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Billie Holiday - Lady in Autumn: The Best of the Verve Years (1946)

Track listing:
CD1
  1. Body And Soul 3:26
  2. Strange Fruit 2:55
  3. Trav'lin Light 3:26
  4. All of Me 1:58
  5. There is No Greater Love 2:37
  6. I Cover The Waterfront 2:52
  7. These Foolish Things 3:37
  8. Tenderly 3:23
  9. Autumn In New York 3:54
  10. My Man 2:39
  11. Stormy Weather 3:41
  12. Yesterdays 2:50
  13. He's Funny That Way 3:10
  14. What A Little Moonlight Can Do For You 3:14
  15. I Cried For You 2:29
  16. Too Marvelous For Words 2:16
  17. I Wished On The Moon 6:47
  18. I Don't Want To Cry Anymore 3:58
  19. Prelude To A Kiss 5:34
CD2
  1. Nice Work If You Can Get It 3:53
  2. Come Rain Or Come Shine 4:21
  3. What's New 4:18
  4. God Bless The Child 4:01
  5. Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me 4:15
  6. April In Paris 3:04
  7. Lady Sings The Blues 2:38
  8. Don't Explain 2:24
  9. Fine And Mellow 3:22
  10. I Didn't Know What Time It Was 6:01
  11. Stars Fell On Alabama 4:30
  12. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) 5:40
  13. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You 5:38
  14. Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) 3:08
  15. All The Way 3:17
  16. Don't Worry 'Bout Me 3:05

Notes

There are many jazz lovers, even dedicated ones, who cannot afford to part with the $150 or so that the ten-disc Complete Billie Holiday on Verve commands, so this two-disc distillation will do very nicely as a detailed summary of her troubled, soulful Verve period. Set out in chronological order with a mighty overreaching sweep, this mini-box covers virtually the entire period, with a generous helping of the JATP events of the 1940s, jumping a few years into the jazz all-star backings of the '50s and the 1956 Carnegie Hall concert, and closing with her heartbreakingly ravaged final sessions with Ray Ellis' string orchestra. Along the way, several Holiday landmark tunes like "Don't Explain," "God Bless the Child," "Lover Man," "Fine and Mellow," and "He's Funny That Way" are revisited and reinterpreted from a bitter, lifeworn perspective. But not all is stark tragedy, for life-affirming tracks like the 1957 "Stars Fell On Alabama" and "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" add some balance to the picture. For very sensitive listeners, 128 minutes of Lady Day in her twilight years may well be all they'll need