Today is the 100th birthday anniversary Billie Holiday

Herman Leonard, Billie Holiday, NYC, 1949, (2007.90.65)

(c) Herman Leonard Photography, LLC

Today is the 100th birthday anniversary of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday was born on April 7, 1915 and died on July 17, 1959 in New York City.

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A week long centennial broadcast can be heard on WKCR, here.
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From “Forget If You Can” (Len Joy, Kay Upham, Jack Manus) recorded by Billie Holiday on May 11, 1938:

Don’t you remember
All the silly things we used to do
The way we laughed
When we were photographed
As Handsome Hal and his tintype gal

The Teddy Wilson led recordings, starting in July 1935, continuing with the recordings made under Billie Holiday’s leadership, and, starting in 1937, all of the recordings with Lester Young, (including songs like “Twenty-Four Hours a Day,” “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo,” “Life Begins When You’re in Love,” “You Let Me Down,” “These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You),” “I Cried for You,” “I Wished on the Moon,” “It’s Like Reaching for the Moon,” “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” “No Regrets,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” “Mean to Me,” “Me, Myself and I,” etc.) are about as perfect as music recordings can be…

Lyrics to three songs written by Billie Holiday:

“Don’t Explain” (1944)

Hush now, don’t explain
Just say you’ll remain
I’m glad you’re back, don’t explain

Quiet, don’t explain
What is there to gain
Skip that lipstick
Don’t explain

You know that I love you
And that love endures
All my thoughts are of you
For I’m so completely yours

Cry to hear folks chatter
And I know you cheat
Right or wrong, don’t matter
When you’re with me, sweet

Hush now, don’t explain
You’re my joy and pain
My life’s yours love
Don’t explain

“Stormy Blues” (1954)

I’ve been down so long
That down don’t worry me

I’ve been down so long
That down don’t worry me

I just sit and wonder
Where can my good man be
When it rains in here
It’s storming on the sea
When it rains in here
It’s storming on the sea

Every time I come here
Everything happens to me
I lose my man
I lose my head
I lose my money
Feel like I’m almost dead
I need you honey
Need you bad as can be

I’ve been down so long
That down don’t worry me

“Lady Sings the Blues” (1956)

Lady sings the blues
She’s got them bad
She feels so sad
Wants the world to know
Just what the blues is all about

Lady sings the blues
She tells her side
nothing to hide
Now the world will now
Just what the blues is all about

The blues ain’t nothing but a pain in your heart
when you get a bad start
When you and your man have to part
I ain’t gonna just sit around and cry
And now I won’t die
Because I love him

Lady sings the blues
she’s got ‘em bad
She feels so sad
The world will know
She’s never gonna sing them no more

No more