Billie Holiday

Julia "Sadie" Fagan (née Harris) got pregnant at age 13 and was kicked out of her home, she then gave birth to Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 7, 1915. Eleanora would later become Billie Holiday, a legend was born.

Clarence Halliday (Holiday), was the father of Billie Holiday, he was a musician. Clarence Halliday would not live with or marry Billie`s mother.

Juila Harris then brought baby Billie Holiday to Baltimore to live with her half sister Eva Miller who was married and much older than Julia.
During those years Billie was neglected for around 10 years, much of her childhood was spent with the mother in-law of Eva Miller.

Julia then married Philip Gough and went back to pick up and raise Billie, however the marriage ended within two years and Billie was sent back to live with Martha Miller. Billie often did not attend school which resulted in her being sent to The House of the Good Shepherd Catholic reform school which there she was baptized on October 3, 1925.

After almost ten months of living at the reform school they released Billie, she then went to live with her mother who had become a proprietor of a restaurant called East Side Grill. Due to working full time alongside of her mother, Billie quit school around the age of 11. Shortly after on December 24, 1926 her mother walked into their home and witnessed Billie being raped by the neighbor, Billie was then placed back into The House of the Good Shepherd Catholic reform school. After the trial and her release at around age 12 Billie and her mother began working for a madam. Near the end of 1928 her mother abandoned her with Martha Miller and headed off to New York.

After her mother left she started to singing songs and performing within the brothel while working.

Billie moved back in with her mother early in 1929 in Harlem New York, her mother was working as a prostitute for their landlady.

Tragically Billie began to also work as a prostitute for $5.00 per customer, the brothel was raided on May 2, 1929, Billie and her mother were sent to prison. Billie was released shortly after her mother's release in October, she was age 14.

Billie began performing with a tenor saxophone player by the name of Kenneth Hollan and they performed as a team at various clubs. When Billie was 17 she replaced a singer at a place called Covan's where John Hammond heard her sing, this was her break into stardom as he helped make her recording debut in 1933.

Brunswick records signed Billie Holiday and re-recorded pop tunes with a swing style, which was a huge success, she was in her early 20's now.

Holiday first performed "Strange Fruit" in a club in 1939, fearing retaliation, she said that the images generated in her mind while performing the song reminded her of her father. Her father was denied medical treatment for a fatal lung disease because of her performing the song "Strange Fruit", and it bothered her tremendously.

"Strange Fruit" hit the top 20 in the 1930's. When she performed the song at the Café Society the lights were dimmed, all movement ceased and a spotlight illuminated only her face, on the final note of the song, all the lights went out and she was gone.

When she began performing at Café Society no one knew who she was, within two years she was a star.

Her mother opened another restaurant called "Mom Holiday's", it was not doing well financially, Billie subsidized it as her mother continued to borrow vast amounts of money to keep it running. One day Billie came to her mother and asked for money, her mother turned her down and an argument began. Billie screamed at her and said, "God bless the child that's got his own" and she walked out.

In 1941 Billie Holiday recorded the hit song "God Bless the Child" which she wrote with Arthur Herzog after the incident with her mother.
Starring along side of Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman Billie began working on a major film in New Orleans. Due to racism Billie's and Louis's roles were reduced in the film to try and hide the fact that black people created jazz.

Billie was upset at playing the role of a "maid" as she thought she was going to be able to play herself.

During the time that followed the films Billie's addictions were growing and becoming a huge problem during the acting hours on set. She was spending thousands of dollars weekly on heroin and was beginning to deteriorate; her drug dealer was discovered and banned from the set.

Billie was arrested for possession of illegal drugs on May 16, 1947 in her New York apartment. Billie's strong inner light was flickering out due to illness from the drug abuse, her lawyer refused to represent her and in a compassionate twist the DA spoke up on her behalf. She was not holding down food and plead guilty and requested to be sent to hospital.

The judge sentenced Billie to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, known as "Camp Cupcake" where other notable celebrities had served out their sentences. Her release occurred early because of good behaviour on March 16, 1948, on March 28th, 1948 she sang for a sold out crowd, her audience had forgiven her without hesitation. She also performed on Broadway and it was a success but closed after three weeks.

Sadly, later she would be arrested again in her hotel room in San Francisco in 1948 for drugs.
Due to the previous sentence, her Cabaret Card was revoked and she could no longer work where alcohol was being sold and consumed for the remainder of her life.

Billie's heath was on a significant decline from drinking, abusive relationships and drug abuse. Her stellar, sultry voice had also been failing and fading into a course echo which still had some edge to it.

At Carnegie Hall in 1956 she had two concerts which was simply amazing! This was during the dark period of segregation where people's minds were only still opening and revealing the truth, that we are simply all the same.

Suffering from heart and liver disease, Billie was brought into a hospital in New York. Officers arrested her again while she lay in her hospital bed for drug possession. They remained guarding her until a court order had them removed from guarding her, her precious life faded from this realm of existence; she died from cirrhosis of the liver on Friday July 17th, 1959.

1946 Billie Holiday
1947 Billie Holiday
1947 A Hot Jazz Classic Set, Vol.1
1947 Distinctive Song Stylings
1949 Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra Featuring Billie Holiday
1950 An Evening With Eddie Heywood and Billie Holiday
1950 Ella, Lena and Billie
1950 Billie Holiday Sings
1950 Billie Holiday Volume One
1950 Billie Holiday Volume Two
1951 Favorites
1951 Lover Man
1951 (released 1964) A Rare Live Recording Of Billie Holiday
1952 Billie Holiday Sings Clef MGC 118
1953 An Evening with Billie Holiday
1954 Billie Holiday Clef
1954 Billie Holiday at JATP
1954 Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson Orchestras
1954 Lady Day Columbia
1954 Billie Holiday Volume One Jolly Roger
1954 Billie Holiday Volume Two Jolly Roger
1954 Billie Holiday Volume Three Jolly Roger
1955 A Collection Of Classic Jazz Interpretations By Billie Holiday
1955 (released in 1958) Stay with Me Verve MGV
1955 Music for Torching Clef MGC
1956 Recital By Billie Holiday Clef MGC
1956 Solitude Clef MGC 690 / Verve
1956 Hall Of Fame Series
1956 Velvet Mood Clef MGC
1956 Billie Holiday at JATP Verve MGC
1956 The Lady Sings Decca
1956 Lady Sings the Blues Clef MGC 721 / Verve MV
1956 (released in 1959) All or Nothing at All Verve MGV
1956 (released 1961) Carnegie Hall Concert Verve
1957 (released 1958) Songs for Distingué Lovers Verve MGV
1957 (released 1960) Body and Soul Verve MGV
1957 Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport Verve MGV
1957 (released 1999) A Midsummer Night's Jazz at Stratford '57 Baldwin Street
1957 The Sound of Jazz Columbia CL
1958 Lady in Satin Columbia CL
1958 The Blues Are Brewin` Decca DL
1958 Lover Man Decca DL
1958 Billie Holiday Commodore
1958 (released 1986) At Monterey Blackhawk
1959 Seven Ages of Jazz Metrojazz
1959 Billie Holiday MGM

Grammy Hall of Fame Awards

1949 "Crazy He Calls Me" Jazz (single) Decca 2010

1944 "Embraceable You" Jazz (single) Commodore 2005

1958 Lady in Satin Jazz (album) Columbia 2000

1945 "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" Jazz (single) Decca 1989

1939 "Strange Fruit" Jazz (single) Commodore 1978

1941 "God Bless the Child" Jazz (single) Okeh 1976

2002 Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday Columbia 1933-1944 Winner

1994 The Complete Billie Holiday Verve 1945-1959 Winner

1992 Billie Holiday - The Complete Decca Recordings Verve 1944-1950 Winner

1980 Billie Holiday - Giants of Jazz Time-Life Winner

2004 Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame[89] Inducted Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York

2000 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inducted Category: "Early Influence"

1997 ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame[90] Inducted

1947 Esquire Magazine Gold Award Best Leading Female Vocalist Jazz award

1946 Esquire Magazine Silver Award Best Leading Female Vocalist Jazz award

1945 Esquire Magazine Silver Award Best Leading Female Vocalist Jazz award

1944 Esquire Magazine Gold Award Best Leading Female Vocalist Jazz award

Billie Holiday`s songs will pierce directly into your heart and soul, her sultry voice echoes emotion that lingers. This trigger in her voice is hard to explain, unless you listen to the power and feel those notes hanging in the air.