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Billie Holiday > Albums & Lyrics

Billie Holiday Photo


The Complete Decca Sessions Album
  1. (I LOVE YOU) PORGY
  2. BABY GET LOST
  3. BIG STUFF
  4. CRAZY HE CALLS ME
  5. DEEP SONG
  6. DO YOUR DUTY
  7. EASY LIVING
  8. GIMMIE A PIGFOOT (AND A BOTTLE OF BEER)
  9. GIRLS WERE MADE TO TAKE CARE OF BOYS
  10. GOD BLESS THE CHILD
  11. GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE
  12. GUILTY
  13. LOVER MAN (OH, WHERE CAN YOU BE?)
  14. MY MAN
  15. NO GOOD MAN
  16. NOW OR NEVER
  17. PLEASE TELL ME NOW
  18. SOLITUDE
  19. THAT OLE DEVIL CALLED LOVE
  20. THEM THERE EYES
  21. THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE
  22. THIS IS HEAVEN TO ME
  23. WEEP NO MORE
  24. WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE?
  25. YOU BETTER GO NOW
Compact Jazz - Billie Holiday Album
  1. A FINE ROMANCE
  2. CHEEK TO CHEEK
  3. GONE WITH THE WIND
  4. I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU
  5. I GOTTA RIGHT TO SING THE BLUES
  6. ILL WIND
  7. NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT
  8. SOPHISTICATED LADY
Lady In Satin Album
  1. I GET ALONG WITHOUT YOU VERY WELL
  2. FOR ALL WE KNOW
  3. VIOLETS FOR YOUR FURS
  4. EASY TO REMEMBER
  5. BUT BEAUTIFUL
  6. GLAD TO BE UNHAPPY
  7. THE END OF A LOVE AFFAIR
Songs For Distingue Lovers Album
  1. A FOGGY DAY
  2. BODY AND SOUL
  3. DAY IN, DAY OUT
  4. I WISHED ON THE MOON
  5. JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS
  6. MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT
  7. ONE FOR MY BABY (AND ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD)
  8. OUR LOVE IS HERE TO STAY
  9. STARS FELL ON ALABAMA
The Billie Holiday Songbook Album
  1. FINE AND MELLOW
  2. GOD BLESS THE CHILD
  3. GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE
  4. I COVER THE WATERFRONT
  5. I CRIED FOR YOU
  6. LADY SINGS THE BLUES
  7. LOVER MAN (OH, WHERE CAN YOU BE?)
  8. MY MAN
  9. STORMY BLUES
  10. STRANGE FRUIT
  11. WHAT A LITTLE MOONLIGHT CAN DO
The Quintessential - Volume 1 Album
  1. I WISHED ON THE MOON
  2. WHAT A LITTLE MOONLIGHT CAN DO
  3. MISS BROWN TO YOU
  4. A SUNSETBONNET BLUE (AND A YELLOW STRAW HAT)
  5. WHAT A NIGHT, WHAT A MOON, WHAT A GIRL
  6. TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY
  7. YANKEE DOODLE NEVER WENT TO TOWN
  8. EENY MEENY MINEY MO
  9. IF YOU WERE MINE
  10. YOU LET ME DOWN
The Quintessential - Volume 2 Album
  1. THESE FOOLISH THINGS
  2. I CRIED FOR YOU
  3. GUESS WHO?
  4. DID I REMEMBER?
  5. NO REGRETS
  6. SUMMERTIME
  7. A FINE ROMANCE
  8. ONE, TWO, BUTTON YOUR SHOE
  9. EASY TO LOVE
  10. WITH THEE I SWING
  11. THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT
The Quintessential - Volume 3 Album
  1. WHO LOVES YOU?
  2. PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
  3. ONE NEVER KNOWS, DOES ONE?
  4. IF MY HEART COULD ONLY TALK
  5. PLEASE KEEP ME IN YOUR DREAMS
  6. WHY WAS I BORN?
  7. I MUST HAVE THAT MAN
  8. YOU SHOWED ME THE WAY
  9. SENTIMENTAL & MELANCHOLY
  10. (THIS IS) MY LAST AFFAIR
The Quintessential - Volume 4 Album
  1. CARELESSLY
  2. HOW COULD YOU?
  3. WHERE IS THE SUN?
  4. SUN SHOWERS
  5. YOURS AND MINE
  6. MEAN TO ME
  7. EASY LIVING
  8. ME, MYSELF AND I (ARE ALL IN LOVE WITH YOU)
  9. A SAILBOAT IN THE MOONLIGHT
The Quintessential - Volume 5 Album
  1. BORN TO LOVE
  2. WITHOUT YOUR LOVE
  3. GETTING SOME FUN OUT OF LIFE
  4. WHO WANTS LOVE?
  5. NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT
  6. THINGS ARE LOOKING UP
  7. MY MAN
  8. MY FIRST IMPRESSION OF YOU
  9. IF DREAMS COME TRUE
  10. NOW THEY CALL IT SWING
  11. ON THE SENTIMENTAL SIDE
  12. BACK IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD
  13. WHEN A WOMAN LOVES A MAN
The Quintessential - Volume 6 Album
  1. YOU GO TO MY HEAD
  2. THE MOON LOOKS DOWN AND LAUGHS
  3. IF I WERE YOU
  4. FORGET IF YOU CAN
  5. SAYS MY HEART
  6. I WISH I HAD YOU
  7. THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU
  8. HERE IT IS TOMORROW AGAIN
  9. SAY IT WITH A KISS
  10. APRIL IN MY HEART
  11. THEY SAY
The Quintessential - Volume 7 Album
  1. HELLO, MY DARLING
  2. DREAM OF LIFE
  3. MORE THAN YOU KNOW
  4. UNDER A BLUE JUNGLE MOON
  5. EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR THE BEST
  6. WHY DID I ALWAYS DEPEND ON YOU?
  7. LONG GONE BLUES
  8. SOME OTHER SPRING
  9. OUR LOVE IS DIFFERENT
The Quintessential - Volume 8 Album
  1. THEM THERE EYES
  2. SWING, BROTHER SWING
  3. NIGHT AND DAY
  4. THE MAN I LOVE
  5. GHOST OF YESTERDAY
  6. BODY AND SOUL
  7. WHAT IS THIS GOING TO GET US?
  8. FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
  9. TELL ME MORE AND MORE (AND THEN SOME)
  10. LAUGHING AT LIFE
  11. TIME ON MY HANDS
  12. I HEAR MUSIC
  13. PRACTICE MAKER PERFECT
The Quintessential - Volume 9 Album
  1. ST.LOUIS BLUES
  2. LOVELESS LOVE
  3. GEORGIA ON MY MIND
  4. ROMANCE IN THE DARK
  5. ALL OF ME
  6. GOD BLESS THE CHILD
  7. AM I BLUE?
  8. SOLITUDE
  9. JIM
  10. I COVER THE WATERFRONT
  11. LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME
  12. GLOOMY SUNDAY
  13. WHEREVER YOU ARE
  14. MANDY IS TWO
  15. UNTIL THE REAL THING COMES ALONG
The Silver Collection Album
  1. ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL
  2. BODY AND SOUL
  3. BUT NOT FOR ME
  4. COMES LOVE
  5. DARN THAT DREAM
  6. EMBRACEABLE YOU
  7. I WISHED ON THE MOON
  8. MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT
  9. OUR LOVE IS HERE TO STAY
Billie Holiday remains (four decades after her death) the most famous of all jazz singers. "Lady Day" (as she was named by Lester Young) had a small voice and did not scat but her innovative behind-the-beat phrasing made her quite influential. The emotional intensity that she put into the words she sang (particularly in later years) was very memorable and sometimes almost scary; she often really did live the words she sang.

Her original name and birthplace have been wrong for years but are listed correctly above thanks to Donald Clarke's definitive Billie Holiday biography Wishing on the Moon. Holiday's early years are shrouded in legend and rumours due to her fanciful ghost written autobiography Lady Sings the Blues but it is fair to say that she did not have a stable life. Her father Clarence Holiday (who never did marry her mother) played guitar with Fletcher Henderson and abandoned his family early on while her mother was not a very good role model. Billie essentially grew up alone, feeling unloved and gaining a lifelong inferiority complex that led to her taking great risks with her personal life and becoming self-destructive.

Holiday's life becomes clearer after she was discovered by John Hammond singing in Harlem clubs. He arranged for her to record a couple of titles with Benny Goodman in 1933 and although those were not all that successful, it was the start of her career. Two years later she was teamed with a pickup band led by Teddy Wilson and the combination clicked. During 1935-42 she would make some of the finest recordings of her career, jazz-oriented performances in which she was joined by the who's who of swing. Holiday sought to combine together Louis Armstrong's swing and Bessie Smith's sound; the result was her own fresh approach. In 1937 Lester Young and Buck Clayton began recording with Holiday and the interplay between the three of them was timeless.

Lady Day was with Count Basie's Orchestra during much of 1937 but, because they were signed to different labels, all that exists of the collaboration are three songs from a radio broadcast. She worked with Artie Shaw's Orchestra for a time in 1938 but the same problem existed (only one song was recorded) and she had to deal with racism, not only during a Southern tour but in New York too. She had better luck as a star attraction at Cafe Society in 1939. Holiday made history that year by recording the horribly picturesque "Strange Fruit," a strong anti-racism statement that became a permanent part of her repertoire. Her records of 1940-42 found her sidemen playing a much more supportive role than in the past, rarely sharing solo space with her.

Although the settings were less jazz-oriented than before (with occasional strings and even a background vocal group on a few numbers) Billie Holiday's voice was actually at its strongest during her period with Decca (1944-49). She had already introduced "Fine and Mellow" (1939) and "God Bless the Child" (1941) but it was while with Decca that she first recorded "Lover Man" (her biggest hit), "Don't Explain," "Good Morning Heartache" and her renditions of "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do," "Them There Eyes" and "Crazy He Calls Me." Unfortunately it was just before this period that she became a heroin addict and she spent much of 1947 in jail. Due to the publicity she became a notorious celebrity and her audience greatly increased. Lady Day did get a chance to make one Hollywood movie (New Orleans) in 1946 and, although she was disgusted at the fact that she was stuck playing a maid, she did get to perform with her early idol Louis Armstrong.

Billie Holiday's story from 1950 on is a gradual downhill slide. Although her recordings for Norman Granz (which started in 1952) placed her once again with all-star jazz veterans (including Charlie Shavers, Buddy DeFranco, Harry "Sweets" Edison and Ben Webster), her voice was slipping fast. Her unhappy relationships distracted her, the heroin use and excessive drinking continued and by 1956 she was way past her prime. Holiday had one final burst of glory in late 1957 when she sang "Fine and Mellow" on The Sound of Jazz telecast while joined by Lester Young (who stole the show with an emotional chorus), Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan and Roy Eldridge, but the end was near. Holiday's 1958 album Lady in Satin found the 43-year old singer sounding 73 (barely croaking out the words) and the following year she collapsed; in the sad final chapter of her life she was placed under arrest for heroin possession while on her deathbed!

Fortunately Billie Holiday's recordings have been better treated than she was during her life and virtually all of her studio sides are currently available on CD.

Scott Yanow



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