Billie Holiday – Fine and Mellow

Like with Bessie Smith, I keep coming back to this voice. In this one, she reminds me a little of Smith. Holiday’s voice could be aggressive or laid back, but always full of meaning and soul. 

Holiday could truly call this song her own from top to bottom. She wrote it herself in 1939, at a time when much of her material came from professional songwriters and Tin Pan Alley publishers. This was the B-Side to Strange Fruit, but this song went on to become known as well. 

This song was different because it came directly from her own life, built around a blues structure that fit her voice. Holiday had lived through enough difficult relationships by then that the words carried more weight than a typical mistreated song.

Though it was not one of her biggest commercial hits, it stayed with Holiday throughout her career. She returned to it often in live performances because it gave her room to interpret the story differently as she aged. By the 1950s, her voice had changed, rougher and more worn, but that only added credence to the song.

The most famous later version came in 1957 when Holiday appeared on the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz. Surrounded by an all-star lineup that included Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, and Lester Young, Holiday delivered a performance that many consider one of the most moving moments in television music history.

She took this simple blues song and made it feel like a private memory shared with the public.

Here is Billie singing Fine and Mellow in 1957 on The Sound Of Jazz. The entire show is up there if you want to watch it. It is incredible. She would pass away only two years after this was recorded. This is my go-to version of this song. 

Fine and Mellow

My man don’t love meTreats me oh so meanMy man he don’t love meTreats me awfullyHe’s the lowest manThat I’ve ever see

He wears high trimmed pantsStripes are really yellowHe wears high trimmed pantsStripes are really yellowBut when he starts in to love meHe’s so fine and mellow

Love will make you drink and gambleMake you stay out all night longLove will make you drink and gambleMake you stay out all night longLove will make you do thingsThat you know is wrong

But if you treat me right babyI’ll stay home everydayIf you treat me right babyI’ll stay home everydayBut you’re so mean to me babyI know you’re gonna drive me away

Love is just like the faucetIt turns off and onLove is like the faucetIt turns off and onSometimes when you think it’s on babyIt has turned off and gone

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

31 thoughts on “Billie Holiday – Fine and Mellow”

  1. Yes indeed that live performance is incredible. From what I understand the song is taken from her own life experiences. So your remark about her changing her delivery overtime seems to coincide with that.

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  2. Pingback: Billie Holiday – Fine and Mellow – MobsterTiger

  5. So many people rightfully praised Billie for her work. Tony Bennett was still talking about her in his later concerts.

    That live performance is magic. I’m not saying the original recording wasn’t something, because it was. However the live version takes it to an entirely new level.

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  7. She had a tremendous voice and ‘presence’. I didn’t know the song but it’s sounding good. It was daring of CBS to give her a TV special back in that era- good on ’em.

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      1. That producer knew what he was doing. When you have some of the best players in the world coming together you gotta know there’s going to be shit happening. Get the best sound guy you can. enough cameras to catch it and then dont mess it up. They did good. They caught the essence of the music and those people.

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      3. They all knew each other had had played sessions, lots of after hours jams. Ben, Coleman and Lester were the big 3 tenors (lots of other also). Then you throw in Mulligan on baritone. Something about the sax fit this cut.

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      5. Funny how our listening evolves. I was big on Webster, Hawkins, Coltrane and the Rollins sound. Big, heavy hard blowers but Lester slowly grabbed me. More subtle but beautiful. It’s his voice, personality coming through. It matches Billie perfectly.

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  11. Unreal that Billie’s time was so long ago. Her voice is as fresh and alive today as it was back then. Agreed on the backup band she had on the first video. Could there be a sweeter combo?

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