Artist	Song
Billie Holiday	Lady Sings the Blues (1956 Studio)
from Lady Sings the Blues - The Billie Holiday Story, Vol. 4 (1995)
Billie Holiday	God Bless the Child
from Lady Day - The Best of Billie Holiday (2001)
Billie Holiday	Fine and Mellow
from The Commodore Master Takes (1939-44) (2000)
Billie Holiday	Don't Explain (Second Version)
from The Complete Decca Recordings (1991)
Billie Holiday	Billie's Blues
from Lady Day - The Best of Billie Holiday (2001)
Billie Holiday	Stormy Blues
from Recital By Billie Holiday - The Billie Holiday Verve Story, Vol. 3 (1994)
Billie Holiday	Long Gone Blues
from Lady Day - The Best of Billie Holiday (2001)
Billie Holiday	Somebody's on My Mind
from The Complete Decca Recordings (1992)
Billie Holiday	Now or Never
from The Complete Decca Recordings (1992)

Comment:

You already know that Billie was her era's greatest singer; but what you might not know is that she was also one of her era's greatest songwriters. In the bittersweet melancholy of what became her signature tune, "Lady Sings the Blues," she offhandedly tosses out a couplet that defines her entire career as an artist: "She tells her side/nothing to hide." But when the shoe's on the other foot, and a lover begs for a second chance in "Don't Explain," she's content not to prod too deeply into his sleeping-dog secrets. And finally, in the Biblical parable spun out as a pop blues, "God Bless the Child," she shines a divine, profane light on her craving to escape the soul-crushing poverty of her youth. Lady Day never sounded better than when she was singing her own life, transcribed through her own pen, into the pages of the Great American Songbook.

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