Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday

Album Description:
Lady Day: The Best Of Billie Holiday is an ideal introduction to the Voice of Jazz in all its enduring glory. This incomparable collection draws on the 10-CD boxed set Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia (1933-1944) (CXK 85470), representing not only her finest work, but American jazz and pop singing at its zenith. Accompanied sublimely by a Who's Who of the Swing Era (including her soulmate Lester Young, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Buck Clayton, Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Jo Jones, and pianist-arranger Teddy Wilson, who was often at the helm when Holiday entered the studio), Billie Holiday masterfully renders a host of mostly-classic pop tunes. Fans are drawn to her musical triumphs and personal tragedies. She is a mysterious icon in the same vein as Miles Davis. Columbia possesses the first and finest recordings of her entire career! This material has never sounded clearer and more intimate!

Disc 1:

1. What a Little Moonlight Can Do
2. These Foolish Things
3. I Cried for You
4. Summertime
5. Billie's Blues
6. If You Were Mine
7. Fine Romance
8. Easy to Love
9. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
10. I Must Have That Man!
11. Me, Myself and I
12. They Can't Take That Away from Me
13. Easy Living
14. Sailboat in the Moonlight
15. Trav'lin' All Alone
16. When a Woman Loves a Man
17. You Go to My Head
18. My Man

Disc 2:

1. I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me
2. Very Thought of You
3. I Can't Get Started
4. Long Gone Blues
5. Sugar
6. Some Other Spring
7. Them There Eyes
8. Man I Love
9. Body and Soul
10. Swing, Brother, Swing
11. Night and Day
12. Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)
13. God Bless the Child
14. Solitude
15. I Cover the Waterfront
16. Gloomy Sunday
17. Until the Real Thing Comes Along
18. All of Me

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Customer Reviews

Rating: - Good compilation
All I miss is the energy on the live recordings.

The studio classics are a little lame.
Rating: - Simply the Best
I was first mesmerized by Lady Day's voice and style when I heard "The Very Thought of You" in a movie, and have been under her spell ever since. Her feelings and emotion flow through every lyric and have influenced countless musicians the world around. You can read the reflections by those artists who were most moved and inspired by her by checking out the jewel case insert. Overall, this compilation is beautiful and moving, a timeless piece to add to your album collection.
Rating: - Terrible Remastering, Buy The Quintessential
Just because a recording is remastered, that doesn't mean it's been remastered well. Columbia's remastering of these Billie Holiday recording is a case in point. If you listen to Columbia's Quintessential Billie Holiday series that came out in 1989, you'll notice that those albums (with the same recordings that are on this CD) had infinitely better sound.

Simply put, these remastered versions sound awful. There's a constant, loud hissing in the background of every track that should ... Read More
Rating: - the best of billie holiday
This is not a good demonstration of Billie Holliday. First, too many songs squeezed into each side. Sound not good. For me, it was a waste of money. One of her best is the Billie Holiday-Lester Young CD " a musical romance"
Rating: - Lady Day
Excellent CD. A good purchase if you do not want to buy the box set. Has the essentials.