Details

Lady In Satin (1958) is Billie’s penultimate album completed in her lifetime.

Produced by Irving Townsend, and engineered by Fred Plaut, its sound is sensuous, rich and swelling with emotion – though much criticized by Lady’s fans who had grown to enjoy her recordings with deft jazz combos earlier in the decade.

The song material for Lady in Satin derived from the Great American Songbook, but was unlike the bulk of Holiday’s recordings. This time she came with the backdrop of full orchestral arrangements, something she’d not tried since her Decca years in the 1940’s when recording fidelity was yet to deliver the aching strings and solemn horn sections that cradle and warm Billie’s vocal delivery on “Satin”. She wanted to record in the contemporary manner of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald on her famous Verve Songbook series. She succeeded and perhaps surpassed.

Lady In Satin was inducted into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame in 2000.

Personnel: Billie Holiday vocal, Ray Ellis arranger and conductor, George Ockner violin and concertmaster, David Soyer cello, Janet Putnam harp, Danny Bank flute, Phil Bodner flute, Romeo Penque flute, Mel Davis trumpet, J.J. Johnson trombone, Urbie Green trombone, Tom Mitchell trombone, Mal Waldron piano, Barry Galbraith guitar, Milt Hinton bass, Osie Johnson drums, Elise Bretton & Miriam Workman, backing vocals.

Tracklist

1. I'm A Fool To Want You
2. For Heaven's Sake
3. You Don't Know What Love Is
4. I Get Along Without You Very Well
5. For All We Know
6. Violets For Your Furs
7. You've Changed
8. It's Easy To Remember
9. But Beautiful
10. Glad To Be Unhappy
11. I'll Be Around
12. The End Of A Love Affair (Mono)
13. I'm A Fool To Want You (Take 3)
14. I'm A Fool To Want You (Take 2 - Alternate Take)
15. The End Of A Love Affair: The Audio Story
16. The End Of A Love Affair (Stereo)
17. Pause Track