Wild is the Wind

Becky and I were listening to a Nina Simone compilation album and the song Wild is the Wind came on. She does such a wonderful version of that song that was a hit in 1966 and we had a conversation about it. We both have always loved the David Bowie version too which he did as a tribute to Nina Simone that was on his Station to Station album from 1976. He had met her in 1975. Later I had to listen to his version too.

Then I looked up the song on Wikipedia. I had known it was an old song from the 1950's but that was about it. So it turns out the song was written by Dimitri Tiompkin and Ned Washington for the soundtrack to the film Wild is the Wind from 1957 starring Anthony Quinn and directed by George Cukor. The song was released as a single by Johnny Mathis in 1957 and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song in 1958. Apparently the song has been recorded many times by many artists over the years. I do remember Anthony Quinn wearing his sheep-skin vest in that movie.