Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. I Wished On The Moon
2. What A Little Moonlight Can Do
3. Miss Brown To You
4. A Sunbonnet Blue
5. These Foolish Things
6. I Cried For You
7. Summertime
8. Billie's Blues
9. A Fine Romance
10. Let's Call A Heart A Heart
11. Easy To Love
12. The Way You Look Tonight
13. Who Loves You?
14. Pennies From Heaven

Disc 2:

1. Carelessly
2. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
3. They Can't Take That Away From Me
4. I'll Get By
5. Mean To Me
6. Easy Livin'
7. I'll Never Be The Same
8. Me Myself And I
9. He's Funny That Way
10. Nice Work If You Can Get It
11. My Man
12. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
13. I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
14. You Go To My Head

Product Details

• Released on: 1999-10-12
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Import, Best of

From Amazon.com
These early sides of the inimitable Billie Holiday, featuring Lester Young on tenor sax (and occasional clarinet), reveal just how joyful and good-humored her singing could be, in contrast to her darker, postwar image. Her uncanny ability to stretch lyrics in new and revealing ways was there from her beginning, but on this two-CD budget-priced collection, an unmistakable playfulness is evident. On cuts like "Easy to Love" and "Easy Livin'," the steady eighth-note rhythms and piping clarinets provide just the right element for Holiday to enter unexpectedly, giving each tune an emotional lift and turning it into something completely her own. She's totally sui generis. No one has ever quite sounded like her, before or since. On these discs, the torment and trouble plaguing her later years are missing, but the music still has emotional depth and those wonderful, lyrical nuances that only Holiday could impart. That this album set lacks session information is a drawback, but the music is spectacular. --Wally Shoup