The Centennial Collection

by Billie Holiday

Overview

A hundredth birthday is a good reason to release a new Billie Holiday collection, but it's also true that it's been a little while since Legacy has returned to this particular well. As of 2015, it's been 14 years since the complete box Lady Day and eight years since the nice double-disc distillation, so a single-disc set like The Centennial Collection is indeed welcome. Legacy didn't limit itself to the Columbia catalog for this set, either. Drawing from sides recorded for Brunswick, Vocalion, OKeh, Commodore, and Decca between 1937 and 1945, this 20-track collection contains the original (and often best-known) performances of many of her best-known songs, including "These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)," "The Very Thought of You," "Them There Eyes," "God Bless the Child," "Gloomy Sunday," and "Strange Fruit." This by no means touches on everything the great Holiday recorded -- there is nothing from Verve, for instance -- this is nevertheless better than most single-disc sets on touching upon her best work. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	05/05/2017
Label:	Smcmg / Sony Special Products
UPC:	0889854327620
Rank:	54682

Tracks

1. What a Little Moonlight Can Do
2. These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)
3. Summertime [78rpm Version]
4. Billie's Blues [78rpm Version]
5. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
6. Why Was I Born?
7. I Must Have That Man
8. I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)
9. Mean to Me
10. When a Woman Loves a Man
11. You Go to My Head
12. The Very Thought of You
13. I Can't Get Started
14. Them There Eyes
15. All of Me
16. God Bless the Child [78rpm Version]
17. Gloomy Sunday [Take 1]
18. Strange Fruit
19. Fine and Mellow
20. Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Billie Holiday   Primary Artist,Vocals
Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra   Primary Artist
Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra   Primary Artist,Accompaniment
Ted Sturgis   Bass
Dick McDonough   Guitar
Lester Young   Clarinet,Sax (Tenor)
Jonah Jones   Trumpet
Jimmy Hamilton   Clarinet
Roy Eldridge   Trumpet
Artie Shaw   Clarinet
Johnny Hodges   Sax (Alto)
Buster Bailey   Clarinet
Paul Ricci   Sax (Tenor)
Jimmy McLin   Guitar
Buck Clayton   Trumpet
Bunny Berigan   Trumpet
Sonny White   Piano
Benny Morton   Trombone
J.C. Heard   Drums
Joe Bushkin   Piano
Carl Kress   Guitar
Ben Webster   Sax (Tenor)
Eddie Heywood   Piano,Featured Artist
Emmett Berry   Trumpet
Allan Reuss   Guitar
Tab Smith   Sax (Alto),Sax (Soprano)
Teddy Wilson   Piano,Featured Artist
Bernard Addison   Guitar
Babe Russin   Sax (Tenor)
Kenny Clarke   Drums
Jimmy Powell   Sax (Alto)
Cozy Cole   Drums
Leslie Johnakins   Sax (Alto)
Johnny Blowers   Drums
Artie Bernstein   Bass
Harry Carney   Clarinet,Sax (Baritone)
Lester Boone   Sax (Alto)
John Truehart   Guitar
Grachan Moncur II   Bass
Dave Bowman   Piano
John Williams   Bass,String Bass
Paul Chapman   Guitar
Bernard Anderson   Trumpet
Lawrence Lucie   Guitar
Haig Stephens   String Bass
Jack Cressey   Sax (Alto)
Ernie Powell   Clarinet,Sax (Tenor)
"Countess" Margaret "Queenie" Johnson   Piano
John Collins   Guitar
Kenneth Hollon   Sax (Tenor)
Pete Peterson   Bass
Eddie Heywood and His Orchestra   Accompaniment
Larry Binyon   Sax (Tenor)
Stanley Payne   Sax (Tenor)
Herbert Cowens   Drums
Jo Jones   Drums
Claude Thornhill   Piano
Freddie Green   Guitar
Shad Collins   Trumpet
Benny Goodman   Clarinet
Eddie Barefield   Sax (Alto)
Eddie Dougherty   Drums
Frankie Newton   Trumpet
Charlie Shavers   Trumpet
Edgar Sampson   Clarinet,Sax (Alto)
Walter Page   Bass
Hymie Schertzer   Clarinet,Sax (Alto)
Russ Case   Trumpet
John Kirby   Bass,String Bass
Al Casey   Guitar

Technical Credits

Sam M. Lewis   Composer
Johnny Mercer   Composer
Lewis Allan   Composer
Roy Turk   Composer
Rezsoe Seress   Composer
William Tracey   Composer
Gerald Marks   Composer
Harry Link   Composer
Haven Gillespie   Composer
Harry Woods   Composer
Maria Triana   Mastering
Jimmy McHugh   Composer
Fred E. Ahlert   Composer
Dorothy Fields   Composer
Eric Maschwitz   Composer
Seymour Simons   Composer
Jerome Kern   Composer
Ray Noble   Composer
Bernie Hanighen   Composer
Billie Holiday   Composer
Vernon Duke   Composer
J. Fred Coots   Composer
Arthur Herzog, Jr.   Composer
Irving Berlin   Composer
Jack Strachey   Composer
Jimmie Davis   Composer
Oscar Hammerstein II   Composer
James Sherman   Composer
Gordon Jenkins   Composer
R.J. Ramirez   Composer
Frank Harkins   Creative Director
Henry Towns   A&R
Michael Brooks   Compilation Producer
Federico Ruiz   Design,Art Direction
Jennifer Kirell   Project Director
Laszlo Javor   Composer
Doris Tauber   Composer
Tom Burleigh   Project Director
George Gershwin   Composer
Ira Gershwin   Composer
DuBose Heyward   Composer
Arthur Levy   Liner Notes
Maceo Pinkard   Composer