In 1959 when I was a teenager I belonged to a record club that sent me a new album several times a year. That’s how I got the long-playing vinyl, Nina Simone at Town Hall. I have played this record so many times over the years that it is hard to ignore the scratches.
Irving Berlin wrote the last song she sings on this record. It’s called "You Can Have Him." From the very beginning with Simone’s dramatic piano flourish, this is one of the greatest love songs ever written. It is sensual, romantic, politically incorrect, and it never fails to make me cry.
After Simone sings "I’m giving him the sack and he can go right back where he came from. I’m afraid I never loved him; Sweetie, he’d be better off with you," I first thought to myself, Oh good, this is a song about unrequited love, what a tough woman this is.
But then the lyrics take a turn, about 180 degrees. A little hokey maybe, but what a romantic riff too...
All I ever wanted to do was
Run my fingers through his curly locks
Mend his underwear and darn his socks,
Fetch his slippers and remove his shoes,
Wipe his glasses when he’s read the news,
Rub his forehead with a gentle touch
Mornings after when he’s had a little too much,
Kiss him gently when he cuddles near
And give him babies one for every year…
I admit I am a sucker and always have been for that blast of pure romance. Who could ever think she’s not head over heels in love with this guy after all? By the time she’s fixed a breakfast that would please him most, and she’s gone out and bought the papers "and when they’d been read, spend the balance of the day in bed." May I say it? This is one sexy song.
So the ending lyrics and Nina Simone’s powerful, sorrowful delivery inevitably reduces me to tears.
"So you see that I don’t want him you can have him, You can have him cos I don’t want him because he’s not my man," she sings over and over again in a wailing lament. She does want him, I want to shout. Love is full of heartache in one’s life. It’s not all a bed of roses. Irving Berlin got it just right. And though there are other renditions by Ella Fitzgerald and Nancy Wilson to name two, this one by Nina Simone wins hands down. I am Anne Zill and this is the music that moves me.