Billie Holiday (album)

Billie Holiday
Studio album by Billie Holiday
Released 1954
Recorded April 1, 1952 & April 14, 1954
Genre Vocal jazz
Length 24:53
Label Clef Records (Verve Records)
Producer Norman Granz
Billie Holiday chronology

An Evening with Billie Holiday
(1953)		 Billie Holiday
(1954)		 Billie Holiday at JATP
(1954)

Billie Holiday is an album by jazz singer Billie Holiday, released on Clef Records in 1954, despite the fact that her last album also had the same name prior to it being changed to Last Recordings instead. The recordings took place in 1952 and 1954. Holiday never entered the recording studio in 1953.

Content

In a 1954 review, Down Beat magazine praises the album, saying:

"The set is an experience in mounting pleasure that can do anything but increase still further no matter how often the LP is replayed. As for comparing it with earlier Teddy Wilson-Billie sessions, what's the point? Count your blessings in having both. Speaking of time, Billie's beat and variations thereon never cease to be among the seven wonders of jazz."

Two recordings, "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and "I Cried for You" were also recorded by Holiday in the 1930s with Teddy Wilson's band, at the beginning of her career.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic
Down Beat (1954 Review)

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Love for Sale" (Cole Porter) – 2:56
  2. "Moonglow" (Eddie DeLange, Will Hudson, Irving Mills) – 2:58
  3. "Everything I Have Is Yours" (Harold Adamson, Burton Lane) – 3:43
  4. "If the Moon Turns Green" (George Cates, Bernie Hanighen) – 2:46

Side two

  1. "Autumn in New York" (Vernon Duke) – 3:43
  2. "How Deep Is the Ocean?" (Irving Berlin) – 3:00
  3. "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" (Harry M. Woods) – 3:14
  4. "I Cried for You" (Gus Arnheim, Arthur Freed, Abe Lyman) – 2:27

Personnel

April 1, 1952 Recordings (Tracks 1–5)

April 14, 1954 Recordings (Tracks 6–8)