My Baby Just Cares for Me

Nina Simone recorded “My Baby Just Cares for Me” in 1957 because she needed a bright, up-tempo number to finish her debut album.

It flopped.

When it came out as a single in 1962, nobody cared. The song sat there for 25 years, gathering dust, while Simone became a legend for entirely different reasons. Her civil rights anthems, her furious live performances, her refusal to play nice. “My Baby Just Cares for Me” was a footnote. A bouncy little jazz tune on an album full of heavyweights.

Then Chanel called.

In 1987, someone at Chanel No. 5 decided Simone’s 30-year-old recording would be perfect for a UK television commercial. Thirty seconds of Nina’s skipping piano and that walking bass line, selling perfume.

It exploded.

The song shot to number 5 in the UK, number 1 in the Netherlands, top 10 across Europe. Almost three decades after she recorded it, Nina Simone had one of the biggest hits of her career. She hadn’t even been trying.

Charly Records rushed out a single. Aardman Animations, the Wallace and Gromit people, made a claymation music video with singing cats in a jazz club. There was even a “Special Extended Smoochtime Version” on 12-inch vinyl. (The late 80s were a wild time.)

Here’s the part they don’t put in the perfume ads: Simone had to fight Chanel in court to get paid. The legal battle dragged on until 1991 before she finally received her royalties. Apparently the music business isn’t as sweet as a $65 bottle of Chanel.

The song itself is ancient. Walter Donaldson wrote the music and Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics back in 1930 for the film version of Whoopee!, a musical comedy starring Eddie Cantor. Cantor made it his signature tune. Frank Sinatra had it in his repertoire in the 50s. By the time Simone got to it, it was already a standard pushing 30 years old.

But nobody did it like Nina. She took this upbeat little showtune and gave it that piano bounce, that sly vocal delivery. She’s practically winking at you through the whole thing. “My baby don’t care for shows… my baby don’t care for clothes…” It’s playful in a way Simone rarely was on record.

Which is probably why it took a perfume commercial to make people notice. It didn’t sound like “Nina Simone, civil rights warrior.” It sounded like fun. And sometimes fun takes 30 years to find its audience.