Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Photo taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1949
Background information
Birth name Eleanora Fagan
Also known as Lady Day, Queen of Song
Born April 7, 1915(1915-04-07)
, U.S.
Origin Harlem, New York, U.S.
Died July 17, 1959(1959-07-17) (aged 44)
, U.S.
Genres Jazz, vocal jazz, jazz blues, torch songs, swing
Occupations Singer, songwriter, composer
Instruments Vocals
Years active 1933–1959
Labels Brunswick Records (1933–1939)
Vocalion Records (1936–1939)
Okeh Records (1939–1942)
Bluebird Records (1938)
Commodore (1939, 1944)
Capitol (1942)
Decca (1944–1950)
Aladdin (1951)
Verve (1952–1957)
Columbia (1957–1958)
MGM (1958–1959)
Associated acts Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne
Website Billie Holiday Official Site

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan;[1] April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Above all, she was admired all over the world for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing.

Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever".[2] She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing jazz standards including "Easy Living," "Good Morning Heartache," and "Strange Fruit".

Contents

Early life

She was born as Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915.

Billie Holiday had a difficult childhood. Much information once not considered true was confirmed in the book Billie Holiday by Stuart Nicholson in 1995. Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, which was first published in 1956, is sketchy when it comes to details about her early life, but has been confirmed by the Nicholson research.

Billie Holiday at two years old, in 1917

Her professional pseudonym was taken from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Holiday, her probable father.[3] At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name Halliday, which was the birth-surname of her father, but eventually changed it to Holiday, his performing name.

There is some controversy regarding Holiday's paternity, stemming from a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives that lists the father as a "Frank DeViese". Some historians consider this an anomaly, probably inserted by a hospital or government worker.[4] Despite Billie's later comments, Sadie and Clarence Holiday neither married nor lived together[5] and in fact Frank DeViese did live in Philadelphia and may have been known to Sadie through her work.

Billie's mother, Sarah Julia "Sadie" Harris (later Fagan),[6] was thrown out of her parents' home in Sandtown, Baltimore, after becoming pregnant at thirteen; she moved to Philadelphia, where Billie was born Eleanora Fagan. With no support from her parents, Sadie arranged for Eleanora to stay with her half sister, Eva Miller, in Baltimore. Sadie often took what were then known as "transportation jobs", leaving Eleanora to be raised largely by Eva Miller's mother-in-law, Martha Miller. Martha Miller's daughter, Evelyn Miller Conway, attested to the fact that Eleanora had an attitude problem from very early on as a result of her mother leaving her in the care of others for much of the first ten years of her life.[7]

Sadie Harris, now known as Sadie Fagan, married Philip Gough but the marriage was over in two years. Once again Eleanora was left in the care of Martha Miller while Sadie took further transportation jobs.[8]

Eleanora's frequent truancy resulted in her being brought before the juvenile court on January 5, 1925, and sent to The House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic reform school.[9] Eleanora was baptized there on March 19, 1925.[10]

After nine months in care, Eleanora was "paroled" to her mother on October 3, 1925.[11] Sadie had opened a restaurant called the East Side Grill and she and Eleanora worked long hours. By the time she was eleven, Eleanora had dropped out of school.

Towards the end of 1926, after having moved again, Sadie returned home on December 24, 1926, to discover a neighbor, Wilbur Rich, in the act of having sex with Eleanora. Rich was arrested, and on the same day Eleanora was again placed in the care of the House of Good Shepard, being held there in protective custody "as a state witness in the case of State of Maryland vs Wilbur Rich, charged with rape."[12] Eventually Eleanora was released in February 1927.

During this period, Sadie and Eleanora wound up living with and working for a madam.[13] It was during this time she first heard the records of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. By the end of 1928, Sadie decided to try her luck in Harlem and again left Eleanora in the care of Martha Miller.[14]

Early singing career

During her final period of separation from her mother, Billie began to perform the songs she learned while working in the brothel.[15] However, by early 1929, Sadie sent for her to join her in Harlem. Their landlady was a sharply dressed woman named Florence Williams, who ran a whorehouse at 151 West 140th Street.[15] In order to live, Sadie became a prostitute and, within a matter of days of her arrival, Eleanora, who had not yet turned fourteen, was also turning tricks for $5 a time.[15]

On May 2, 1929, the house was raided and Sadie and Eleanora wound up in prison. After spending some time in a workhouse, Sadie was released in July, followed by Eleanora in October. Changing her name to Billie Holiday (sometimes Halliday), Billie teamed up with a neighbor, tenor sax player Kenneth Hollan. From 1929 to 1931, they were a team, performing at clubs such as the "Grey Dawn", "Pod's and Jerry's" and the Brooklyn Elk's Club.[16][17] Benny Goodman recalled hearing Billie in 1931 at "The Bright Spot" and as Billie's reputation grew, she played at many clubs, including "Mexico's" and "The Alhambra Bar and Grill" where Charles Linton, a vocalist who later worked with Chick Webb, first met her.[18] It was also during this period that Billie connected with her father, Clarence, who by this time was playing with Fletcher Henderson's band.[19]

By the end of 1932, Billie was brought in to replace Monette Moore at a club called "Covan's" on West 132nd Street. It was here that producer John Hammond, who loved Monette Moore's singing and had come to hear her, first heard Billie in early 1933.[20]

Hammond arranged for Holiday to make her recording debut in November 1933 with Benny Goodman, singing two songs: "Your Mother's Son-In-Law" and "Riffin' the Scotch". The latter being her first major hit. Released on November 11, the song reached number 6 on the pop charts. Holiday wouldn't record in 1934. She returned to the studio in 1935 with Goodman and a group led by pianist Teddy Wilson. Their first collaboration included "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," and "Miss Brown To You." The record label didn't favor the recording session, because Holiday didn't sound enough like Cleo Brown, an established blues singer at the time, but after "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" reached number 12 on the record charts, the record label began considering Holiday an artist in her own right. [21] She began recording under her own name a year later, producing a series of extraordinary performances with groups comprising the swing era's finest musicians. [22]

Wilson was signed to Brunswick Records by John Hammond for the purpose of recording current pop tunes in the new "swing" style for the growing jukebox trade. They were given free rein to improvise the material. Holiday's amazing method of improvising the melody line to fit the emotion was revolutionary. Wilson and Holiday took pedestrian pop tunes, such as "Twenty-Four Hours a Day" (#6 Pop) or "Yankee Doodle Never Went To Town", and turned them into jazz classics with their arrangements. With few exceptions, the recordings she made with Wilson or under her own name during the 1930s and early 1940s are regarded as important parts of the jazz vocal library.

Among the musicians who accompanied her frequently was tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who had been a boarder at her mother's house in 1934 and with whom she had a special rapport. "Well, I think you can hear that on some of the old records, you know. Some time I'd sit down and listen to 'em myself, and it sound like two of the same voices, if you don't be careful, you know, or the same mind, or something like that." [23] Young nicknamed her "Lady Day", and she, in turn, dubbed him "Prez". She did a three-month residency at Clark Monroe's Uptown House in New York in 1937. In the late 1930s, she also had brief stints as a big band vocalist with Count Basie (1937) and Artie Shaw (1938). The latter association placed her among the first black women to work with a white orchestra, an arrangement that went against the tenor of the times. [24]

By the late 1930s, Billie Holiday, still relatively unknown at the time, began seeing a rapid increase in popularity. Her songs "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Easy Living" were being imitated by singers across America and were quickly becoming jazz standards. [25] In 1938, Holiday's single "I'm Gonna Lock My Heart" ranked 6 as the most played song for September of that year. Her record label Vocalion listed the single as its fourth best seller for the same month. "I'm Gonna Lock My Heart" peaked at number 2 on the pop charts. [26]

Commodore Recordings and Mainstream success(1939)

Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to "Strange Fruit", a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings. It was eventually heard by Barney Josephson, proprietor of Café Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday. She performed it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, fearing possible retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death and that this played a role in her resistance to performing it. In a 1958 interview, she also bemoaned the fact that many people did not grasp the song's message: "They'll ask me to 'sing that sexy song about the people swinging'", she said.[27]

When Holiday's producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive, Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his Commodore Records. That was done on April 20, 1939, and "Strange Fruit" remained in her repertoire for twenty years. She later recorded it again for Verve. While the Commodore release did not get airplay, the controversial song sold well, though Gabler attributed that mostly to the record's other side, "Fine and Mellow", which was a jukebox hit.[28] "The version I did for Commodore," Holiday said of Strange Fruit, "became my biggest selling record." Strange Fruit peaked at number 16 on the record charts on July 22, 1939.[29]

For her performance of Strange Fruit at the Cafe Society, she had waiters silence the crowd when the song began. During the song's long introcution, the lights dimmed and all movement had to cease. As Holiday began singing, only a small spotlight of light illuminated her face. On the final note, all lights in the club went out and when they came back on, Holiday was gone. [30]

Holiday said her father Clarence Holiday was denied treatment for a fatal lung disorder because of prejudice. "It reminds me of how pop died," she said in her autobiography. "But I have to keep singing it, not only because people ask for it, but because twenty years after Pop died the things that killed him are still happening in the south." [31]

Holiday's popularity skyrocketed after recording Strange Fruit. She received a mention in time magazine. [32] "I open Cafe Society as an unknown," Holiday said. "I left two years later as a star. I needed the prestige and publicity all right, but you can't pay rent with it." Holiday demanded her manager Joe Glaser give her a raise shortly after. [33]

"God Bless The Child," "Lover Man" and other successes (1940–1947)

Holiday's mother Saddie Fagan, nicknamed "The Duchess," started her own restaurant called "Mom Holiday's". Fagan used the money her daughter earned while shooting dice with members of the Count Basie band, whom she was on tour with in the late 30s. "It kept mom busy and happy and stopped her from worrying and watching over me," Holiday said. Soon, Fagan began borrowing large amounts of money from Holiday because the restaurant wasn't turning a profit. Holiday obliged, but soon fell upon hard times herself. "I needed some money one night and I knew Mom was sure to have some," Holiday said. "So I walked in the restaurant like a stockholder and asked. Mom turned me down flat. She wouldn't give me a cent." The two argued and then, Holiday, in a rage, hollered "God bless the child that's got his own," and stormed out of the restaurant. With help from Arthur Herzog, a pianist, the two wrote a song based on the line "God Bless the Child" and added music. [34] "God Bless the Child" became Holiday's most popular and covered record. It reached number 25 on the record charts in 1941 and ranked third in Billboard's top songs of the year, selling over a million records. [35] [36]In 1976, the song was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. [37]

In June 24, 1942, Holiday recorded Trav'lin Light with Paul Whiteman. Because she was still under contract with Columbia records, she couldn't release the song under her own name and instead used the pseudonym "Lady Day."[38] The song was a minor success on the pop charts, reaching number 23, but hit number one on the R&B charts [39].

Milt Gabler eventually became an A&R man for Decca Records, in addition to owning Commodore Records, and he signed Holiday to the label on August 7, 1944, when Holiday was 29. Her first recording for Decca was "Lover Man" (#16 Pop, #5 R&B) and "No More". "Lover Man" was a song written especially for her by Jimmy Davis, Roger "Ram" Ramirez, and Jimmy Sherman. Although its lyrics describe a woman who has never known love ("I long to try something I never had"), its theme—a woman longing for a missing lover—and its refrain, "Lover man, oh, where can you be?", struck a chord in wartime America, and the record became one of her biggest hits. [40]

A month later, in November, Billie Holiday returned to the Decca studio to record three songs, "That Ole Devil Called Love", "Big Stuff", and "Don't Explain". Holiday wrote "Don't Explain" after she caught her husband, Jimmy Monroe, with lipstick on his collar.

Holiday also recorded I'll Be Seeing You, a Bing Crosby number one hit, for Commodore in 1944. [41]

After the recording session, Holiday did not return to the studio until August 1945. She recorded "Don't Explain", "Big Stuff", "What Is This Thing Called Love?", and "You Better Go Now". "Big Stuff" and "Don't Explain" were recorded again but with additional strings and a viola.

This was Holiday's only recording session in 1945, for she returned again to the studio in January 1946, recording her biggest hits: "No Good Man" and "Good Morning Heartache". Heartache was covered by singer Diana Ross in 1972, reaching the top 40. [42]

In December 1946, Billie recorded "The Blues Are Brewin", a song that she performed in her only feature film, New Orleans (1947). She also recorded "Guilty".

In February 1947, Holiday recorded two hits, "There Is No Greater Love" and the haunting "Deep Song". She also recorded "Solitude" and "Easy Living", songs that she had recorded with Teddy Wilson in the late 1930s.

Billie's next recording was after her release from prison in 1948 (details below). This time, she had a vocal group behind her (The Stardusters). She recorded "Weep No More" and "Girls Were Made to Take Care of Boys". Worried that people would not like the recordings, they recorded two more songs without the group. These singles became some of her biggest hits on Decca. She recorded "My Man" and Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy".

The next year, Billie had a streak of hits, from her brassy rendition of Bessie Smith's "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do", "Gimme A Pigfoot (And A Bottle of Beer)", "Do Your Duty", and "Keeps on Rainin'", to her lush "You're My Thrill" and "Crazy He Calls Me". She also recorded a song that she wrote, called "Somebody's On My Mind".

In her last recording in 1950, she recorded two songs. Both of them were backed by strings, horns, and a choir. She recorded her own "God Bless the Child" and "This is Heaven to Me".

Film

In 1933, Billie Holiday appeared as an extra in Paul Robeson's The Emperor Jones.

Then, in 1935, she had a small role as a woman being abused by her lover in Duke Ellington's short "Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life". She also sang a tune called "Saddest Tale".

‎Holiday made one major film appearance, opposite Louis Armstrong in New Orleans (1947). The musical drama featured Holiday singing with Armstrong and his band and was directed by Arthur Lubin. Holiday was not pleased that her role was that of a maid, as she recalled in her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues:

"I thought I was going to play myself in it. I thought I was going to be Billie Holiday doing a couple of songs in a nightclub setting and that would be that. I should have known better. When I saw the script, I did. You just tell one Negro girl who's made movies who didn't play a maid or a whore. I don't know any. I found out I was going to do a little singing, but I was still playing the part of a maid."

Holiday also appeared in the 1950 Universal-International short film "'Sugar Chile' Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet", where she sang "God Bless the Child" and "Now, Baby or Never".

Legal troubles (1947 - 1950)

On May 16, 1947, Holiday was arrested for the possession of narcotics in her New York apartment. On May 27, 1947, she was in court. "It was called 'The United States of America versus Billie Holiday'. And that's just the way it felt," Holiday recalled. [43] During the trial, Holiday received notice that her lawyer was not interested in coming down to the trial and representing her. "In plain English that meant no one in the world was interested in looking out for me," Holiday said. Dehydrated and unable to hold down any food, she plead guilty and asked to be sent to the hospital. The D.A. spoke up in her defense, saying, "If your honor please, this is a case of a drug addict, but more serious, however, than most of our cases, Miss Holiday is a professional entertainer and amoung the higher rank as far as income was concerned." By 1947, Holiday was at her commercial peak, having made a quarter of a million dollars in the three years prior. [44] Holiday placed second in the Downbeat poll for 1946 and 1947, her highest ranking in the poll. [45] In Billboard Magazine's July 6 issue on 1947, Holiday ranked 5 on it's annual college poll of "girl singers". Jo Stafford toped the poll. [46] . In 1946, Holiday won the Metronome Magazine popularity poll. [47]

At the end of the trial, Holiday was sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. During her stay, she never "sang a note," even though people wanted her to.

Luckily for Holiday, she was released early (March 16, 1948) because of good behavior. When she arrived at Newark, her pianist Bobby Tucker and her dog mister were waiting for her. The dog leaped at Holiday, knocking off her hat, and tackled her to the ground. "He began lapping me and loving me like crazy," she said. A woman overheard the commotion and thought the dog was attacking Billie Holiday. She started screaming and soon a crowd gathered and then the press showed up. "I might just as well have wheeled into Penn Station and had a quiet little get-together with the Associated Press, United Press, and International News Service," Holiday said.

Ed Fishman (who fought with Joe Glaser to be Holiday's manager) thought of the idea to throw a comeback concert at Carnegie Hall. Holiday hesitated, unsure whether audiences were ready to accept her after the arrest. She eventually gave in, and agreed to the concert.

On March 27, 1948, Holiday played Carnegie Hall to a sold-out crowd. There were 2,700 tickets sold in advance, a record at the time for the venue. Her popularity at the time was unsual in that she didn't have a current hit record. [48] Holiday's last song to chart was Lover Man in 1945, which would be her final placement on the record charts during her lifetime. Holiday did 32 songs at the Carnegie concert by her count, some of which included Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and her 30s hit "Strange Fruit". During the show, someone sent Holiday a box of gardenias. "My old trademark," Holiday said. "I took them out of box and fastened them smack to the side of my head without even looking twice." There was a hatpin in the gardenias and Holiday, unknowingly, stuck the needle deep into the side of her head. "I didn't feel anything until the blood started rushing down in my eyes and ears," she said. After the third curtain call, Holiday passed out. [49]

On April 27, 1948, Bob Sylvester and her promoter Al Wilde arranged for Billie Holiday to do a Broadway show. Titled "Holiday on Broadway," it sold out and was a success for a while. "The regular music critics and drama critics came and treated us like we were legit," Holiday said. Despite the success, the show closed after three weeks. [50]

Holiday was arrested again on January 22, 1949, inside her room at San Francisco's Hotel Mark Twain.

Early and mid 1950s

Billie Holiday in court in late 1949.
She was charged with the possession of opium, even though it was her boyfriend's.

Holiday stated that she began using hard drugs in the early 1940s. She married trombonist Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. While still married to Monroe, she became romantically involved with trumpeter Joe Guy, who was also her drug dealer, and eventually became his common law wife. She finally divorced Monroe in 1947 and also split with Guy. Because of her 1947 conviction, her New York City Cabaret Card was revoked, which kept her from working in clubs there for the remaining 12 years of her life, except when she played at the Ebony Club in 1948, where she opened under the permission of John Levy.

By the 1950s, Holiday's drug abuse, drinking, and relationships with abusive men caused her health to deteriorate. Her later recordings showed the effects on her voice, as it grew coarse and no longer projected the vibrancy it once had. In spite of this, however, she retained—and perhaps strengthened—the emotional impact of her delivery.

On March 28, 1952, Holiday married Louis McKay, a Mafia enforcer. McKay, like most of the men in her life, was abusive, but he did try to get her off drugs. They were separated at the time of her death, but McKay had plans to start a chain of Billie Holiday vocal studios, à la Arthur Murray dance schools.

Her late recordings on Verve constitute about a third of her commercial recorded legacy and are as popular as her earlier work for the Columbia, Commodore and Decca labels. In later years, her voice became more fragile, but it never lost the edge that had always made it so distinctive. On November 10, 1956, she performed two concerts before packed audiences at Carnegie Hall, a major accomplishment for any artist, especially a black artist of the segregated period of American history. Live recordings of the second Carnegie Hall concert were released on a Verve/HMV album in the UK in late 1961 called The Essential Billie Holiday. The thirteen tracks included on this album featured her own songs "Love My Man", "Don't Explain" and "Fine And Mellow", together with other songs closely associated with her, including "Body and Soul", "My Man", and "Lady Sings the Blues" (her lyrics accompanied a tune by pianist Herbie Nichols).

The liner notes on this album were penned partly by Gilbert Millstein of The New York Times, who, according to these notes, served as narrator in the Carnegie Hall concerts, taking position at a lectern to the left of the stage. Interspersed among Holiday's songs, Millstein read aloud four lengthy passages from her autobiography Lady Sings The Blues. He later wrote: "The narration began with the ironic account of her birth in Baltimore – 'Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen, and I was three' – and ended, very nearly shyly, with her hope for love and a long life with 'my man' at her side." Millstein continued, "It was evident, even then, that Miss Holiday was ill. I had known her casually over the years and I was shocked at her physical weakness. Her rehearsal had been desultory; her voice sounded tinny and trailed off; her body sagged tiredly. But I will not forget the metamorphosis that night. The lights went down, the musicians began to play and the narration began. Miss Holiday stepped from between the curtains, into the white spotlight awaiting her, wearing a white evening gown and white gardenias in her black hair. She was erect and beautiful; poised and smiling. And when the first section of narration was ended, she sang – with strength undiminished – with all of the art that was hers. I was very much moved. In the darkness, my face burned and my eyes. I recall only one thing. I smiled."

Nat Hentoff of Down Beat magazine, who attended this same Carnegie Hall concert, penned the remainder of the sleeve notes on the 1961 album. He wrote of her performance: "Throughout the night, Billie was in superior form to what had sometimes been the case in the last years of her life. Not only was there assurance of phrasing and intonation; but there was also an outgoing warmth, a palpable eagerness to reach and touch the audience. And there was mocking wit. A smile was often lightly evident on her lips and her eyes as if, for once, she could accept the fact that there were people who did dig her." Hentoff continued, "The beat flowed in her uniquely sinuous, supple way of moving the story along; the words became her own experiences; and coursing through it all was Lady's sound – a texture simultaneously steel-edged and yet soft inside; a voice that was almost unbearably wise in disillusion and yet still childlike, again at the centre. The audience was hers from before she sang, greeting her and saying good-bye with heavy, loving applause. And at one time, the musicians too applauded. It was a night when Billie was on top, undeniably the best and most honest jazz singer alive."

Her performance of "Fine And Mellow" on CBS's The Sound of Jazz program is memorable for her interplay with her long-time friend Lester Young; both were less than two years from death.

Holiday first toured Europe in 1954 as part of a Leonard Feather package that also included Buddy DeFranco and Red Norvo. When she returned almost five years later, she made one of her last television appearances for Granada's Chelsea at Nine in London. Her final studio recordings were made for MGM in 1959, with lush backing from Ray Ellis and his Orchestra, who had also accompanied her on Columbia's Lady in Satin album the previous year—see below. The MGM sessions were released posthumously on a self-titled album, later re-titled and re-released as Last Recordings.

Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, was ghostwritten by William Dufty and published in 1956. Dufty, a New York Post writer and editor then married to Holiday's close friend Maely Dufty, wrote the book quickly from a series of conversations with the singer in the Duftys' 93rd Street apartment, drawing on the work of earlier interviewers as well. His aim was to let Holiday tell her story in her own way.[51]

Although childless, Billie Holiday had two godchildren: singer Billie Lorraine Feather, daughter of Leonard Feather, and Bevan Dufty, son of William Dufty.[51]

Death

On May 31, 1959, she was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York suffering from liver and heart disease. Police officers were stationed at the door to her room. She was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying, and her hospital room was raided by authorities.[51] Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died from cirrhosis of the liver on July 17, 1959. In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750 (a tabloid fee) on her person. Her funeral mass was held at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in New York City.

Gilbert Millstein of The New York Times, who had been the narrator at Billie Holiday's 1956 Carnegie Hall concerts and had partly written the sleeve notes for the album The Essential Billie Holiday (see above), described her death in these same 1961-dated sleeve notes:

"Billie Holiday died in the Metropolitan Hospital, New York, on Friday, July 17, 1959, in the bed in which she had been arrested for illegal possession of narcotics a little more than a month before, as she lay mortally ill; in the room from which a police guard had been removed – by court order – only a few hours before her death, which, like her life, was disorderly and pitiful. She had been strikingly beautiful, but she was wasted physically to a small, grotesque caricature of herself. The worms of every kind of excess – drugs were only one – had eaten her ... The likelihood exists that among the last thoughts of this cynical, sentimental, profane, generous and greatly talented woman of 44 was the belief that she was to be arraigned the following morning. She would have been, eventually, although possibly not that quickly. In any case, she removed herself finally from the jurisdiction of any court here below."

Voice

Her distinct delivery made Billie Holiday's performances instantly recognizable throughout her career. A master of improvisation, Billie's well-trained ear more than compensated for her lack of music education.[40] Her voice lacked range and was somewhat thin, plus years of abuse eventually altered the texture of her voice and gave it a prepossessing fragility. Nonetheless, the emotion with which she imbued each song remained not only intact but also profound.[52] Her last major recording, a 1958 album entitled Lady in Satin, features the backing of a 40-piece orchestra conducted and arranged by Ray Ellis, who said of the album in 1997:

I would say that the most emotional moment was her listening to the playback of "I'm a Fool to Want You." There were tears in her eyes ... After we finished the album I went into the control room and listened to all the takes. I must admit I was unhappy with her performance, but I was just listening musically instead of emotionally. It wasn't until I heard the final mix a few weeks later that I realized how great her performance really was.

References and tributes

In 1972, Diana Ross portrayed Holiday in the film Lady Sings the Blues, which is loosely based on the 1959 autobiography of the same name. The film earned Ross a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also has been portrayed by Ernestine Jackson in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill and by Paula Jai Parker in a Season 7 episode of Touched by an Angel entitled "God Bless the Child", the title deriving from a song that she had written and sung.[53]

In 1987, Billie Holiday was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The United States Postal Service introduced a Billie Holiday postage stamp in 1994, she ranked #6 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock n' Roll in 1999, and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Over the years, there have been many tributes to Billie Holiday, including "The Day Lady Died", a 1959 poem by Frank O'Hara, and "Angel of Harlem", a 1988 release by the group U2. A 1953 Holiday concert in New York is a key feature of the 2009 Arthur Phillips novel The Song is You.

Songs composed by Holiday

Never Recorded:

Hit records

[54]

Year Single Chart positions
Pop US
R&B
1934 "Riffin' the Scotch" 6
1935 "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" 12
"Twenty-Four Hours A Day" 6
"If You Were Mine" 12
1936 "You Let Me Down" 18
"These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)" 5
"It's Like Reaching for the Moon" 17
"No Regrets " 9
"Summertime " 12
"A Fine Romance" 9
"Let's Call a Heart a Heart" 18
"The Way You Look Tonight" 3
"Who Loves You " 4
"That's Life, I Guess" 20
"I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Dear)" 5
1937 "Pennies From Heaven" 3
"I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" 4
"Please Keep Me in Your Dreams" 13
"This Year's Kisses" 8
"Carelessly" 1
"How Could You" 12
"Moanin' Low" 11
"They Can't Take That Away From Me" 12
"Mean to Me" 7
"Easy Living" 15
"Yours & Mine " 16
"Me, Myself & I" 11
"A Sailboat In The Moonlight" 10
"Getting Some Fun Out of Life" 10
"Trav'lin' All Alone" 18
"Nice Work If You Can Get It" 14
1938 "My Man" 12
"You Go to My Head" 20
"I'm Gonna Lock My Heart" 2
1939 "Strange Fruit" 16
1941 "God Bless the Child " 25
1942 "Travellin' Light" 23 1
1945 "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) " 16 5

Discography

Billie Holiday recorded extensively for four labels: Columbia Records, issued on its subsidiary labels Brunswick Records, Vocalion Records, and OKeh Records, from 1933 through 1942; Commodore Records in 1939 and 1944; Decca Records from 1944 through 1950; briefly for Aladdin Records in 1951; Verve Records and on its earlier imprint Clef Records; from 1952 through 1957, then again for Columbia Records from 1957 to 1958 and finally for MGM Records in 1959. Many of Holiday's recordings appeared on 78 rpm records prior to the long-playing vinyl record era, and only Clef, Verve, and Columbia issued Holiday albums during her lifetime that were not compilations of previously released material. Many compilations have been issued since her death; as well as comprehensive box sets and live recordings.

Album discography

Year Title Label and Number
1946 Billie Holiday (four 78rpm Records) Commodore CR-2
1947 Billie Holiday – Teddy Wilson (four 78rpm Records) Columbia C-61
1947 A Hot Jazz Classic Set, Vol.1 (four 78rpm Records) Columbia-135
1947 Distinctive Song Stylings (four 78rpm Records) Decca A-652
1949 Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra Featuring Billie Holiday (10") Columbia CL-6040
1950 An Evening With Eddie Heywood and Billie Holiday (10") Commodore FL 30001
1950 Ella, Lena and Billie (10") Columbia CL 2531
1950 Billie Holiday Sings (10") Columbia CL 6129
1950 Billie Holiday Volume One (10") Commodore 20005
1950 Billie Holiday Volume Two (10") Commodore 20006
1951 Favorites (10") Columbia CL 6163
1951 Lover Man (10") Decca DL 5345
1951 (released 1964) A Rare Live Recording Of Billie Holiday (Storyville) M2001
1952 Billie Holiday Sings Clef MGC 118 (10" version) Mercury 89002 (four 78rpm Records version)
1953 An Evening with Billie Holiday Clef MGC 144 (10" version) Mercury 89028 (four 78rpm Records version)
1953 Billie Holiday (LP) Clef MGC 161 (10" version) Mercury 89045 (four 78rpm Records version)
1954 Billie Holiday at JATP Clef MGC 169 (10" version) Mercury 89053 (four 78rpm Records version)
1954 Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson Orchestras Columbia 33 S 1034
1954 Lady Day Columbia CL 637
1954 Billie Holiday Volume One Jolly Roger 5020
1954 Billie Holiday Volume Two Jolly Roger 5021
1954 Billie Holiday Volume Three Jolly Roger 5022
1955 A Collection Of Classic Jazz Interpretations By Billie Holiday (10") Columbia B-1949
1955 (released in 1958) Stay with Me Verve MGV 8302
1955 Music For Torching Clef MGC 669 / Verve MV 2595
1956 Recital By Billie Holiday Clef MGC 686
1956 Solitude Clef MGC 690 / Verve V6-8074
1956 Hall Of Fame Series (7") Columbia B-2534
1956 Velvet Mood Clef MGC 713
1956 Billie Holiday at JATP Verve MGC 718
1956 The Lady Sings Decca DL 8215
1956 Lady Sings the Blues Clef MGC 721 / Verve MV 2047
1956 (released in 1959) All or Nothing at All Verve MGV 8329
1956 (released 1961) Carnegie Hall Concert Verve V6-8410
1957 (released 1958) Songs for Distingué Lovers Verve MGV 8257 / Verve 2352 085
1957 (released 1960) Body and Soul Verve MGV 8197
1957 Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport Verve MGV 8234
1957 (released 1999) A Midsummer Night's Jazz at Stratford '57 Baldwin Street 308
1957 Sound of Jazz Columbia CL 1098
1958 Lady in Satin Columbia CL 1157
1958 The Blues Are Brewin` Decca DL 8701
1958 Lover Man Decca DL 8702
1958 Billie Holiday Commodore 30008
1958 (released 1986) At Monterey Blackhawk 50701
1959 Seven Ages of Jazz Metrojazz 1009
1959 Billie Holiday MGM 3764

Selected awards

Grammy Hall of Fame

Billie Holiday was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

Billie Holiday: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[55]
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted Notes
1944 "Embraceable You" Jazz (single) Commodore 2005
1958 Lady in Satin Jazz (album) Columbia 2000
1945 "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" Jazz (single) Decca 1989
1939 "Strange Fruit" Jazz (single) Commodore 1978 Listed also in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2002
1941 "God Bless the Child" Jazz (single) Okeh 1976

Grammy Best Historical Album

The Grammy Award for Best Historical Album has been presented since 1979.

Year Title Label Result
2002 Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday Columbia 1933–1944 Winner
1994 The Complete Billie Holiday Verve 1945–1959 Winner
1992 Billie Holiday — The Complete Decca Recordings Verve 1944–1950 Winner
1980 Billie Holiday — Giants of Jazz Time-Life Winner

Other honors

Year Award Honors Notes
2004 Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame[56] Inducted Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York
2000 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inducted Category: "Early Influence"
1997 ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame[57] Inducted
1947 Esquire Magazine Gold Award Best Leading Female Vocalist Jazz award
1946 Esquire Magazine Silver Award Best Leading Female Vocalist Jazz award
1945 Esquire Magazine Silver Award Best Leading Female Vocalist Jazz award
1944 Esquire Magazine Gold Award Best Leading Female Vocalist Jazz award

Television appearances

Year Program Host Songs
1949
 Adventures in Jazz
Fred Robbins
 Unknown Songs
8/27/1949
 Arlene Francis Show, NY (1)
Arlene Francis
 The Man I Love, All of Me, Lover Man
8/27/1949
 Eddie Condon's Floor Show, NY (1)
Eddie Condon
 I Love My Man, Keeps on Rainin', Lover Man
9/3/1949
 Eddie Condon's Floor Show, NY (1)
Eddie Condon
 Fine & Mellow, Porgy, Them There Eyes, I Love My Man
9/10/1949
 Art Ford Show, NY (1)
Art Ford
 Lover Man, I Cover the Waterfront, Two Minute Interview, All of Me
10/15/1949
 Art Ford Show, NY
Art Ford
 Them There Eyes, Detour Ahead, Now or Never
1/7/1950
 Eddie Condon's Floor Show, NY
Eddie Condon
 Unknown
5/24/1950
 Apollo Theatre Show, NY (1)
-
 You're My Thrill
7/25/1951
 Apollo Theatre Show, NY (1)
-
 My Man
12/10/1952
 Apollo Theatre Show, NY (1)
Count Basie
 Tenderly
10/16/1953
 The Comeback Story, NY (1)
George Jessel
 Twenty Minute Interview, God Bless the Child
2/8/1955
 The Tonight Show, NY (1)
Steve Allen
 My Man, Them There Eyes, Lover Man
2/10/1956
 The Tonight Show, NY (1)
Steve Allen
 Please Don't Talk About Me, Two Minute Interview, Ghost of a Chance
8/19/1956
 Star's of Jazz, LA, CA (2)
Bobby Troup
 Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone, Billie's Blues, My Man
10/29/1956
 Bandstand USA, NY (1)
Bert Parks
 Willow Weep for Me , I Only Have Eyes for You , My Man , Please Don't Talk About Me
11/7/1956
 Night Beat, NY (1)
Mike Wallace
 Fifteen Minute Interview
11/8/1956
 Peacock Alley, NY (1)
Tex McCleary
 Twenty Minute Interview
11/8/1956
 The Tonight Show, NY (1)
Steve Allen
 Porgy
3/11/1957
 Live Broadcast from Mr. Kelly's, Chicago (1)
-
 Good Morning Heartache, You Better Go Now
12/8/1957
 The Seven Lively Arts: The Sound of Jazz, LA (2)
-
 Fine & Mellow
4/12/1958
 Club Oasis, NY (1)
Martha Raye
 You've Changed, My Man
5/26/1958
 Telethon, NY
Dean Martin
 Unknown Songs
5/29/1958
 Art Ford's Jazz Party, NY (2)
Art Ford
 You've Changed, I Love My Man , When Your Lover Has Gone
6/5/1958
 Art Ford's Jazz Party, NY
Art Ford
 All of Me, Good Morning Heartache, Travelin’ Light
7/10/1958
 Art Ford's Jazz Party, NY (2)
Art Ford
 What a Little Moonlight Can Do, Foolin' Myself, It's Easy to Remember
7/17/1958
 Art Ford's Jazz Party, NY (2)
Art Ford
 Moanin' Low, Don't Explain, When Your Lover Has Gone
9/25/1958
 Today Show
Dave Garroway
 My Funny Valentine
11/18/1958
 Mars Club, Music Hall Parade Voyons Un Peu, Paris France (2)
-
 I Only Have Eyes for You, Travelin’ Light
11/20/1958
 Gilles Margaritis Programme, Paris France
Gilles Margaritis
 Unknown
1/7/1959
 Times All-Star Jazz Show IV, NY
Jackie Gleason
 Unknown
2/23/1959
 Chelsea at Nine, London, England (2)
Robert Beatty
 Porgy, Please Don't Talk About Me, Strange Fruit

(1) = Available on Audio (2) = Available on DVD

Videography

See also

Jazz royalty

Notes

  1. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 14
  2. ↑ Bush, John. "Billie Holiday: Biography". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kcfqxqt5ldde~T1. Retrieved July 30, 2010. 
  3. ↑ "Billie Holiday Biography". Biography.com. http://www.biography.com/articles/Billie-Holiday-9341902. Retrieved June 29, 2009. 
  4. ↑ Clarke, p. xiii
  5. ↑ Nicholson, p. 18
  6. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 17—19
  7. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 18—23
  8. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 21—22
  9. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 23—24
  10. ↑ Nicholson, p. 22
  11. ↑ Stuart, p. 24
  12. ↑ Nicholson, p. 25
  13. ↑ Nicholson, p. 27
  14. ↑ Nicholson, p. 31
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Nicholson, p. 32
  16. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 35—37
  17. ↑ Vail, Ken (1997). Lady Day's Diary. London, England: Sanctuary Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 1-86074-131-2. 
  18. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 37—38
  19. ↑ Nicholson, p. 35—39
  20. ↑ Nicholson, p. 39
  21. ↑ Nicholson, p. 65
  22. ↑ http://www.billieholidaysongs.com/the_composers.htm
  23. ↑ http://jazznbossa.ning.com/group/billieholiday
  24. ↑ http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/billie%20holiday.html
  25. ↑ Nicholson, p. 70
  26. ↑ Nicholson, p. 102
  27. ↑ Interview with Chris Albertson over WHAT-FM, Philadelphia
  28. ↑ Clarke, p. 169
  29. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 95
  30. ↑ Nicholson, p. 113
  31. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 95
  32. ↑ Nicholson, p. 115
  33. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 104-105
  34. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 100 - 101
  35. ↑ http://tsort.info/music/m8ravs.htm
  36. ↑ http://www.jazzstandards.com/history/history-4.htm
  37. ↑ http://www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Awards/Hall_Of_Fame/
  38. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 130
  39. ↑ http://www.emusic.com/lists/showlist.html?lid=702162
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/13207?q=billie+holiday&article_section=all&search=article&pos=1&_start=1#S13207.1
  41. ↑ http://www.billieholidaysongs.com/all_songs.htm#1944
  42. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Diana-Ross-Good-Morning-Heartache/release/2084769
  43. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 146
  44. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 147 - 149
  45. ↑ Nicholson, p. 155
  46. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/archive#/archive/read?id=DhoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=T20&query=billie+holiday+poll&date=1946-07-06
  47. ↑ Billie's blues: the Billie Holiday story, 1933-1959, Volume 1975, Part 3 By John Chilton
  48. ↑ Nicholson, p. 165 - 167
  49. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 168 - 169
  50. ↑ Autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" p. 172 - 173
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 51.2 Hamlin, Jesse (September 18, 2006). "Billie Holiday's Bio, 'Lady Sings the Blues,' May be Full of lies, But It Gets at Jazz Great's Core". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/18/DDG2VL68691.DTL. Retrieved July 31, 2010. 
  52. ↑ Billie Holiday — a booklet published by New York Jazz Museum in 1970
  53. ↑ http://www.tv.com/touched-by-an-angel/god-bless-the-child/episode/3606/summary.html
  54. ↑ http://tsort.info/music/m8ravs.htm
  55. ↑ Grammy Hall of Fame Database
  56. ↑ Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame 2004
  57. ↑ The ASCP Jazz Wall of Fame list

References

External links