Billie Holiday...

[SamMarlowPI]

...i don't know what it is about her, but i'm listening to the New Orleans soundtrack and "Farewell To Storyville" came on and she started singin' and that's when the tears started flowin'...i don't know what it was, but i just got a smile on my face and tears just started fallin'...i think that is why she is my all time favorite...there are some people that can just do it for ya'...Billie's mine...

 

[Midnight Palace]

I love Billie! I have a 4-Disc set of her music

 

[PolkaDotMeggie]

It is her whole persona. I don't know how anyone could not admire her

 

[Mark from Plano]

I love Billy Holliday, but my wife doesn't like her much. She says that it's because the recording quality on most of those old albums is so bad, but honestly I think that you either get Billie or you don't. I listen in the car when I'm by myself.

I've recently started listening to a lot of Madeline Peyroux. I was in my shirtmaker's shop a few months ago and commented on him having a little Billy Holliday going for his customers and he corrected me that this was Madeline Peyroux. Anyway, he burned me one of her CD's and I've been hooked ever since. My wife actually likes MP too.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

I love Billy Holliday, but my wife doesn't like her much. She says that it's because the recording quality on most of those old albums is so bad, but honestly I think that you either get Billie or you don't.

i think the bad quality adds to the great feel of Billie...i actually would rather listen to all jazz with the poor recording from that era..i think it sounds better...all in my opinion of course...

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's not the original recordings that are poor -- it's the poor transfers of those recordings onto LP or CD or MP3 that are the problem. Listen to a clean, well-played 78rpm copy of one of Billie's late-30s sides with Teddy Wilson and you'll hear things you never knew were there. Even when recording the common pop tunes of the day, she could achieve something special.

 

[Feraud]

It's not the original recordings that are poor -- it's the poor transfers of those recordings onto LP or CD or MP3 that are the problem. Listen to a clean, well-played 78rpm copy of one of Billie's late-30s sides with Teddy Wilson and you'll hear things you never knew were there.

Is this because the original used in the transfer process is not a pristine copy?

 

[SamMarlowPI]

any song by Billie, i will listen to...

 

[haruspex]

She has such an amazing voice! You should check out Venetian Snares - Ongyilkos Vas?°rnap, It¬¥s a remix of Holiday¬¥s Gloomy Sunday. Gloomy Sunday has a pretty interesting history behind it as well if you search around online you can find quite a few stories about ¬®the suicide song¬®

 

[SamMarlowPI]

Strange Fruit too...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Is this because the original used in the transfer process is not a pristine copy?

Sometimes, and sometimes the problem is overenthusiastic use of fake stereo effects or processing to make the recording sound completely noiseless. This is especially a problem with MP3s.

It's true that some of Billie's recordings weren't of especially good sound quality to begin with, unfortunately -- the wartime sides made during the shellac shortage often had poor surfaces, something that's true of just about every record made by anyone during 1943-46. But if you find her prewar and 50s-era material sounding bad, the fault is a bad transfer, not the original recording.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

even if you buy albums from like Borders or someplace? i guess what i'm talking about is the cackling of the record, not necessarily bad quality...i don't know, all i know is i love it..

 

[Miss 1929]

I'll take Billie anyway I can get her. My all-time fave.
Also check out Mildred Bailey, Ethel Waters, Annette Hanshaw, and Valaida Snow.

 

[cowboy76]

She can melt ya like butta!

A voice so relaxing and sweet,....introduced my wife to her years ago,....we love her. From what I recall reading about her, and a special I watched which featured her story, her life was a very tragic one with all kinds of problems, you can hear it in her music

 

[Lady Day]

She got me through college.

So much so, that I had to take a brake from her (still on hiatus). I consider her the essence of my favorite genera of music, Trip Hop. What she sings are often happy words, but her voice has such a human heaviness to it, that you are thrown off by what she is singing. That deception, its delicious.

LD

 

[The Wolf]

I thought I had already posted

Here songs bring such emotion for me.
"Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)" makes me smile, "Strange Fruit" makes me cryand so many fill me with longing.
She was an incredible artist.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Brooksie]

...i don't know what it is about her, but i'm listening to the New Orleans soundtrack and "Farewell To Storyville" came on and she started singin' and that's when the tears started flowin'...i don't know what it was, but i just got a smile on my face and tears just started fallin'...i think that is why she is my all time favorite...there are some people that can just do it for ya'...Billie's mine...

She has this affect on me too. I remember an episode of Touched by an Angel about 8 years ago and it was about Billie Holiday and how the song Strange Fruit came about. It was a great episode all set in the 30's and such and it brought me to tears right then and there. From that day on I was a fan and I got the 4 Disc set also - which I do not have anymore For the most part the show Touched by an Angel was pretty corny but occasionaly they would come up with a good one. Has anyone else seen the particular episode I am talking about?

Brooksie