As Ham's play begins, Simone is trying to write the song ... most about Simone was how her voice sounded. Like Roberta Flack, Simone sounds like a piano when she sings, Mack said. "The way Nina's ...

You don't cover songs like that, you just sing them ... One of the best examples of the latter turns up in Nina Simone's famous, searing cover of Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit'.

Loading YouTube content Joni Mitchell's most famous song is a more extreme example of the same thing. 'Both Sides, Now' was a hit in 1968 for Judy Collins and won her a Grammy. It was a cover ...