Ken Burns Jazz

1	I Cried for You 3:12
2	What a Little Moonlight Can Do 2:59
3	Me, Myself and I 2:37
4	Without Your Love 2:54
5	Strange Fruit 3:13
6	Yesterdays 3:25
7	Some Other Spring 3:03
8	Solitude 3:15
9	God Bless the Child 2:55
10	Gloomy Sunday 3:11
11	I Cover the Waterfront 2:56
12	Trav'lin' Light 3:20
13	Lover Man 3:18
14	Don't Explain 3:24
15	Good Morning Heartache 3:08
16	Autumn in New York 3:43
17	Lady Sings the Blues 2:36
18	Fine and Mellow 9:09
19	You've Changed 3:16

Barnes & Noble

She sang in small taverns and private clubs, then in nightclubs, and finally on concert stages here and abroad. She sang of the hope of first love, she sang of the doom of lost love. She sang lyrics of celebration and of protest. No matter what she sang, or who backed her, no one who saw her perform, anywhere, ever forgot the experience. But no one today who hears Billie Holiday's records remains unmoved either. Beyond her musical influence - on every stylist, male or female, in every popular music genre of the last sixty years - is her undiminished impact on listeners. Whether she wants to caress, charm, comfort, or chide, Billie Holiday is present today in every room where her voice is heard. There was only one Lady, and her inimitable delivery can make all other singers seem superfluous.

All Music Guide

In conjunction with the release of Ken Burns' ten-part, 19-hour epic PBS documentary Jazz, Columbia issued 22 single-disc compilations devoted to jazz's most significant artists, as well as a five-disc historical summary. Since the individual compilations attempt to present balanced overviews of each artist's career, tracks from multiple labels have thankfully been licensed where appropriate. That's especially nice in the case of Billie Holiday, who recorded excellent and essential work for Columbia, Commodore, Decca, and Verve. Since her signature numbers were also spread out over those labels, and since Ken Burns Jazz includes pretty much all of her best-known songs, this makes an excellent introduction and an even better single-disc retrospective. No previous Holiday compilation gathers her original recordings of "Strange Fruit," "God Bless the Child," "Gloomy Sunday," "Lover Man," and "Lady Sings the Blues." While the collection isn't quite perfect -- some might miss "Tain't Nobody's Business if I Do" or her cover of Bessie Smith's "Them There Eyes" -- it is the only one to draw from Holiday's entire output, and as such, it's truly a best-of. Steve Huey