BILLIE HOLIDAY - WHAT A LITTLE MOONLIGHT CAN DO

WHAT A LITTLE MOONLIGHT CAN DO

BILLIE HOLIDAY

SONGWRITER: HARRY WOODS

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: JAZZ AT THE PHILARMONIC

LABEL: CLEF RECORDS

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1954

 

            Billie Holiday(born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. 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 liked her voice. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson produced 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. 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, at age 44.

       Holiday won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. She was also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, though not in that genre; the website states that "Billie Holiday changed jazz forever". Several films about her life have been released, most recently The United States vs. Billie Holiday(2021)

         Billie Holiday at Jazz at the Philharmonic(MG C-169) is a live album by jazz singer Billie Holiday, originally recorded on February 12, 1945 and October 3, 1946 at the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and at Carnegie Hall on June 3, 1946.

Ooh, what a little

Moonlight can do

Ooh, what a little moonlight

Can do to you

 

You're in love

Your hearts fluttering

All day long

 

You only stutter

'Cause your poor tongue

Just will not utter

The words, I love you

 

Ooh, what a little

Moonlight can do

Wait a while

Till a little moonbeam

Comes peepin' through.

 

You'll get bored

You can't resist him

And all you'll say

When you have kissed him is

Ooh, what a little

Moonlight can do.