Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday “changed the art of American pop vocals forever.” She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably “God Bless the Child”, “Don’t Explain”, “Fine and Mellow”, and “Lady Sings the Blues”. See for more.
Stormy Weather
All of me
Love Me or Leave Me (Okeh Records 1941)
Strange Fruit
Blue Moon
The Way You Look Tonight
Sophisticated Lady
All or nothing at all
You’d Better Go Now
Sugar
Ain’t Misbehavin