Love Songs, Vol. 2

by Billie Holiday

Overview

Another Legacy title fashioned out of the recordings released in total on the exhaustive Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia box set of her early career. No complaints here, as few can afford such abundant booty, and because the label sticks to tried and true themes. Although, you may prefer her previous swing record, and the bluesy compilation of her work with velvet-touched tenor-saxophonist Lester Young, Love Songs, Vol. 2 is another antidote to the perception that Lady Day could only excel at mournful, striking, downer tunes such as her most famous work, "God Bless the Child," "Strange Fruit," and "Until the Real Thing Comes Along." Here are 16 sides of the more whimsical, sassy, mischievous, or laughingly resigned Billie Holiday, typified by the unabashedly lustful "I Must Have That Man," the chuckle of Oscar Hammerstein's "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," and even Hammerstein's depressingly named but actually bouncy "Why Was I Born." Though she's not as unfettered as Louis Armstrong (who, for instance, wrung much more humor with Ella Fitzgerald out of their later '50s look at "A Fine Romance," Holiday's version here from 1936), her behind-the-beat singing remains a flavorful reading on these classic Tin Pan Alley tunes. Of course, there are a few "blue" Holiday tunes, such as Irving Berlin's "This Year's Kisses," and Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra can't help but inject their melancholy notes here and there. So it's not exactly a picnic, but it is once again a multifaceted look at the total talent of one of the best jazz interpreters who ever entered a studio, of the languid tantalization of love just out of reach. ~ Jack Rabid

Product Details

Release Date:	06/24/2003
Label:	Legacy / Columbia/Legacy
UPC:	0827969037324
Rank:	3711

Tracks

1. These Foolish Things
2. Did I Remember?
3. A Fine Romance
4. Easy to Love
5. This Year's Kisses
6. Why Was I Born?
7. I Must Have That Man!
8. Moanin' Low
9. I'll Never Be the Same
10. He's Funny That Way
11. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
12. When a Woman Loves a Man
13. More Than You Know
14. Body and Soul
15. I Cover the Waterfront
16. Love Me or Leave Me

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Billie Holiday   Primary Artist
Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra   Primary Artist
Teddy Wilson   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Piano
Jo Jones   Guest Artist,Drums
Ben Webster   Guest Artist,Sax (Tenor)
Artie Shaw   Guest Artist,Clarinet
Roy Eldridge   Guest Artist,Trumpet
Lester Young   Guest Artist,Sax (Tenor)
Johnny Hodges   Guest Artist,Sax (Alto)
Gene Krupa   Guest Artist,Drums
Walter Page   String Bass
Hymie Schertzer   Clarinet,Sax (Alto)
Vido Musso   Clarinet,Sax (Tenor)
John Kirby   String Bass
Dick McDonough   Guitar
Jonah Jones   Trumpet
Jimmy Hamilton   Clarinet
Milt Hinton   String Bass
Buster Bailey   Clarinet
Buck Clayton   Trumpet
Bunny Berigan   Trumpet
Danny Barker   Guitar
Sonny White   Piano
Benny Morton   Trombone
J.C. Heard   Drums
Cootie Williams   Trumpet
Joe Bushkin   Piano
Benny Carter   Sax (Alto),Sax (Tenor)
Allan Reuss   Guitar
Emmett Berry   Trumpet
Artie Bernstein   String Bass
Harry Carney   Clarinet,Sax (Baritone)
Kermit Scott   Sax (Tenor)
Carl Frye   Sax (Alto)
Lawrence Lucie   Guitar
Ernie Powell   Clarinet,Sax (Tenor)
Prince Robinson   Clarinet
Irving "Mouse" Randolph   Trumpet
John Williams   String Bass
Pete Peterson   String Bass
Hal West   Drums
Babe Russin   Clarinet,Sax (Tenor)
Irving Fazola   Clarinet
Cozy Cole   Drums
Eddie Durham   Guitar
Claude Thornhill   Piano
Freddie Green   Guitar
Clyde Hart   Piano
Benny Goodman   Clarinet

Technical Credits

Walter Donaldson   Composer
Darcy Proper   Digital Remastering
Johnny Mercer   Composer
Howard Dietz   Composer
Neil Moret   Composer
Richard A. Whiting   Composer
Ralph Rainger   Composer
Gus Kahn   Composer
Harry Link   Composer
Harold Adamson   Composer
Vincent Youmans   Composer
Michael Brooks   Compilation Producer
Darren Salmieri   Artist Coordination
Jimmy McHugh   Composer
Jerome Kern   Composer
Steven Berkowitz   A&R
Bernie Hanighen   Composer
Edward Heyman   Composer
Dorothy Fields   Composer
Oscar Hammerstein II   Composer
Johnny Green   Composer
Holt Marvell   Composer
Robert Sour   Composer
Matty Malneck   Composer
Gordon Jenkins   Composer
Seth Rothstein   Project Director
Howard Fritzson   Art Direction
Amanda Tozzi   Production Assistant
Randall Martin   Design
Billy Rose   Composer
Irving Berlin   Composer
Jack Strachey   Composer
Cole Porter   Composer
Frank Eyton   Composer
Frank Signorelli   Composer
Edward Eliscu   Composer