Track Listing

1. Miss Brown to You - Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson
2. What a Little Moonlight Can Do - Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson
3. I Cried for You - Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson
4. Billie's Blues
5. Sailboat in the Moonlight
6. I Can't Get Started - Count Basie Orchestra, Billie Holiday
7. When a Woman Loves a Man
8. Some Other Spring
9. Solitude
10. God Bless the Child
11. Gloomy Sunday
12. Very Thought of You
13. Body and Soul - Billie Holiday

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10539 in Music
• Released on: 1998-11-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.com essential recording
Curiously, yet not surprisingly given the enormity of his sway, Billie Holiday's greatest vocal influence was "Pops"--Louis Armstrong, whose trumpet was his first signature (though he's often credited with being the first great jazz singer as well). One hears Armstrong in Holiday's sense of phrasing, timing, and the warmth she invests in a lyric. This package, containing such touchstone Holiday renderings as "I Cried for You," "Body and Soul," and "When a Woman Loves a Man" (poetic, given the fact that Billie was notoriously unlucky at love), also boasts her signature song, "God Bless the Child." Her accompanists are a hall-of-fame lot, including trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Buck Clayton; saxmen Lester Young (with whom she had a close relationship), Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, and Harry Carney; drummers Cozy Cole and Jo Jones; bassists John Kirby and Walter Page; and her frequent pianist, Teddy Wilson. --Willard Jenkins

Customer Reviews

Classic and wonderful
I really enjoyed this particular selection of Holiday's work. I looked everywhere for a compiliation CD that included "The Very Thought of You" (my copy of Lady's Decca Days didn't) and this one had it, along with other songs that weren't included on Decca Days either. Short of purchasing a wildy expensive boxed set of her work, I would reccomend this for anyone even remotely interested in the talent of Billie Holiday: the sound quality is excellent and the choice of songs is great, as well. Even the liner notes are an welcome addition---they include an informative bio about Billie as well as her rise to fame and anecdotes from some of the people she worked with.
As a side note, the only song I would have added to this collection is "Strange Fruit," one of the most haunting and politically-charged Holiday songs to date. If you get a chance to hear that, you'll be doing yourself a favor. Otherwise, this album is a great choice.

Needs More Fast "Swingers"
To many, Billie Holiday is tragically linked to drugs and alcohol, including the rapid decline of her unique voice after the 1940s. But as this set demonstrates, her voice was still in peak form in the 1930s and early 40s, the eras from which this set culls the songs. For this greatest hits, Sony-Columbia picks mostly slow tempo songs despite the fact that Billie swings fast tempo songs aplenty back then. The only fast one here is "What A Little Moonlight Can Do", otherwise the rest are ballads and slow burners. I wish Columbia had included more "swingers" in their remastered hits package. No doubt this will NOT be the last Billie Holiday reissue or hits compilation we'll see from Sony-Columbia. There will be more to come---just put more "fast ones" on the next one. For that shortcoming, I rate this package 4 stars instead of 5. But the singing here is still inspiring and enjoyable as any Lady Day CD from the 1930s.

Oh What a Little Billie Can Do.....
This review refers to the Audio Cassette of "Billie Holiday..Greatest Hits"(Columbia).....

So there I was on a hot and smoggy afternoon, on an L.A. Freeway stuck in rush hour traffic, with plenty of time to choose just the right music to spend the two hours it would take to go the ten miles home. Rummaging through my tapes and rejecting most, there she was..my recently purchased Billie Holiday tape. I popped it in and spent the most delightful time in my car with this music.

Billie's soulful,soothing and uniquely recognizable vocals, accompianied by such greats as The Teddy Wilson Orchestra, Count Basie and His Orchestra, Lester Young on Sax, Buck Clayton on Trumpet, Freddie Green on Guitar,Jo Jones on Drums, and many more wonderful artists,had me smiling and took me away to another time and place. I loved it so much I listened to it several times on the drive.

The album is a great mix of Blues, Standards and songs that just say "Billie!", and You may just want to sing along.This wonderful treat includes "A Sailboat in the Moonlight"(Lombardo/Loeb)), "I Can't Get Started"(Gershwin/Duke),"Solitde"(Ellington/Mills/Delange),"God Bless The Child"(Holiday/Herzog),my personal favorite, "What a Little Moonlight Can Do"(Woods), the oh so marvelous "The Very Thought of You"(Noble), and of course "Billie's Blues(I Love My Man"). There are thirteen intoxicating tracks in all(see buying info for complete list), that will have you humming them for days after.

It's a very good recording of these old songs, although a little low and does have to be turned up a few notches in volume. You'll be under the infulence of Billie from the minute you start listening...and..you won't care about that guy who just cut you off!!!!

A great addition to your Billie Holiday collection or a great way to get to know her! But watch out! You may get hooked!

Enjoy...Laurie

also recommended:
Love Songs
Dust My Broom
Nothing But the Best -- USPS Special Edition (includes first day cover of Sinatra stamp and rare bonus track)