Lady In Satin: The Centennial Edition Billie Holiday

• 1 I'm A Fool to Want You 03:24
• 2 For Heaven's Sake 03:26
• 3 You Don't Know What Love Is 03:48
• 4 I Get Along Without You Very Well 02:59
• 5 For All We Know 02:52
• 6 Violets for Your Furs 03:24
• 7 You've Changed 03:17
• 8 It's Easy to Remember 04:01
• 9 But Beautiful 04:29
• 10 Glad to Be Unhappy 04:07
• 11 I'll Be Around 03:23
• 12 The End of a Love Affair (Stereo master-take 4 with vocal overdub take 8) 04:46
• 13 I'm A Fool to Want You (Mono Master-take 3) 03:24
• 14 The End of a Love Affair (Mono master-take 4 with vocal overdub take 8) 04:51
• 15 Fine and Mellow 06:20
• 16 You Don't Know What Love Is (Takes 1-3) 05:20
• 17 I'll Be Around (Takes 1 & 2) 03:55
• 18 I'll Be Around (Takes 3 & 4) 06:28
• 19 For Heaven's Sake (Take 1) 03:55
• 20 But Beautiful (Take 1) 01:01
• 21 For All We Know (Take 1) 03:18
• 22 For All We Know (Take 2) 03:09
• 23 For All We Know (Takes 3 & 4) 03:42
• 24 It's Easy to Remember (Takes 1 & 2) 07:31
• 25 It's Easy to Remember (Takes 3-7) 04:23
• 26 I'm a Fool to Want You (Take 1) 03:21
• 27 I'm a Fool to Want You (Takes 2 & 3) 03:27
• 28 The End of a Love Affair (Takes 1-4) 08:09
• 29 The End of a Love Affair (Composite Takes 1-4) 05:14
• 30 The End of a Love Affair (Composite Takes 5-7) 12:11
• 31 Glad to Be Unhappy (Takes 1 & 2) 02:06
• 32 Glad to Be Unhappy (Take 3) 04:16
• 33 Glad to Be Unhappy (Tales 4-7) 04:01
• 34 You've Changed (Takes 1-3) 03:14
• 35 I Get Along Without You Very Well (Takes 1 & 2) 00:54
• 36 I Get Along Without You Very Well (Takes 3 & 4) 03:58
• 37 I Get Along Without You Very Well (Take 5) 03:12
• 38 Violets for Your Furs (Takes 1-3) 02:55
• 39 Violets for Your Furs (Takes 4 & 5) 04:15
• 40 Violets for Your Furs (Take 6) 03:26
• Total Runtime 02:45:52

Info for Lady In Satin: The Centennial Edition

Lady in Satin was released in 1958 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 1157 in mono and CS 8048 in stereo. It is the penultimate album completed by the singer and released in her lifetime (her final album, Billie Holiday, being recorded in March 1959 and released just after her death).

The song material for Lady in Satin derived from the usual sources for Holiday in her three decade career, that of the Great American Songbook of classic pop. Unlike the bulk of Holiday’s recordings, rather than in the setting of a jazz combo Holiday returns to the backdrop of full orchestral arrangements as done during her Decca years, this time in the contemporary vein of Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald on her Songbooks series. The album consists of songs Holiday had never recorded before.

Reaction to the album has been mixed. Holiday’s voice had lost much of its upper range in her 40s, although she still retained her rhythmic phrasing. The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album a three-star rating of a possible four stars, but expressed a basic reservation about the album, describing it as “a voyeuristic look at a beaten woman.”

However, trumpeter Buck Clayton preferred the work of the later Holiday to that of the younger woman that he had often worked with in the 1930s. Arranger Ray Ellis 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.

Lady in Satin was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.

Billie Holiday
was a true artist of her day and rose as a social phenomenon in the 1950s. Her soulful, unique singing voice and her ability to boldly turn any material that she confronted into her own music made her a superstar of her time. Today, Holiday is remembered for her masterpieces, creativity and vivacity, as many of Holiday’s songs are as well known today as they were decades ago. Holiday’s poignant voice is still considered to be one of the greatest jazz voices of all time.

Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan) grew up in jazz talent-rich Baltimore in the 1920s. As a young teenager, Holiday served the beginning part of her so-called “apprenticeship” by singing along with records by Bessie Smith or Louis Armstrong in after-hours jazz clubs. When Holiday’s mother, Sadie Fagan, moved to New York in search of a better job, Billie eventually went with her. She made her true singing debut in obscure Harlem nightclubs and borrowed her professional name – Billie Holiday – from screen star Billie Dove. Although she never underwent any technical training and never even so much as learned how to read music, Holiday quickly became an active participant in what was then one of the most vibrant jazz scenes in the country. She would move from one club to another, working for tips. She would sometimes sing with the accompaniment of a house piano player while other times she would work as part of a group of performers.

At the age of 18 and after gaining more experience than most adult musicians can claim, Holiday was spotted by John Hammond and cut her first record as part of a studio group led by Benny Goodman, who was then just on the verge of public prominence. In 1935 Holiday’s career got a big push when she recorded four sides that went on to become hits, including “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and “Miss Brown to You.” This landed her a recording contract of her own, and then, until 1942, she recorded a number of master tracks that would ultimately become an important building block of early American jazz music.

Holiday began working with Lester Young in 1936, who pegged her with her now-famous nickname of “Lady Day.” When Holiday joined Count Basie in 1937 and then Artie Shaw in 1938, she became one of the very first black women to work with a white orchestra, an impressive accomplishment of her time.

In the 1930s, when Holiday was working with Columbia Records, she was first introduced to the poem “Strange Fruit,” an emotional piece about the lynching of a black man. Though Columbia would not allow her to record the piece due to subject matter, Holiday went on to record the song with an alternate label, Commodore, and the song eventually became one of Holiday’s classics. It was “Strange Fruit” that eventually prompted Lady Day to continue more of her signature, moving ballads.

Holiday recorded about 100 new recordings on another label, Verve, from 1952 to 1959. Her voice became more rugged and vulnerable on these tracks than earlier in her career. During this period, she toured Europe, and made her final studio recordings for the MGM label in March of 1959.

Despite her lack of technical training, Holiday’s unique diction, inimitable phrasing and acute dramatic intensity made her the outstanding jazz singer of her day. White gardenias, worn in her hair, became her trademark. “Singing songs like the ‘The Man I Love’ or ‘Porgy’ is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck,” she wrote in her autobiography. “I’ve lived songs like that.”

Billie Holiday, a musical legend still popular today, died an untimely death at the age of 44. Her emotive voice, innovative techniques and touching songs will forever be remembered and enjoyed.

This album contains no booklet.