How Billie Sang

Billie Holiday began singing in Harlem jazz clubs at sixteen, and made her first recordings in 1933, at the age of eighteen.

By the time she returned to the studio in 1935, she was a revelation — neither the white balladeers who dominated the Hit Parade nor the black blues queens from whose ranks she emerged provided a precedent for her.

“I’ll Be Seeing You,” sung by Jo Stafford.

Sung by Billie Holiday.

“Falling in Love Again,” sung by Marlene Dietrich.

Sung by Billie Holiday.

“Gimme a Pigfoot,” as sung by Bessie Smith.

Sung by Billie Holiday.

“I Cover the Waterfront,” as sung by Frank Sinatra. Sinatra credited Holiday as “the greatest single musical influence on me,” but Holiday downplayed the compliment, and admitted only to having told Sinatra

that he didn’t phrase right. He should bend certain notes. He says, “Lady, you aren’t commercial.” But I told him certain note at the end he could bend, and later he said I inspired him. Bending those notes — that’s all I helped Franke with.

As sung by Billie Holiday.

The poet Larry Neal, who was the education director of the Black Panther Party, wrote about Billie in his poem “Malcom X — An Autobiography”:

But there is rhythm here. Its own special substance:
I hear Billie sing, no good man, and dig Prez [saxophonist Lester Young], wearing
the Zoot
suit of life, the pork-pie hat tilted at the correct angle,
through the Harlem smoke of beer and whiskey, I
understand the
mystery of the signifying monkey,
in a blue haze of inspiration, I reach to the totality
of Being.