Did Billie Holiday write any of her own songs?

The story behind “Strange Fruit” is unlike any other. Written by a then-unknown teacher-poet-songwriter, its content was so shocking that even the singer – Billie Holiday – did not want to sing it at first. It became one of the first real protest songs, and one of the most important songs and records of all time. Time magazine called it “The Song of the (20th) Century.” 

Abel Meeropol was an English teacher in New York City in the 1930s who, purportedly upon seeing a photograph of two black men lynched in Indiana, wrote a poem about it called “Strange Fruit.” He set the poem to music, and he and his wife performed it as a stinging indictment of the racist South in venues around New York City. When they got the song to Holiday, she felt it would be wrong to record it. 

It goes without saying that a black woman dissing the South for lynching blacks in 1939 certainly would not have been very welcome beyond the Mason-Dixon line. And, more than likely, neither would have Meeropol, although he wrote under the pseudonym “Lewis Allan.”  Although he was mostly unknown at that time, he was no amateur songwrtiter who got somehow lucky and wrote a great song, as some have suggested. He was a serious songwriter who went on to write several other hit songs, including “The House I Live In,” a hit for Sinatra,  and “Apples, Peaches and Cherries” for Peggy Lee.

In “Strange Fruit,” he translated the horror of lynching and racism in America into song by use of a grievous metaphor: the strange fruit hanging from the Southern tree is a lifeless body of a black man lynched.

But although cloaked in metaphor, the actuality  is overtly indicated with words such as “the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth.” Its meaning was not a mystery. As such it was considered the first real protest song.

With three verses— no choruses, no bridge – and this poetic but vivid song of lynching – “Strange Fruit” was considered a dangerous song. Billie Holiday did not want to record it at first. She sang mostly standards then, and nothing political. She was not sure it was wise to do this one, as she did not want to alienate her audience.

“I was scared people would hate it,” she said. “The first time I sang it I though it was a mistake.”

Holiday’s label – Columbia – agreed it would be a big mistake to do it, and refused to allow her to record and release it. Perhaps that triggered her change of heart, and rather than be defeated, she rallied on behalf of this song, and would not allow it to go unsung. She ended ended all her shows with the song – usually to a stunned hush – and recorded it for the Commodore  label, who released it despite the perceived danger. Indeed, several radio stations banned it, which fanned the flame of the controversy stirred up by a song, and made it a hit. The song helped her become known as one of the greatest vocalists in jazz. She re-recorded it in 1944, and it became one of her two greatest and most beloved signature ballads. The other, which she co-wrote, was “God Bless The Child.”

It was on April 20, 1939 that Billie recorded the song, essentially producing it herself, singing it live with a small ensemble to an arrangement she created in the stuidio. The song quickly became a hit, and one of the best selling records of her  career, climbing to number 16 on the charts.

The original recording is simple, with a fairly subdued arrangement. The intro is over a minute long, said to be due to the producer’s attempt to to compensate for the lyrical brevity. Holiday’s version is probably the best known, but over the past 82 years it has been recorded by artists as varied as Lou Rawls, Sting, Tori Amos, Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa, and many others. Today it’s a bonafide standard. 

Billie Holiday died in 1959 at only 44.  Meeropol gained notoriety, not only from this song and ones that he later wrote for such artists as Frank Sinatra, but by adopting the two young sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,  the only two people executed for alleged espionage by the U.S. Government during the Cold War.

Billie Holiday, born April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a superstar of her day. She first rose to prominence in the 1930’s with a unique style that reinvented the conventions of modern singing and performance. More than 80 years after making her first recording Billie’s legacy continues to embody what is elegant and cool in contemporary music. Holiday’s complicated life and her genre-defining autobiography “Lady Sings the Blues” made her a cultural icon. The evocative, soulful voice which she boldly put forth as a force for good, turned any song she sang into her own. Today, Billie Holiday is remembered for her musical masterpieces, her songwriting skills, creativity and courageous views on inequality and justice.

Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan Gough) grew up in jazz-soaked Baltimore of the 1920s. In her early teens, the beginning part of her “apprenticeship” was spent singing along with the records of iconoclasts Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong. In 1929 Billie’s mother Sadie Fagan moved to New York in search of better jobs. Young Eleanora soon joined her there and began showing up at jazz clubs to audition and sing with resident pianists. She made debuts in obscure Harlem nightclubs, sharing tips with other dancers and comedians on the bill. Around this time she borrowed her professional name Billie Holiday from screen actress Billie Dove. Although she never received technical training and never learned how to read music, Holiday quickly became an active participant in what was then the most vibrant jazz scene in the country – as the Harlem Renaissance transitioned into the Swing Era.

At age 18, after gathering more life experience than most adults, Holiday was spotted by producer John Hammond with whom she cut her first record as part of a studio group led by clarinetist Benny Goodman – then on the verge of his own superstardom. From 1935 to 1941 Holiday’s career accelerated, recording hit after hit with pianist/arranger Teddy Wilson. Simultaneously, in 1936 she began a legendary string of collaborations with tenor sax giant Lester Young, who’s complimentary tone was a perfect trading partner for Billie. They became the best of friends and inseparable, legendary musical partners, even living together with Billie’s mother for a time. Lester would famously christen her “Lady Day” as she would him “The Prez”. By the time Holiday joined Kansas City’s phenomenal Count Basie Orchestra for tours in 1937 she was an unstoppable force, suited for top billing across the United States. In 1938 Artie Shaw invited her to front his Orchestra, making Billie the first black women to work with a white band – an impressive and courageous accomplishment.

In the 1930’s, during her epic run at Barney Josephson’s Cafe Society in Manhattan, she was introduced to the poem “Strange Fruit,” a horrific depiction of lynching in the Southern United States. The music was written just for Billie and it became the hallmark of her concerts. It’s considered by scholars to be the first protest song of the civil rights era. The lyric was so controversial that her record label wouldn’t record it. So she jumped over to the independent Commodore Records where she could record and sing as she pleased. “Strange Fruit” immediately became a cultural spark-point and a hit record too.

In 1939, with Arthur Herzog, Jr., she wrote “God Bless The Child”, a composition that transcends the ages and is now part of the great American songbook and jazz lexicon. In 1944 she signed with prestigious Decca Records, cutting still more classics and even a couple duets with her first musical hero Louis Armstrong – with whom she’d later star in the Hollywood film “New Orleans” (1949).

Starting in 1952 Billie began a five year run with Norman Granz’ Clef/Verve label. Granz was the entrepreneur behind the “Jazz At The Philharmonic” series and he was very sensitive to the needs of artists. He put Billie back into small group settings from which her genius had originally grown. Together they made roughly 100 new recordings, constituting Billie’s first forays into the high-fidelity album era. Her voice became more rugged and shockingly intimate. She put this new signature sound on scores of stirring ballads such as her self-reflecting composition “Lady Sings The Blues”. During this period she expanded her repertoire while also re-recording many of her 1930’s classics in her new style. Redefining herself as the “Torch Singer”, she appeared twice on TV’s “Tonight Show with Steve Allen”, on CBS’s historic “The Sound Of Jazz” program and also toured Europe.

In 1958, she signed to Columbia Records, the longtime home base of A&R man John Hammond, who had been instrumental in her early career. For Columbia she created her swan song masterpiece album “Lady In Satin”. Final studio recordings were made for MGM in March 1959 and were released posthumously.

Billie Holiday, died at the age of 44 and is buried at Saint Raymond’s Cemetery in Bronx County, NY. Her music and life continue to inspire tributes. Whether it’s Nina Simone covering “Strange Fruit”; Diana Ross starring as Lady Day in the film “Lady Sings the Blues”; U2 penning their hit “Angel Of Harlem”; her image on a United States postage stamp; Time Magazine’s “Song Of The Century” Award; scores of biographies and a dozen Grammy Awards, her emotive voice, innovative technique and touching songs will forever be a hallmark of genius.

Despite her lack of technical training, Holiday’s uncanny syncopations, her inimitable phrasing and her dramatic intensity made her the outstanding jazz singer of her day. White gardenias, worn in her hair, were her trademark. 

Ever combining her typical humor with profound gravitas, she wrote in her autobiography, “Singing songs like the ‘The Man I Love’ or ‘Porgy’ is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck. I’ve lived songs like that.”

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