Lady Sings the Blues (song)

"Lady Sings the Blues" is a song written by jazz singer Billie Holiday, and jazz pianist Herbie Nichols.

It is the title song to her 1956 album, released on Clef/Verve Records (MGC 721/Verve MV 2047).

The song was also chosen to be the title of the 1956 autobiography by Holiday and author William Dufty, and the 1972 movie starring Diana Ross as Holiday.

Recording session

Studio session #75 New York, June 6, 1956, Tony Scott & His Orchestra (Verve), with Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Tony Scott on clarinet, Paul Quinichette on tenor saxophone, Wynton Kelly on piano, Kenny Burrell on guitar, Aaron Bell on bass, Lenny McBrowne on drums, and Billie Holiday on vocals.

Notable cover versions

References

External links

Lady Sings the Blues

Lady Sings the Blues may refer to:

Lady Sings the Blues (Billie Holiday album)

Lady Sings the Blues is an album by American jazz vocalist Billie Holiday. It was Holiday's last album released on Clef Records; the following year, the label would be absorbed by Verve Records. Lady Sings the Blues was taken from sessions taped during 1954 and 1956. It was released simultaneously with her ghostwritten autobiography of the same name.

Content

Taken from sessions taped during 1954–56, Lady Sings the Blues features Holiday backed by tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette, trumpeter Charlie Shavers, pianist Wynton Kelly, and guitarist Kenny Burrell. Though Holiday's voice had arguably deteriorated by the 1950s, the album is well regarded – in a 1956 review, Down Beat awarded the album 5 out of 5 stars, and had this to say about the co-current book:

On November 10, 1956, Holiday appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall in front of a sold out crowd. The show was planned to commemorate the edition of her autobiography, some paragraphs being read during the performance.

Lady Sings the Blues (book)

Lady Sings the Blues (1956) is an autobiography by jazz singer Billie Holiday, which was co-authored by William Dufty. The book formed the basis of the 1972 film Lady Sings the Blues starring Diana Ross.

Overview

The life story of jazz singer Billie Holiday told in her own words. Holiday writes candidly of sexual abuse, confinement to institutions, heroin addiction, and the struggles of being African American before the rise of the Civil Rights movement.

According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Dufty's aim was "to let Holiday tell her story her way. Fact checking wasn't his concern." Since its publication, the book has been criticized for factual inaccuracies.

In his introduction to the 2006 edition of Lady Sings the Blues, music biographer David Ritz writes: "(Holiday's) voice, no matter how the Dufty/Holiday interviewing process went, is as real as rain." Despite some factual inaccuracies, according to Ritz, "in the mythopoetic sense, Holiday's memoir is as true and poignant as any tune she ever sang. If her music was autobiographically true, her autobiography is musically true."