BILLIE HOLIDAY - THE BLUES ARE BREWIN'

THE BLUES ARE BREWIN’

BILLIE HOLIDAY

SONGWRITERS: EDDIE DE LANGE & LOUIS ALTER

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ÁLBUM: THE BLUES ARE BREWIN’/LP

LABEL: DECCA RECORDS

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1958

 

           Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), known professionally as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz and swing music singer with a career spanning 26 years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.

              After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by producer John Hammond, who commended her voice. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson yielded the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, but her reputation deteriorated because of her drug and alcohol problems.

        She was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s with two further sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall. Because of personal struggles and an altered voice, her final recordings were met with mixed reaction but were mild commercial successes. Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958. Holiday died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959. She won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973. Lady Sings the Blues, a film about her life, starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972. She is the primary character in the play (later made into a film) Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill; the role was originated by Reenie Upchurch in 1986 and was played by Audra McDonald on Broadway and in the film. In 2017, Holiday was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

When the moon's kinda dreamy

Starry eyed and dreamy

And nights are luscious and long

If you're kinda lonely

Then nothin' but the blues are brewin'

The blues are brewin'

 

When the wind through the window

Blows across your pillow

And tells you sleepin' is wrong

If love goes a thirsting

Till you feel like bursting

Then nothing but the blues are brewin'

The blues are brewin'

 

Suppose you want somebody

But you ain't got nobody

You only got a gleam in your eyes

Till somebody's found you

And put their lovin' arms around you

You got the feelin' you want to die

 

But when the lord up above you

Sends someone to love you

The blues are something you lose

You're so busy doing

The things that you're doing

That love ain't got no time

For brewin' the blues.