Double Take: 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' by Nina Simone/Bob & Marcia
Robert Webb's guide to pop's most intriguing cover versions
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Your support makes all the difference.Inspired by the playwright Lorraine Hansberry, the first black woman to have her work produced on Broadway, the jazz singer and civil-rights campaigner Nina Simone wrote "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" with the pianist Weldon Irvine Jnr. Simone asked Irvine to contribute the lyrics. "It was the only time in my life that I wrestled with creating," he recalled. When the words finally came, Irvine was in his car. "I tied up traffic at that red light for 15 minutes as I scribbled on three napkins and a matchbook cover."
The song topped the R&B charts in 1969 and was declared the black national anthem by the Congress of Racial Equality: "Oh what a lovely precious dream / To be young, gifted and black."
Simone's performance encouraged a generation to stand up for their rights. When it comes to dancing, however, it's the version by the reggae singers Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths that gets you on your feet. It was recorded in Jamaica in 1970.
"[The producer] Harry J came by with a recording of 'Young, Gifted and Black' and asked me if I'd be interested in voicing it," recalled Andy. "I said I'd give it a try. I invited Marcia to the studio to accompany me." Trojan Records Anglicised their recording by overdubbing strings, courtesy of the arranger Johnny Arthey, and issued it in the UK. Griffiths and Andy gave the release little thought until they received an excited call from Harry J a few weeks later: " 'You have to go to England!' And we said: 'Why?' And he said 'You have to sing on Top of the Pops.' " It was reggae's biggest international hit to date. Bob and Marcia's success with the record paired them for the next four years, until Marcia formed the I-Threes, Bob Marley's backing trio.
An uncompromising Simone, embittered by what she saw as the failure of the civil rights movement, renounced her homeland and has been in self-imposed exile in Africa and Europe since 1969. In the Nineties, Weldon Irvine became a mentor for the hip-hop community. Sadly, this year he committed suicide in New York, aged 58.
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