lady in satin

Billie Holiday poured her ravaged soul into the lushly orchestrated tortured torch songs of this devastating document of her decline.  She worked with the Ray Ellis Orchestra to record 'Lady in Satin' for Columbia Records.  The sessions featured songs that she had not recorded before; and took place late in the evenings, as that was the time that she functioned best.  

A.B. Spellman from the National Endowment for the Arts reveals:    "She chose the repertoire on the basis of the lyrics. She wanted to do songs she had not done before and so she and Ray Ellis, the arranger on this record, and her lawyer, went down to the Colony Record Store and thumbed through the sheet music. And Billie read the lyrics — she never did learn to read music — and picked out the lyrics she enjoyed the most, the ones she thought she could do the best job with. And that's how the record was chosen."

The recordings included:  concertmaster George Ockner on violin; David Soyer on cello; Janet Putnam on harp; and Danny Bank, Phil Bodner, and Romeo Penque on flute; as well as Mel Davis on trumpet; J.J. Johnson on trombone; Urbie Green and Tom Mitchell on trombone; Mal Waldron on piano; Barry Galbraith on guitar; Milt Hinton on bass; Osie Johnson on drums; and Elise Bretton and Miriam Workman on backing vocals.  

Arranger and conductor Ellis would later recall:    "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.”

The years of alcohol and drug abuse had taken their toll on her voice; but "Our Lady of Perpetual Suffering" somehow manages to inhabit these songs, bringing her life experience into them and giving them greater depth with her aching vulnerability and knowing phrasing.  








http://www.billieholiday.com/









"The End of a Love Affair" 







'Lady in Satin'
full album:



LP Side One

"I'm a Fool to Want You" (Frank Sinatra, Joel Herron, Jack Wolf)  – 3:23
"For Heaven's Sake" (Elise Bretton, Sherman Edwards, Donald Meyer)  – 3:26
"You Don't Know What Love Is" (Gene DePaul, Don Raye)  – 3:48
"I Get Along Without You Very Well" (Hoagy Carmichael)  – 2:59
"For All We Know" (J. Fred Coots, Sam M. Lewis)  – 2:53
"Violets for Your Furs" (Tom Adair, Matt Dennis)  – 3:24

LP Side Two

"You've Changed" (Bill Carey, Carl T. Fischer)  – 3:17
"It's Easy to Remember" (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers)  – 4:01
"But Beautiful" (w. Johnny Burke, m. Jimmy Van Heusen)  – 4:29
"Glad to Be Unhappy" (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers)  – 4:07
"I'll Be Around" (Alec Wilder)  – 3:23

"The End of a Love Affair" (Edward Redding)  – 4:46 

they can't take that away from me

 

George and Ira Gershwin made the move along the bumpy road to love and into movie soundtracks to come up with the bittersweet romantic declarations of this enduring foxtrot.  After the commercial failure of 'Porgy and Bess', the duo was commissioned to write the music for the film 'Shall We Dance', starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  George did the score and Ira wrote the lyrics. 'They Can't Take That Away from Me' drew inspiration from 'The Song is Ended (but the Melody Lingers On)' by Irving Berlin.  In the film, Astaire sings the song to Rogers as they take the ferry from New Jersey to Manhattan.  George felt the song appeared too briefly in the movie and was concerned that it wouldn't get enough exposure to be a hit.  'They Can't Take That Away from Me' actually charted four times that year alone, with Fred Astaire's version with Johnny Green and His Orchestra spending ten weeks at number one.  Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra took it to number six, Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra had a version with Jack Leonard singing that hit number eleven, and Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra made it to number twelve with their rendition. George Gershwin died just two months after the release of 'Shall We Dance'; so he didn't live to see the success he so craved.   He was posthumously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1937 Oscars; his only Oscar nomination.

Our romance won't end on a sorrowful note,
Though by tomorrow you're gone;
The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote,
The melody lingers on.
They may take you from me, I'll miss your fond caress.
But though they take you from me, I'll still possess.

The way you wear your hat
The way you sip your tea
The memory of all that
No, no, they can't take that away from me

The way your smile just beams
The way you sing off key
The way you haunt my dreams
No, no, they can't take that away from me

We may never, never meet again
On the bumpy road to love
Still, I'll always, always keep the memory of

The way you hold your knife
The way we danced till three
The way you changed my life
No, no, they can't take that away from me
No, they can't take that away from me

We may never, never meet again
On the bumpy road to love
Still, I'll always, always keep the memory of

The way you hold your knife
The way we danced till three
The way you changed my life
No, no, they can't take that away from me
No, they can't take that away
Can't take that away
Can't take that away from me

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in 'Shall We Dance'

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Frank Sinatra

Billie Holiday

Charlie Parker

the way you look tonight

This captivating standard speaks to a cherished moment that glows with love. Jerome Kern wrote 'The Way You Look Tonight' with Dorothy Fields, who recalled: "The first time Jerry played that melody for me I went out and started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn't stop, it was so beautiful."

Fred Astaire introduced the song in the film 'Swingtime', singing it alone at the piano while Ginger Rogers was in the next room. She walks in to hear the end of the song. 'The Way You Look Tonight' spent six weeks at number one and won the 1936 Academy Award for Best Song.

Billie Holiday

Frank Sinatra

Ella Fitzgerald

Bryan Ferry

Olivia Newton-John

Michael Bublé

Some day, when I'm awfully low,

When the world is cold,

I will feel a glow just thinking of you...

And the way you look tonight.

Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm

And your cheeks so soft,

There is nothing for me but to love you,

And the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,

Tearing my fear apart...

And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,

It touches my foolish heart.

Lovely ... Never, ever change.

Keep that breathless charm.

Won't you please arrange it ?

'Cause I love you ... Just the way you look tonight.

Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm,

Just the way you look to-night.

pennies from heaven

This standard found a silver lining in the dark grey cloud of the Great Depression. The songwriting team of Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston composed ‘Pennies from Heaven’ in 1936. Johnson wrote the music and Burke did the lyrics. The song gave the title to two movies and has been featured in several other films. It has been recorded by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Dinah Washington, Clark Terry, Frances Langford, Arthur Tracy, Big Joe Turner, Dean Martin, The Skyliners, and many others.








Bing Crosby introduced the song in the film ‘Pennies From Heaven’, for which it received an Academy Award nomination. His version with with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra spent ten weeks at the top of the charts.


That same year Billie Holiday recorded a version with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra. Their version peaked at number three.



Louis Prima


Stan Getz with the Oscar Peterson Trio




Frank Sinatra and Count Basie





A long time ago
A million years BC
The best things in life
Were absolutely free.
But no one appreciated
A sky that was always blue.
And no one congratulated
A moon that was always new.
So it was planned that they would vanish now and them
And you must pay before you get them back again.
That's what storms were made for
And you shouldn't be afraid for
Every time it rains it rains
Pennies from heaven.
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven.
You'll find your fortune falling
All over town.
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down.
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers.
If you want the things you love
You must have showers.
So when you hear it thunder
Don't run under a tree.
There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me

there is no greater love

Seventy five years ago, Isham Jones and His Orchestra first released this jazz standard as the B-side to their single from a musical comedy. Jones composed the music and Marty Symes penned the lyrics. Side A was 'Life Begins When You’re in Love' from the film 'The Music Goes ‘Round'. 'There Is No Greater Love' became the last hit for Symes and Jones' last with the orchestra before Woody Herman took over as bandleader. It has been recorded many times over the years as a ballad as well as reinterpreted through swing and hard bop. Here are some notable renditions:

Billie Holiday (1947)

Dinah Washington – Dinah Jams (1954)

Miles Davis – Four & More (1964)

Sonny Rollins (1957)

Amy Winehouse (2004)

There is no greater love

Than what I feel for you

No greater love, no heart so true

There is no greater thrill

Than what you bring to me

No sweeter song

Than what you sing to me

Youre the sweetest thing

I have ever known

And to think that you are mine alone

There is no greater love

In all the world, its true

No greater love

Than what I feel for you

God bless the child

Lady Day got her own with this song born out of an argument with her mother. During a disagreement over money, Holiday told her mother, "God bless the child that's got his own." The anger over the incident led her to turn that line into a starting point for a song, which she worked out with Arthur Herzog in 1939. It was first recorded on May 9, 1941 in New York City under the OKeh label. 'God Bless the Child' has received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and has been named one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The song refers to the parable of the good and faithful servant from Matthew 25:29: For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.





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Them that's got shall get
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible says and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own

Yes, the strong gets more
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own

Money, you've got lots of friends
Crowding round the door
When you're gone, spending ends
They don't come no more
Rich relations give
Crust of bread and such
You can help yourself
But don't take too much
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own

Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own
He just worry 'bout nothin'
Cause he's got his own

life begins when you're in love / riffin' the scotch

Billie Holiday

(born Eleanora Fagan, April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959)

Lady Day, the most beloved and perhaps the greatest of jazz singers, drew her sad and sensual voice out of a life of pain. Born out of wedlock, little Eleanora had a troubled childhood that involved rape and prostitution. She began singing in clubs with saxophonist Kenneth Hollan in 1929. John Hammond discovered Holiday singing in a Harlem jazz club in and arranged for her first recording session in 1933. She recorded with Benny Goodman and then Teddy Wilson and was an immediate success. Though her voice had a limited range, her singing style was a huge influence on jazz. She would strip down songs to their most immediate emotions and manipulate the notes like jazz musicians. Her life ended early after long struggles with drugs, alcohol, and the men in her life. Her music lives on.

This little gem was recorded in 1936 with Teddy Willson and His Orchestra.

Life begins when you're in love

You have the whole world before you

When you've found the one

The only one to love and adore you

And when you learn the sigh of it

The long of it, the cry of it

Life begins when Cupid wins

And you're in love

She made her recording debut with 'Riffin' the Scotch' was her first hit with Benny Goodman in 1934 at the age of eighteen. It made it to number six on the pop charts.

I jumped out of the tryin pan

And right into the fire

When I lost me a cheatin man

And got a no-count liar

Swapped the old one for a new one

Now the new ones breakin my heart

I jumped out of the tryin pan

And right into the fire

Lord, right into the fire