Track Listing: CD1: Strange Fruit Yesterdays Fine and Mellow I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues How Am I to Know My Old Flame I'll Get By I Cover the Waterfront I'll Be Seeing You I'm Yours Embraceable You As Time Goes By He's Funny That Way Lover Come Back to Me Billie's Blues On the Sunny Side of the Street. While the ballads are the gems of the Decca years, Holiday also affectionately and convincingly revisited blues from Bessie Smith's book and did two sparkling duets with: 'You Can't Lose a Broken Heart' and the sassy 'My Sweet Hunk O'Trash.' This collection is essential to a full appreciation of the artistry of Billie Holiday. But on these recordings the artistry is still a beacon illuminating the pity and pathos in such songs as 'Lover Man,' 'Don't Explain,' 'Good Morning Heartache,' 'No Good Man' and the strangely exhilarating version of the gloom and doom 'Deep Song,' a lesser-known rarity worth seeking out. On the Decca recordings (late 1944-early 1950), we hear Holiday perfecting the art of seamless narrative phrasing and musical panache on ballads, but also hints of the deterioration of her voice (from booze, drugs and cigarettes) that make her sound so scarily vulnerable on her later '50s recordings of some of the same songs. This combination will not only improve your AAJ experience, it will allow us to continue to rigorously build on the great work we first started in 1995.
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