April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959

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Singer-songwriter and musician Elanora Fagan famously known as “Billie Holiday” was born April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

According to author Alex Haley, like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday was from Irish-Afro-American ancestry, a distinction the two singers share with President Obama.

(Some day our history will catch up with our reality.)

After a very difficult childhood, she began performing in Harlem nightclubs as a young teenager. John Hammond discovered her and arranged for her to make her first recording at 18.

One of the most beloved of all the figures of the jazz pantheon, Holiday was dubbed “Lady Day” by her longtime friend and colleague Lester Young.

It’s cost me a lot
But there’s one thing that I’ve got
It’s my man
Cold and wet, tired you bet
But all that I soon forget
With my man
He’s not much for looks
And no hero out of books
Is my man
Two or three girls has he
That he likes as well as me
But I love him!
I don’t know why I should
He isn’t good, he isn’t true
He beats me too
What can I do?

Oh, my man I love him so
He’ll never know
All my life is just despair
But I don’t care
When he takes me in his arms
The world is bright, all right
What’s the difference if I say
I’ll go away, When I know
I’ll come back on my knees some day?
For whatever my man is
I am his forever more
Oh, my man I love him

Sometimes I say
If I could just get away
With my man
He’d go straight sure as fate
For it never is too late
For a man
I just like to dream
Of a cottage by a stream
With my man
Where a few flowers grew
And perhaps a kid or two
Like my man
And then my eyes get wet
I most forget till he gets hot
And tells me not to talk such rot

Oh, my man I love him so
He’ll never know
All my life is just despair
But I don’t care
When he takes me in his arms
The world is bright, all right
What’s the difference if I say
I’ll go away, When I know
I’ll come back on my knees some day?
For what ever my man is
I am his forever more

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