Billie Holiday

At 44 years old, Billie Holiday has this physical status:

Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), also known as Billie Holiday, was an African American jazz musician with a career spanning almost three decades.

Lester Young's nicknamed "Lady Day" by her companion and music partner Lester Young had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing.

Her vocal style, which was heavily inspired by jazz guitarists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Holiday began performing in Harlem's nightclubs, where she was recognized by producer John Hammond for her vocal talent and improvisational skills.

In 1935, she began a recording deal with Brunswick.

The hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" became a jazz standard after being co-produced by Teddy Wilson.

Holidaying on brands like Columbia and Decca were a hit during the 1930s and 1940s.

She was still dealing with felony problems and heroin use by the late 1940s, but not so much sober.

After a short prison term, she appeared at a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, but her reputation deteriorated as a result of her heroin and alcohol abuses. She appeared on Broadway in the 1950s with two more sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall.

Her final recordings were met with mixed reception due to personal challenges and an altered voice, but not with modest commercial success.

Lady in Satin was her last album, released in 1958.

On July 17, 1959, cirrhosis died for the holiday. She received four Grammy Awards, the majority of which were posthumously awarded for Best Historical Album.

In 1973, she was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Lady Sings the Blues, a film about her life starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972.

She is the main character in the play (later made into a film) Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill; Reenie Upchurch created the role in 1986 and was played by Audra McDonald on Broadway and in the film.

In 2017, Holiday was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

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Life and career

Eleanora Fagan was born in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915, the niece of African-American unwed teenage couple Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan and Clarence Halliday. Sarah moved to Philadelphia at the age 19 after being evicted from her parents' house in Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood for becoming pregnant. Eva Miller, her older, married half-sister, made arrangements for Eleanora to remain with her in Baltimore, with no money from her parents. Clarence left his family to pursue a career as a jazz banjo player and guitarist not long after Eleanora was born. Some historians have sluggishly attacked Holiday's paternity, as a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives identifies her father as "Frank DeViese." Other historians see this as an anomaly, most likely inserted by a hospital or government employee. DeViese lived in Philadelphia, and Sadie Harris may have known him by his occupation. Sadie Harris, then known as Sadie Fagan, married Philip Gough but the relationship was ended within two years.

Eleanora was born in Baltimore and had a difficult childhood. Her mother used to work on commuter railroads, which later became known as "transportation jobs." Eva Miller's mother-in-law, Martha Miller, was largely raised in holiday by Eva Miller's absences and being in others' care for her first decade of life. Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday's autobiography, was inconsistent on certains of her early life, but Stuart Nicholson's 1995 biography of the singer is more detailed.

She regularly skipped school, and her truancy culminated in her being taken before the juvenile court on January 5, 1925, when she was nine years old. She was sent to the House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic reform academy, where she was baptized on March 19, 1925. She was "paroled" to her mother on October 3, 1925, after nine months in care. Sadie owned the East Side Grill, and her mother and daughter spent long hours there. At the age of 11, she dropped out of school.

Sadie was home on December 24, 1926, to find a neighbor, Wilbur Rich, attempting to rape Eleanora. Rich was arrested after she fight back and she was arrested. She was successful, and she was arrested. Eleanora was taken into safe custody in the House of Commons as a state witness in the rape lawsuit, according to authorities. When she was nearly 12 years old at the time, a holiday was announced in February 1927. She found a job as a chauffeur and scrubbed marble steps, as well as the kitchen and bathroom floors of neighborhood homes. Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith's records were first discovered around this time. Holiday cited "West End Blues" as a mysterious influence, referring to the scat section duet with the clarinet as her favorite part. Holiday's mother left Eleanora with Martha Miller at the end of 1928.

Holiday had arrived in Harlem in early 1929, and by then she had joined her mother.

Holiday started performing in Harlem's nightclubs as a youth. Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Halliday, her presumed father, gave her her professional pseudonym. She spelled "Halliday," her father's birth surname, at the start of her career, but then shortened it to "Holiday" for his stage name. Kenneth Hollan, a tenor saxophone player, joined the young singer in a collaboration with a neighbor. They were a team from 1929 to 1931, ranging from the Grey Dawn, Pod's and Jerry's on 133rd Street, and the Brooklyn Elks' Club. In 1931, Benny Goodman recalled taking holiday at the Bright Spot. She stayed in many clubs, including the Mexico's and the Alhambra Bar and Grill, where she first worked with Chick Webb. She also linked with her father, who was playing in Fletcher Henderson's band, during this period.

Monette Moore, the singer of 1932, 17-year-old Holiday, was in charge of Covan's, a bar on West 132nd Street. Producer John Hammond, who adored Moore's singing and wanted to hear her performer, first heard Holiday in early 1933. Hammond arranged for Holiday to make her recording debut at the age of 18, alongside Benny Goodman. "Your Mother's Son-In-Law" and "Riffin' the Scotch" were two of her first hits. "Son-in-Law" sold 300 copies, and "Riffin' the Scotch," which was released on November 11, sold 5,000 copies. "She performed almost changed my music tastes and my musical life," Hammond said of her. "She performed like an improvising jazz genius" from her debut. Hammond compared Holidays favourably to Armstrong, who said she had a keen sense of lyric content at her youth.

In 1938, Holiday appeared in Duke Ellington's musical short film Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life. In her scene, she sang "Saddest Tale" on the radio.

Holiday was signed by John Hammond to record pop tunes with pianist Teddy Wilson in the 1930s' swing style for the burgeoning jukebox trade. They were encouraged to improvise on the information. The holiday's adaption of melody to suit the mood was pioneering. "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Miss Brown to You" were two of their first collaborations. "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" has been referred to as her "claim to fame." Since the producers wanted Holiday to sound more like Cleo Brown, Brunswick did not participate in the recording session. However, after the company's success with "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" began, the company began considering Holiday as an artist in her own right. In sessions arranged by Hammond and Bernie Hanighen, she began recording under her own name a year later for Vocalion. Wilson-Holiday records from 1935 to 1938, Hammond said, were a huge asset to Brunswick. Brunswick was lost and unable to produce many jazz tunes, according to Hammond. Wilson, Holiday, Young, and other artists all arrived in the studio without written permission, greatly lowering the recording price. Brunswick charged Holidays a flat fee rather than royalties, which saved the company money. The single "I Cried for You" album, which Hammond described as "a major hit for Brunswick," sold 15,000 copies. Around three to four thousand dollars were recorded on most websites that made money.

Lester Young, a tenor saxophonist who had been a boarder at her mother's house in 1934 and with whom Holiday had a correspondence, was another frequent accompanist. "You should hear that on some of the old records," Young said. Any time, I'd sit down and listen to'em myself, and it sounds like two of the same voices... or something like that.' Young referred to her as "Lady Day" and her mother referred to him as "Prez."

Holiday spent a short time as a member of Count Basie in late 1937. The band's traveling conditions were often miserable; they appeared in many one-nighters in clubs, often going from city to city with no stability. Holiday selected the songs she performed and was involved in the design, opting to represent her growing persona of a woman unhappy in love. "I Must Have That Man," "Travelin' All Alone," "I Can't Get Started"), and "Summertime," a hit for Holiday in 1936 that began in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, a hit for Holiday, were among her tunes. Basie became accustomed to Holiday's active participation in the band. "When she rehearsed with the band, it was really just a matter of getting her songs the way she wanted them to be because she knew how she wanted to sound and didn't tell her what to do." Holiday performed with Basie are among the songs that were performed. All of the following commercially available "I Can't Get Started," "They Can't Take That Away from Me," and "Swing It Brother Swing" are among the many "Swing It Bro Swing" and "Get It Brown." Holiday was unable to record in Basie's studio, but she did include several of his artists in her recording sessions with Teddy Wilson.

Holiday found herself in direct competition with Ella Fitzgerald, the famous singer. The two women became close friends later. Fitzgerald, a vocalist for the Chick Webb Band, who were competing with the Basie band, was the vocalist. The Basie and Webb bands clashed at the Savoy Ballroom on January 16, 1938, the same day that Benny Goodman's legendary Carnegie Hall jazz concert was held. By Metronome magazine, Webb and Fitzgerald were proclaimed winners, while DownBeat magazine named Holiday and Basie the winners. Fitzgerald took the audience's straw poll by a three-to-one margin.

Holidays for Basie were no longer popular by February 1938. Various reasons have been given for her dismissal. Jimmy Rushing, Basie's male vocalist, called her unprofessional. Holiday was sacked for being "temperamental and unreliable," according to All Music Guide. She screamed under low salary and poor working conditions, and she may have refused to perform the songs she was requested or change her appearance. Artie Shaw was hired by Artie Shaw a month after being fired from the Count Basie Band. This association made her one of the first black women to work with a white orchestra, which was an unusual occurrence at the time. It was also the first time a black female singer employed full time toured the segregated South with a white bandleader. Shaw was known to stick up for his vocalist in situations where racial tensions were high. Holiday relates a time in which she was refused to perform on the bandstand with other singers because she was black. "I want you on the band stand, like Helen Forrest, Tony Pastor, and everyone else," Shaw told her. Members of the audience may get heckled while touring the South. A man named her a "nigger wench" and demanded she sing another song in Louisville, Kentucky. Holiday lost her temper and was obliged to be led off stage.

Shaw and Holiday had been on air on New York City's huge radio station WABC (the original WABC, now WCBS). Because of their success, they were given an additional time slot to broadcast in April, which increased their visibility. The New York Times examined the broadcasts and reported an improvement in Holiday's results. Holiday's joination to Shaw's band has placed it in the "top brackets," Metronome reported. Holiday could not perform as well in Shaw's shows as she did in Basie's; the style was more flexible, with fewer vocals. Shaw was also coerced to hire Nita Bradley, a white singer with whom Holiday did not get along but had to share a bandstand. Shaw defeated Tommy Dorsey and Red Norvo in May 1938, with the audience favoring Holidays. Although Shaw admired Holiday's playing in his band, he had a "remarkable ear" and a "remarkable sense of time," she said during her time with the band, which was approaching an end. Because white patrons of the hotels complained, Holiday was prompted to use the service elevator at the Lincoln Hotel in New York City in November 1938, rather than the one used by hotel guests. This could have been the last straw for her. She left the band immediately after. "I was never allowed to enter the bar or the dining room, as did some members of the band... [and] I was forced to leave and enter through the kitchen." Holiday With Shaw's Band there are no existing live recordings of the holiday. Holiday was only able to make one record with Shaw, "Any Old Time," because she was under contract to a different record company and possibly because of her ethnicity. However, Shaw appeared on four songs she recorded in New York on July 10, 1936: "Did I Remember?" "No Regrets," "Summertime," and "Billie's Blues" are among the "Billie's Blues" that has been on display in the Library.

Holiday had performed with Count Basie and Artie Shaw in the late 1930s and became a well-known musician in the recording industry by that time. Singers around America imitated her songs "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Easy Living" and were quickly adopted by jazz singers, and jazz standards were quickly adopted. Holiday's single "I'm Gonna Lock My Heart" debuted sixth as the most well-played song of the month in September 1938. According to Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories: 1890–1954, Vocalion, her record label, ranked the single as its fourth-best seller for the same month, and it ranked as the fourth-best seller for the fourth month on the pop charts, with the single ranked at number two.

When she was introduced to "Strange Fruit," a Columbia song based on Abel Meeropol's poem about lynching, she was in the middle of recording for Columbia in the late 1930s. Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx, used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teacher union meetings. Barney Josephson, the owner of Café Society, an all-inclusive nightclub in Greenwich Village who opened it to Holiday, was eventually heard. She played it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, afraid of potential retaliation. The imagery of the song later reminded her of her father's death and that this played a role in her resistance to performing it.

At the Café Society's performance of "Strange Fruit," she had waiters silence the audience before the performance began. The lights dimmed during the song's long introduction, and all movement was forced to cease. Only a small spotlight illuminated her face as holiday began. On the final note, all lights went out, and Holidays were missing when they returned to their homeland. Clarence Holiday, holiday's mother, was refused medical attention for a fatal lung disorder due to racial prejudice, and she loved the fact that "Strange Fruit" reminded her of the event. "It reminds me of how Pop died, but I have to keep singing it," she wrote in her autobiography. Milt Gabler, one of Columbia's holidaymakers, decided to record the case for his Commodore Records label on April 20, 1939. For 20 years, "Strange Fruit" has been in her repertoire. Verve's mother took it once more. The Commodore release received no airplay, but the song's infamous video earned a lot of attention, though Gabler attributed it to the album's other side, "Fine and Mellow," which was a jukebox hit. "I produced for Commodore," Holiday said of "Strange Fruit," which "becames my highest-selling record." "Strange Fruit" was the equivalent of a top-twenty hit in the 1930s.

Since "Strange Fruit," holiday sales have risen. In Time magazine, she was mentioned. "I open Café Society as an unidentified stranger," Holiday said. "I left as a child two years later as a professional actor." I wanted the reputation and publicity, but I couldn't afford rent with it." She requested a raise from her boss, Joe Glaser, within minutes. Holiday returned to Commodore in 1944, recording songs she made with Teddy Wilson in the 1930s, including "I Cover the Waterfront", "I'll Get By," and "He's Funny That Way." "My Old Flame," "How Am I to Know?" She also recorded new songs that were not popular at the time, such as "How Am I to Know?" A number one hit for Bing Crosby is "I'm Yours" and "I'll Be Seeing You." In 2005, she performed her version of "Embraceable You," which was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Sadie, the holiday's mother, opened a restaurant named Mom Holiday's. She used money from her daughter's birthday to play dice with Count Basie members, with whom she toured in the late 1930s. "It kept Mom busy and happy, and it stopped her from worrying and worrying about me," Holiday said. Fagan began borrowing large amounts from Holiday to help the restaurant. Holidays were arranged, but she soon fell on bad times. "I needed some money one night, and I knew Mom was going to have some," she said. "I walked in the restaurant like a stockholder and asked." Mom turned me down from his apartment. "She wouldn't give me a single cent." The two argued, and Holiday shouted angrily, "God bless the boy who hasn't got his own" and sent the kids running. Arthur Herzog, Jr., a pianist, wrote a song based on the lyric, "God Bless the Child," and then added music. "God Bless the Child" became Holiday's most popular and widely distributed record. It debuted on the charts in 1941 and was third in Billboard's year's best-selling songs, grossing over a million dollars. The song was first inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1976. Holiday, according to Herzog, only a few lines to the lyrics. From a dinner talk between the two children, he said, "God bless the child."

"Travlin Light" was recorded by Holiday in Los Angeles, 1942, with Paul Whiteman of a new name, Capitol Records. Since she was under Columbia's employment, she used the term "Lady Day" to refer to it. The album debuted on the pop charts and ranked one on the R&B charts, then called the Harlem Hit Parade. "She has the most distinctive style of any popular vocalist [and] is imitated by other vocalists," Life magazine said on October 11, 1943.

Milt Gabler, in addition to owning Commodore Records, became an A&R man for Decca Records. On August 7, 1944, he signed Holiday to Decca, when she was 29 years old. "Lover Man" was her first Decca hit (number 16 Pop, number 5 R&B), one of her biggest hits. Holidays became a hit in the pop world thanks to its popularity and distribution, which culminated in solo concerts, which were unhearded for jazz singers in the late 1940s. "I made Billie a real pop star," Gabler said. She had no idea. Billie adored those songs." The song's producers, Jimmy Davis and Roger "Ram" Ramirez, had hoped to keep Holiday interested in the album. Willie Dukes, a flamboyant male torch singer, began performing "Lover Man" on 52nd Street in 1943. Holiday brought it to her shows due to his popularity. One of her favorites was "No More" on the record's flip side. On the recording, holiday asked Gabler for strings. Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald were among those contacts. "I went on my knees to him," Holiday said. "I didn't want to do it with the ordinary six pieces." "I begged Milt and told him I had to have strings behind me." Holiday arrived in the studio on October 4, 1944 to record "Lover Man." The string quartet performed and then walked out. Toots Camarata, the musical director, said that Holidays were brimming with happiness. She may also have wanted strings to prevent comparisons between her commercially lucrative early career with Teddy Wilson and everything else that followed. Wilson's 1930s recordings featured a small jazz band; Decca's recordings often featured strings. Holidays in November have returned to Decca to record "That Ole Devil Called Love," "Stuff," and "Don't Explain." After she discovered her husband, Jimmy Monroe, with lipstick on his collar, she wrote "Don't Explain."

Holiday did not make any more hits until August 1945, when she performed "Don't Explain" for the second time, rewriting the words "I know you raise Cain" to "Just say you remain" and changing "You mixed with some dame" to "What is there to gain?" "What Is This Thing Called Love?" was among the album's songs. "You Should Go Now" and "You Should Go." Ella Fitzgerald's most popular holiday album was "You Better Go Now." Both "Big Stuff" and "Don't Explain" were recorded again, but with new strings and a viola. "Good Morning Heartache" was the holiday song in 1946. Despite the fact that the song didn't chart, she performed it live; three live recordings are known.

Holiday's first major film, New Orleans, in which she starred opposite Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman, opened in September 1946. Producer Jules Levey and script writer Herbert Biberman were pressed to lessen Holiday's and Armstrong's roles in order to avoid the suggestion that black people made jazz, despite being plagued by bigotry and McCarthyism. The attempts failed because Biberman was listed as one of the Hollywood Tendency and sent to prison in 1947. Several scenes were cut from the film. "They had taken miles of footage of music and scenes," Holiday said, but "none of it was left in the picture." And here's a smidgeon about me. For a number of reasons, I know I wore a white dress, but that was taken out of the picture." For the film's soundtrack, she recorded "The Blues Are Brewin." "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" one of the film's other songs is "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" And "Goodbye to Storyville" says the author. The heroin use of holidays on the set was a problem. She made more than one thousand dollars per week from club appearances, but the bulk of her money was spent on heroin. Joe Guy, her partner, went to Hollywood during Holiday and gave her narcotics. When Guy was discovered by Holiday's boss, Joe Glaser, he was banned from the show.

Holidays had begun to decline in the late 1940s with a string of sluggish, sentimental ballads. In 1946, Metronome expressed disappointment about "Good Morning Heartache," meaning, "There's a chance that Billie's new formula will wear thin," says Billie, although up to now it's still wearing well." The New York Herald Tribune announced that she had little variation in melody and no change in tempo during a concert in 1946.

Holiday was at its highest point in 1947, having earned $250,000 in the three previous years. She came in second second place in the DownBeat poll for 1946 and 1947, her highest ranking in that survey. On July 6, 1947, she ranked fifth in Billboard's annual college poll of "girl singers" (Jo Stafford came in first). Holiday took home the Metronome magazine popularity poll in 1946.

Holiday was arrested in New York on May 16, 1947, for unlawful possession of narcotics. She appeared in court on May 27. "It was called 'The United States of America vs. Billie Holiday'. "That's just the way it felt," she said. During the trial, she learned that her advocate would not attend the trial to represent her. "No one in the world was interested in looking out for me in plain English," she said. She pleaded guilty and ordered to be admitted to the hospital after being dehydrated and unable to hold down food. "If your honor, please, this is a case of a drug addict," the district attorney said in her defense, but Miss Holiday, who is more serious than most of our cases, is a professional entertainer and in the highest class as far as money is concerned. She was admitted to the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. The drug possession charge led her to the loss of her New York City Cabaret Card, effectively ending her from serving anywhere that sold alcohol; afterwards, she performed in concert halls and theaters.

Because of good conduct, the holiday was released early (on March 16, 1948). Her pianist Bobby Tucker and her dog Mister were eager when she arrived in Newark. The dog peaked at Holiday, knocking off her hat and tackling her to the ground. "He started berating me and adoring me like mad," she said. A woman believed the dog was attacking Holiday. She screamed, a crowd gathered, and journalists arrived. "I may as well have wheeled into Penn Station and enjoyed a brief little get-together with the Associated Press, United Press, and International News Service," she said.

Ed Fishman (who fought with Joe Glaser to be Holiday's boss) wanted to be a part of the celebrations at Carnegie Hall. After the detention, holiday delayed and uncertain that people would understand her. She came to an end and promised to appear. Holiday in Carnegie Hall on March 27, 1948, attracted a sold-out audience. A record for the venue at the time was sold in advance of two thousand seven hundred tickets, a record at the time. Her celebrity was unusual because she didn't have a new hit list. In 1945, she became the first woman to reach the top charts, with the song "Lover Man." Holiday performed 32 songs at the Carnegie concert by her number, including Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and her 1930s hit, "Strange Fruit." Someone brought her a box of gardenias during the show. Holiday said, "My old trademark." "I took them out of the box and smack them to the side of my head without even looking twice." There was a hatpin in the gardenias and Holidays, but she didn't bother sticking it on the side of her head. "I didn't feel anything until the blood started rushing down in my eyes and ears," she said. She called off after the third curtain call.

Bob Sylvester and her promoter Al Wilde arranged a Broadway show for her on April 27, 1948. It was the title of a Broadway holiday, and it sold out. "The regular music critics and drama critics came and treated us like we were legitimate," she said. But it came to an end after three weeks.

In her room at the Hotel Mark Twain in San Francisco, holiday was arrested again on January 22, 1949. In the early 1940s, Holiday said she first used hard drugs. On August 25, 1941, she married trombonist Jimmy Monroe. While still married, she became involved with trumpeter Joe Guy, her heroin dealer. She divorced Monroe in 1947 and then split with Guy Guy.

Holiday's "Crazy He Calls Me" album was released in October 1949, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010. After "Lover Man," Gabler said that the hit was her most commercially released for Decca. The 1940s did not feature songs outside the top 30, making it difficult to identify minor hits. Despite her fame and concert fame, her singles were little heard on radio, perhaps because of her fame and fame.

Holiday's income was cut off due to her cabaret card's absence. She didn't have proper royalties until she joined Decca, so her biggest income was in club concerts. In the 1950s, the issue spewed as Holiday's newsletters went out of print. In her later years, she rarely received royal recognition. She received a royal worth of only $11. Earle Warren Zaidins, a late 1950s advocate, joined BMI only two songs she had written or co-written costing her money, not to mention her income. Holiday played at the Ebony Club in 1948, which was against the constitution. John Levy, her manager, was convinced she'd get her card back and allowed her to open without one. "I opened scared," Holiday said. "I was] waiting for the cops to come in any chorus and carry me off." But nothing happened. I was a huge success."

In 1948, Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" appeared on holiday. Holiday appeared in the Universal short film Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, and His Sextet, 1950. "Now, Baby or Never" was the expression of joy in 1950.

Holiday's heroin use, alcohol use, and intimate relationships with violent men all contributed to her health's decline in the 1950s. She appeared on ABC's reality show The Comeback Story to explore her attempts to get past her misfortunes. She later recordings displayed the effects of losing her voice, as it became less apparent and no longer projected her former vibrancy.

As part of a Leonard Feather package, Holiday first visited Europe in 1954. After the Leonard Feather radio show in Stockholm in January 1954, Swedish impresario Nils Hellstrom founded the "Jazz Club U.S.A." (after the Leonard Feather radio show) tour in Stockholm, Germany, Netherlands, Paris, and Switzerland followed. Buddy DeFranco, Red Norvo, Carl Drinkard, Elaine Leighton, Elaine Leighton (de) (1926–2012), Sonny Clark, Beryl Booker, Jimmy Raney, and Red Mitchell were among the tour parties. Lady Love – Billie Holiday was a recording of a live set in Germany.

Lady Sings the Blues, William Dufty's autobiography, was ghostwritten by William Dufty and published in 1956. Dufty, a New York Times reporter and editor who later married Maely Dufty, the singer's close friend, grew to the book in a flurry of conversations in the Duftys' 93rd Street apartment. He also focused on the careers of earlier interviewers and planned to allow Holiday to share her tale in her own way. Billie Holiday, A History of Musician and the Myth, 2015, John Szwed found that Lady Sings the Blues is a generally accurate representation of her life, but that co-writer Dufty was compelled to reduce or avoid information due to a threat of litigation. "Szwed traces the lives of two significant people who are missing from the book, both with Charles Laughton in the 1930s and with Tallulah Bankhead in the late 1940s, to one that has dramatically reduced in the book, her affair with Orson Welles around the time of Citizen Kane." The LP Lady Sings the Blues was released in June 1956 to accompany her autobiography. The album contained four new songs, "Lady Sings the Blues," "Too Marvelous for Words," "Willow Weep for You," and "I Thought About You," as well as eight new recordings of her best hits to date. "Trav'lin' Light" "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child" were among the re-recordings. Billboard magazine published a review of the album on December 22, 1956, deeming it a worthy musical complement to her autobiography. "Holiday is in good shape now," the reviewer said, "and these latest findings will be greatly appreciated by her followers." "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child" were two hits, while "Good Morning Heartache," another reissued track on the LP, was also noted favorably.

Holiday performed two concerts at Carnegie Hall on November 10, 1956. On a Verve/HMV album in the United Kingdom in late 1961, The Essential Billie Holiday was released live recordings of the second Carnegie Hall concert. The 13 tracks on this album included her own songs "I Love My Man," "Don't Explain," and "Fine and Mellow," as well as other songs closely associated with her, such as "Body and Soul," "My Man," and "Lady Sings the Blues" (her lyrics accompanied a pianist Herbie Nichols' "Int't Explain" and "Lady Sings the Blues). According to these notes, Gilbert Millstein of the New York Times, who served as the narrator of the Carnegie Hall concerts, was part of this album. Millstein read aloud four long passages from her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, interspersed in Holiday's songs.

He later wrote:

The remainder of the sleeve notes on the 1961 album was written by Nat Hentoff of DownBeat magazine, who attended the Carnegie Hall concert.

He wrote of Holiday's performance:

On CBS's The Sound of Jazz show, Lester Young's appearance on "Fine and Mellow" is etched for her friendship with her long-time friend Lester Young. Both were younger than two years old when they died. Young died in March 1959. Holiday wanted to perform at his funeral but his request was turned down.

In 1959, she made one of her last television appearances for Granada's Chelsea at Nine in London. Her last studio recordings were made for MGM Records in 1959, with extensive support from Ray Ellis and his Orchestra, who had also assisted her on the Columbia album Lady in Satin the previous year (see below). The MGM sessions were released posthumously on a self-titled album that was later retitled and re-released as Last Recording.

Louis McKay, a mob boss, was married by Holiday on March 28, 1957. McKay, as well as the majority of the males in her life, was violent. At the time of her death, they were divorced, but McKay did intend to open a Billie Holiday vocal studios based on Arthur Murray's ballet schools. Billie Lorraine Feather (the niece of William Dufty) and Bevan Dufty were the sons of William Dufty), but she had two godchildren.

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