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"Billie Holiday," or "Lady Day" was the finest musician of her era in the fact that she still holds true in our hearts as a true artist who expresses her emotions through herself and no one else. At times persecuted for not moving around as much as she should (at that time being African American you must move around a lot on stage apparently), she knew how to be herself and just do what she loved. What follows is a list of her best songs and their significance.
1) "Strange Fruit"-A haunting song about southern lynches, this song was banned off many of the radio stations, because it made the white population feel bad about what had happened. This song is not only honest, sad, and true, but it also made people more aware of what goes on in this world and why it cannot be ignored.
2) "Pennies From Heaven"-This uplifting song must have brought many people happiness in an era of depression. Most people had not thought about the fact that the depression was just a stage and something that would surely pass away. I'm sure it seemed that the depression could last forever. "Billie Holiday" made people feel inspired with this song. She assured us that "every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven." Which basically assures us that after darkness will come light.
3) "Summertime"- What a beautiful song. This song just brings forth everything that is good about the time. It involves nothing sad or corrupt. It is about how there are a lot of good things in life and that there is no need to cry. That message in itself brings a great light to the heart.
4) "They Can't Take That Away From Me"-This is a very popular song that you can even hear today. There are so many love songs that it is hard to distinguish one from the other, but "Billie Holiday's" song "They Can't Take That Away From Me" has stayed for ages and that is because it is timeless. Everyone can agree that although we have to part from some lovers, that we will always remember the little things about them that made us so happy.
5) "I Can't Get Started"- This song is sad and funny at the same time. For anyone that has every felt that they have succeeded in everything in life except this one person will be taken by this song. As many fun phrases are thrown around like, "I've been around the world in a plane" or "Robert Taylor has asked me to tea," follows always the sad phrase, "but I can't get started with you." It takes you from feeling accomplished to being sad in 2.3 seconds.
6) "You Go To My Head"-"Billie Holiday" absolutely enchants in this song. With the phrase "you go to my head like the bubbles in a glass of champagne," it brings me to that space where you can love and ponder at the same time. Again, this love song is timeless and reminds us of all those people we think about, and wish we could be lovers with.
7) "Swing, Brother Swing"- This song makes you want to dance. It makes you feel as if you could dance your cares away. She inspired so many people during her era to just be happy and rise above that which is sad. In this song she truly does make you get up and forget all those cares.
8) "I Cover the Waterfront"-The special significance of this song is that it is a song for all those women who have watched someone they love go out to war. It is about how they wait for them to come home. While not uplifting this song brings together the era of music it was written in and makes us pine for our lovers also.
9) "Solitude"- One of "Billie Holiday's" sadder songs, this talks about how one is more likely to think about the terrible things when one is alone. It pours forth all of those emotions which you would think to be necessary to display complete and utter loneliness. Again it is very haunting.
10) "All of Me"- The best love song ever performed by "Lady Day," is "All of Me." The song is a representation of that blind love....the one where you will give anything and everything away to this person, because you love them. They are worth it in your eyes and you are glorified by the motion of giving everything away to the one who deserves it. It is such a beautiful and happy song that the melody will never leave you all day.
"Billie Holiday" is the best, and not just because she love what she sang. It is because her songs are universal, and can still be sung today. She knew the true universal vein of emotion and she used her talent to display it to the world. "Lady Day" will always be the true lady of songs in all our hearts....whether we know it or not.
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