Nina Simone
Simone played the piano at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City to earn money for her studying. The owner said that she would only get the job if she would sing as well as play the piano. She did not want her mother to know that she was playing "the devil's music", so she started using the stage name Nina Simone. She got "Nina" from a nickname given to her by a boyfriend, and "Simone" from a French actress called Simone Signoret. Simone played and sang a mixture of jazz, blues and classical music at the bar. She began to get fans. In 1958 she recorded a song called "I Loves You Porgy", from Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin. She had learned the song from a Billie Holiday album, and performed it as a favor for a friend. It became her only Billboard top 40 success in the United States. Soon, she recorded her first album Little Girl Blue on Bethlehem Records. Simone never earned money from the album because she sold the rights for $3000, missing out on more than $1 million of royalties.