"date":"2026-10-01T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633232\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:18:10","slug":"nina-simone-langston-hughes-and-their-forgotten-creative-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633232\/","title":{"rendered":"Nina Simone, Langston Hughes and their forgotten creative collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many music fans know that Nina Simone\u2019s<\/a> 1965 hit \u201cI Put a Spell on You<\/a>\u201d helped establish the 32-year-old singer as the \u201cHigh Priestess of Soul<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few probably realize that it was Langston Hughes<\/a> \u2013 the pioneering poet and face of the Harlem Renaissance \u2013 who had encouraged Simone to record it.<\/p>\n

As a Langston Hughes scholar<\/a>, I\u2019ve spent the past six years documenting Hughes\u2019 largely overlooked friendship with Simone. I explore the creative bond they shared in my newest book<\/a>, \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Be Misunderstood: Nina Simone, Langston Hughes, and the Birth of Black Power,\u201d which details how the two supported and inspired each other.<\/p>\n

The seeds of this relationship were planted in 1949, when Hughes delivered a lecture featuring his own poetry at Simone\u2019s high school in Asheville, North Carolina<\/a>. Simone \u2013 then known by her birth name, Eunice Waymon \u2013 was just 16 years old. <\/p>\n

As part of the programming, Simone played the piano. Hughes was impressed. Even though she was just a teenager, Hughes saw her as a \u201csomebody\u201d \u2013 a budding talent who would one day join figures such as classical singer Marian Anderson<\/a> in the pantheon of legendary Black performance artists. Simone\u2019s performance that day went on to inspire his poem \u201cTo Be Somebody<\/a>\u201d: <\/p>\n

Little girl
Dreaming of a baby grand piano
(Not knowing there\u2019s a Steinway bigger, bigger)
Dreaming of a baby grand to play <\/p>\n

Simone\u2019s big booster<\/p>\n

As Simone matured into adulthood, she and Hughes became close friends. Once she permanently moved to New York City in 1959<\/a>, the two routinely visited each other\u2019s homes. <\/p>\n

Hughes\u2019 relationship with Simone remained strictly professional. As far as scholars know, the poet did not harbor romantic feelings for her.<\/p>\n

\"Middle-aged<\/a><\/p>\n

Poet, author and playwright Langston Hughes, pictured in 1959, the year Nina Simone moved to New York.
\n Underwood Archives\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Simone performed at clubs across New York City, including the famous Village Gate in Greenwich Village<\/a>. And her debut album, \u201cLittle Girl Blue<\/a>,\u201d was well received in 1959.<\/p>\n

But Hughes also used his considerable fame to elevate the rising star. He secured her a spot at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, where she performed songs like \u201cTrouble in Mind\u201d and \u201cLittle Liza Jane.\u201d Hughes himself wrote the final song of the festival<\/a>, \u201cGoodbye Newport Blues,\u201d which Muddy Waters\u2019 pianist, Otis Spann, sang. At the conclusion of the festival, Hughes and Simone slipped off to the nearby Rebel Festival, an \u201canti-festival\u201d organized by jazz icons Charles Mingus<\/a> and Max Roach<\/a>. There, Simone joined Little Richard<\/a> for an impromptu performance.<\/p>\n

Later that year, Hughes published an article in the Black newspaper The Chicago Defender<\/a>, headlined \u201cSpotlight on Nina Simone<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

A regular columnist, Hughes rarely devoted an entire article to one artist. And with a cultural status in 1960 that rivaled that of Oprah Winfrey\u2019s today, Hughes\u2019 endorsement of Simone\u2019s talent as a singer, performer and pianist carried exceptional weight.<\/p>\n

The article was important for another reason. At the time, Simone couldn\u2019t seem to shake comparisons to Billie Holiday<\/a>, who had died in 1959. Like Holiday, Simone sang with a husky, blues-inflected voice. And like Holiday, she had covered a song from George and Ira Gershwin\u2019s \u201cPorgy and Bess,\u201d \u201cI Loves You Porgy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes put those comparisons to rest. In repeatedly highlighting Simone\u2019s masterful piano playing \u2013 an instrument over which Holiday had no command \u2013 he was able to signal that Simone was completely unlike \u201cLady Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did quotes from the review appear on Carnegie Hall concert posters advertising Simone\u2019s performances<\/a>, but a revised version of the article also ended up being included as the liner notes on the back of Simone\u2019s 1964 album, \u201cBroadway-Blues-Ballads<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

A source of inspiration<\/p>\n

Beyond using his considerable fame to elevate Simone, Hughes also inspired her songwriting.<\/p>\n

Largely known as a poet, Hughes considered himself a songwriter as well. But he never achieved the same stature or success as a lyricist, which ended up being a source of some frustration. Still, roughly 60 of his songs were eventually recorded<\/a> by a variety of artists, and he provided Simone with more than a dozen original lyrics of his own.<\/p>\n

In 1964, Hughes suggested Simone consider singing the lyrics of an obscure song<\/a> that his personal assistant, George Bass, uncovered while preparing archival material for his radio show broadcast. Bass went on to quietly copyright the unpublished folk song himself.<\/p>\n

Simone performed the song, \u201cSee-Line Woman<\/a>,\u201d for the first time at a March 21, 1964, concert in Carnegie Hall, where Hughes was in attendance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Often spelled various ways \u2013 \u201cSea-Lion,\u201d \u201cC-Line\u201d or \u201cShe-Lyin\u2019\u201d \u2013 the tune describes sex workers who greet sailors as they arrive in port, with their different-colored dresses conveying the services they are willing to provide: <\/p>\n

See-line woman (See-line)
Black dress on (See-line)
For a thousand dollars (See-line)
She wail and she moan (See-line)<\/p>\n

Nina Simone performs \u2018See-Line Woman\u2019 at a Creole music festival on the French Caribbean island territory Guadeloupe in 1992.<\/p>\n

The birth of the spellcaster<\/p>\n

Sometime between November 1964 and January 1965, Hughes approached Simone in person with a new concept. <\/p>\n

Buoyed by his success at pitching \u201cSee-Line Woman,\u201d Hughes suggested what he called \u201cIncantations for Nina Simone<\/a>.\u201d These were what Hughes titled \u201cSongs of Enticement, Bewitchment, Voodoo, Hoodoo, Conjuration, Bedevilment\u201d and, most importantly, \u201cSpell Casting.\u201d <\/p>\n

In one song he\u2019d written \u2013 which Hughes titled \u201cYou Cast a Spell on Me\u201d \u2013 he imagined Simone as a witch riding a broomstick brewing magic potions. It included uninspired lyrics such as:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll work my black and white magic
And the other color, too,
So come on, baby bunting,
Let me cast a spell on You. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see Hughes\u2019 suggestions as an effort to typecast Simone as a hypnotic Black woman. And perhaps there was an element of that at play. But Simone accepted the concept, which she saw as a nod to Hoodoo<\/a>, a set of African American folk-magic traditions that developed primarily in the American South. And she found a way around using Hughes\u2019 verses, turning instead to \u201cI Put a Spell on You,\u201d which the eccentric R&B singer Screamin\u2019 Jay Hawkins<\/a> had recorded in 1956.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Put a Spell on You\u201d ended up becoming the title track of Simone\u2019s album, which she released in June 1965. It helped forge her identity as a sultry, mysterious singer and eventually served as the title of her 1991 autobiography<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Over the years, when Simone performed the song live, she would sometimes leave the stage, only to return in a trance<\/a>, as if she possessed the hypnotic powers of a spiritual shaman. <\/p>\n

Simone\u2019s follow-up album, 1967\u2019s \u201cThe High Priestess of Soul,\u201d featured a startling cover<\/a> that continued the Hoodoo theme: Simone appears as a sorceress smoking a pipe. <\/p>\n

Fans and critics have been responding to her spellbinding performances ever since.<\/p>\n

Keep on workin\u2019<\/p>\n

Simone may have passed on Hughes\u2019 version of \u201cYou Cast a Spell on Me,\u201d but the poet would get another chance a year later.<\/p>\n

In 1966, Hughes gave a copy of a poem he had written to Simone. He wanted to know if she would be interested in performing it.<\/p>\n

Simone agreed, and Hughes was in the audience at the Lincoln Center\u2019s Philharmonic Hall on Nov. 22, 1966, when Simone performed \u201cBacklash Blues<\/a>\u201d for likely the first time. <\/p>\n

Simone received a standing ovation, and \u201cBacklash Blues\u201d became a staple of her performances. It was later featured in the 2021 Academy Award-winning documentary film \u201cSummer of Soul<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

After Hughes died in May 1967, Simone added a new verse<\/a> during her live performances of the song, paying homage to its author:<\/p>\n

When Langston Hughes died, he told me many months before
\u201cNina, keep on workin\u2019, till they open up the door.
One of these days, when the doors are open wide,
Make sure you tell \u2018em where it\u2019s at, so they\u2019ll have no place to hide.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

Nina Simone and Langston Hughes at Simone\u2019s home in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., in January 1964.
\n Andy Stroud<\/a>, Author provided (no reuse)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many music fans know that Nina Simone\u2019s 1965 hit \u201cI Put a Spell on You\u201d helped establish the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-633232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}