The music producers at Columbia Records thought that subject of the song (the lynching of black people) might upset people. A music producer called Milt Gabler said that Holiday could record it for his label called Commodore Records. That was done in April 1939 and Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" over the next twenty years. The song did not get played on the radio but still sold well. Gabler said that this was because the other side of the record was "Fine and Mellow", which was a jukebox hit. Later, she recorded "Strange Fruit" again for Verve.
In 1944, Holiday went to work, still with Milt Gabler, at Decca Records. She was 29 years old. Her first songs for Decca were called "Lover Man" and "No More". "Lover Man" was a song written for her. It is about a woman who has never known love, and it became one of her biggest hits.
In November 1944, Holiday recorded three songs, "That Ole Devil Called Love", "Big Stuff", and "Don't Explain". Holiday wrote "Don't Explain" after she caught her husband, Jimmy Monroe, with lipstick on his collar. After that, Holiday didn't record any songs until August 1945. She recorded, "Don't Explain", "Big Stuff", "You Better Go Now", and "What is This Thing Called Love?". In 1946, she recorded songs called "No Good Man" and "Good Morning Heartache", "The Blues Are Brewin", and "Guilty". In February 1947, Holiday recorded two hits, "There Is No Greater Love" and "Deep Song". She also recorded "Solitude" and "Easy Living", songs that she had recorded with Teddy Wilson in the 1930s.
Holiday's next recording was after she came out of prison in 1948. She recorded this time with a vocal group called the Stardusters. She recorded "Weep No More" and "Girls Were Made to Take Care of Boys". She was worried that people wouldn't like the recordings and recorded two more songs without the group, "My Man" and Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy". These became very popular.
The next year, Billie had more hits. She sang a version of Bessie Smith's, song "T'Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do", "Gimme A Pigfoot (And A Bottle of Beer)", "Do Your Duty", and "Keeps on Rainin'", to her lush "You're My Thrill" and "Crazy He Calls Me". She also recorded a song that she wrote called "Somebody's On My Mind".
In her last recording in 1950, she recorded two songs. Both of them were backed by strings, horns, and a choir. She recorded her own "God Bless the Child" and "This is Heaven to Me".
In 1947, Holiday was in a film with Louis Armstrong called "New Orleans". The musical drama film featured Holiday singing with Armstrong and his band and was directed by Arthur Lubin. Holiday was not pleased that she had to play a maid. In her autobiography she said:
"I thought I was going to play myself in it. I thought I was going to be Billie Holiday doing a couple of songs in a nightclub setting and that would be that. I should have known better. When I saw the script, I did. You just tell one Negro girl who's made movies who didn't play a maid or a whore. I don't know any. I found out I was going to do a little singing, but I was still playing the part of a maid."
Holiday was also in the 1950 Universal-International short film "'Sugar Chile' Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet", where she sang "God Bless the Child" and "Now, Baby or Never".
On May 16, 1947, Holiday was arrested for the possession of narcotics and drugs in her New York apartment. On May 27, 1947, she had to go to court. Holiday pleaded guilty (admitted that she had the drugs) and was sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. Holiday said she never "sang a note" at Alderson even though people wanted her to. She was released early (March 16, 1948) because of her good behavior. When she arrived at Newark, everybody was there to welcome her back, including her pianist Bobby Tucker.
Her manager Ed Fishman thought of the idea to have a comeback concert at Carnegie Hall. Holiday was worried at first because she thought that nobody would want her back, but she decided do it. On March 27, 1948, the Carnegie concert was very successful. She did sang songs like Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and "Strange Fruit". The concert was not recorded.
Holiday was arrested again on January 22, 1949, at a hotel in San Francisco.
Holiday said that she began using hard drugs in the early 1940s. She had married trombonist Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. When she was still married to Monroe, she started a romantic relationship with trumpeter Joe Guy, who was also her drug dealer. She lived with him as his wife (called a common law wife) and divorced Monroe in 1947. She also separated from Guy. After of she was arrested and convicted for possessing drugs in 1947, she was not allowed to work in clubs in New York for the rest of her life. The only time she was able to was when she sang at the Ebony Club in 1948, where she had the permission of John Levy.
In the 1950s, Holiday's health became bad, because of her drinking alcohol, using drugs and her relationships with abusive men. Her voice became rough, but some people say that her singing became more emotional.
On March 28, 1952, Holiday married Louis McKay, a man who worked for the Mafia. McKay, like most of the men in her life, was abusive, but he did try to get her to stop using drugs. They later separated.
On November 10, 1956, she performed two concerts before big audiences at Carnegie Hall.
Holiday went on tour Europe for the first time in 1954 with Buddy DeFranco and Red Norvo. When she went back to Europe, almost five years later, she went on television for Granada's "Chelsea at Nine", in London. This was one of the last times she was on television. Her last studio recordings were made for MGM in 1959, with Ray Ellis and his Orchestra, who had also accompanied her on Columbia's "Lady in Satin" album
in 1958. The MGM recordings were released after Holiday's death on an album called "Last Recordings".
Holiday's autobiography, "Lady Sings the Blues", was published in 1956. It was ghostwritten by William Dufty, a "New York Post" writer and editor who was married to Holiday's close friend Maely Dufty. He wrote the book quickly after talking to Holiday in his apartment, as well as using earlier interviewers. His wanted to let Holiday tell her story her way.
Holiday never had any children of her own, but had two godchildren: singer Billie Lorraine Feather, daughter of Leonard Feather, and Bevan Dufty, son of William Dufty.
On May 31, 1959, Holiday was taken to the Metropolitan Hospital in New York. She had liver and heart disease. Police officers were at the door to her room. She was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying and her hospital room was raided by the police. They kept guarding her at the hospital until she died from cirrhosis of the liver on July 17, 1959. In the last years of her life, she had gradually lost her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750 in cash.
Grafite
Edinaldo Batista Libânio (born 2 April 1979) known by the name Grafite, is a Brazilian football player. He plays for Wolfsburg and Brazil national team.
On 24 August 2009, before the Wolfsburg game against Hamburg he received the very important and highly regarded "Prêmio Futebol no Mundo" ("Worldwide Football award"), as the promising newcomer ("revelação") of the 2008/09 season. He also got the top goalscorer award of the same season. The prize is from ESPN Brasil, the Brazilian division of ESPN.
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York City F.C.
York City F.C. is an association football team in York, England. They started in 1922. In 2012, the team were in the fourth level of English football. They play their home games at Bootham Crescent.
Nina Simone