billie holiday / albums

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The Commodore Master Takes,Billie Holiday

- The Commodore Master Takes
- - 56,070 plays
  - 24 favs
  - 19 shares
Billie Holiday
Released 2000

Billie's Blues
03:10
873 plays

My Old Flame
03:02
794 plays

I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)
02:58
793 plays

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songs

- 1
- Strange Fruit
- 03:10
- 6,970 plays

- 2
- Yesterdays
- 03:24
- 1,042 plays

- 3
- Fine And Mellow
- 03:15
- 1,020 plays

- 4
- I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues
- 02:56
- 728 plays

- 5
- How Am I To Know?
- 02:44
- 697 plays

- 6
- My Old Flame
- 03:02
- 794 plays

- 7
- I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)
- 02:58
- 793 plays

- 8
- I Cover The Waterfront
- 03:34
- 716 plays

- 9
- I'll Be Seeing You
- 03:30
- 34,416 plays

- 10
- I'm Yours
- 03:16
- 2,266 plays

- 11
- Embraceable You
- 03:15
- 1,842 plays

- 12
- As Time Goes By
- 03:16
- 1,270 plays

- 13
- He's Funny That Way
- 03:15
- 736 plays

- 14
- Lover, Come Back To Me
- 03:20
- 689 plays

- 15
- Billie's Blues
- 03:10
- 873 plays

- 16
- On The Sunny Side Of The Street
- 03:05
- 1,218 plays

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album review

If you're a completist who insists on having everything that Billie Holiday recorded, The Complete Commodore Recordings is required listening. But for the more casual listener, it's best to pass on that two-CD set and stick with The Commodore Master Takes. While The Complete Commodore Recordings contains all of the alternate takes that Holiday recorded for Commodore in 1939 and 1944, this collection only concerns itself with the master takes (which total 16). Holiday never singed an exclusive contract with Commodore -- she only freelanced for the label, and the ultra-influential jazz singer spent a lot more time recording for Columbia in the 1930s and early 1940s, and for Decca from 1944-1950. But her Commodore output was first-rate, and Lady Day excels whether she's joined by trumpeter Frankie Newton's octet at a 1939 session or by pianist Eddie Heywood's orchestra at three sessions in 1944. The CD gets off to an impressive start with the controversial "Strange Fruit," a bone-chilling account of lynching in the Deep South that ended up being released on Commodore because Columbia was afraid to touch it. Holiday is also quite expressive on performances that range from "Fine and Mellow," "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues" and "Yesterdays" in 1939 to "My Old Flame," "Billie's Blues," "I'll Be Seeing You," and "He's Funny That Way" in 1944. For those with even a casual interest in Holiday's legacy, this superb CD is essential listening. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide