Tag: Billie Holiday

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

Billie Holiday – Moanin’ Low

I’m not a huge jazz aficionado, but sometimes it hits the spot. On Christian’s blog on Sundays, he usually features a jazz song on his Sunday Six. I often enjoy that more than the rock songs. I was looking through YouTube, and I instantly fell for this song. I picture a smoky black and white bar at 3am in the 40s or 50s, with Holiday giving her all for each song. 

I’ve heard other versions of this song, and some are slick and radio-friendly. Holiday’s is not slick, it’s real and as close to authentic as you can get. What I hear in this song is a weariness in Billie’s voice that feels older than the song itself. She doesn’t belt it, and she doesn’t show off. She just leans into the melody like someone savoring the last dance of the night. 

When I listen to her songs, I have a feeling like I’m eavesdropping on something intimate. Only a few singers have made me feel that way; she will always be special. In this song, she gave pain a voice, and it’s still being felt. 

This song was released in 1936 and peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. One stat that I found floored me. Out of the 38 singles she released, 35 of them were in the top 20. It was written by Ralph Rainger and Howard Dietz in 1929. popularized in the revue The Little Show, where it was sung by Libby Holman. It’s been covered 66 times by artists such as Dinah Shore to Hot Sugar Band & Nicolle Rochelle in 2020.

The live version below is near the end of her tragically short life, but like always, she gives her all. 

Moanin’ Low

Moanin’ low, my sweet man, I love him soThough he’s mean as can beHe’s the kind of man needs the kind of a woman like me

Gonna die if my sweet man should pass me byIf I die where’ll he beHe’s the kind of a man needs the kind of a woman like me

Don’t know any reason why he treats me so poorlyWhat have I gone and done?Makes me troubles double with his worriesWhen surely, I ain’t deserving of none

Moanin’ low, my sweet man is gonna goWhen he goes, oh LordyHe’s the kind of a man needs the kind of a woman like me

…