Track Listing

1. I'm A Fool To Want You
2. For Heaven's Sake
3. You Don't Know What Love Is
4. I Get Along Without You Very Well
5. For All We Know
6. Violets For Your Furs
7. You've Changed
8. Easy To Remember
9. But Beautiful
10. Glad To Be Unhappy
11. I'll Be Around
12. End Of A Love Affair

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3142 in Music
• Released on: 1997-10-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Amazon.co.uk Review
A harrowing classic and Billie Holiday's personal favorite among her 1950s albums, Lady in Satin captures the singer 17 months before her death, her once-honeyed voice scarred and weakened by a punishing life, emphasized by the session's crisp sonics and the contrasting "satin" of Ray Ellis' sleek string arrangements. Yet it is that very contrast that describes the power of these performances. In revisiting its torchy standards, Holiday reduces them to their core of pain and longing, transforming "I'm a Fool to Want You", "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "You've Changed" into naked declarations as mesmerizing and unsettling as a horrific accident. Any post-rocker that presumes pop standards and string sections automatically translate to "easy listening" hasn't listened to this. This 1997 version adds previously unreleased takes and a beautiful 20-bit digital transfer to extract every shivering pang of Holiday's music. --Sam Sutherland

CD Description
This was her penultimate album, recorded when her body was telling her enough was enough. During the sessions with arranger Ray Ellis she was drinking vodka neat, as if it were tap water. Yet, for all her ravaged voice (the sweetness had long gone) she was still an incredible singer. The feeling and tension she manages to put into almost every track sets this album as one of her finest achievements. 'You've Changed'and 'I Get Along Without You Very Well' are high art performances from the singer who saw life from the bottom upwards.The CD reissue masterminded by Phil Shaap is absolutely indispensable.

Customer Reviews

Beauty comes in many forms... even croaking!
AS nearly everybody sees fit to note Billie Holiday's voice on this her favourite recording was not 'what it used to be'... However personally, this is exactly what makes this my favourite of all her albums.
There are those who want us to believe that they 'know' beauty... that it lies in some kind of technical proficiency, in hitting all the right notes or or in some kind of vocal dexterity (although one would have presumed that Ms Carey and Ms Dion had proven this to be false beyond all scientific reason?!)... they maintain that lists can be made that objectively rank the beauty of this or that song or artwork, and that on some objective level this Billie Holiday album can be dismissed as one of those unfortunate anticlimaxes to a legendary career.
If however you believe that beauty is ultimately in the ear of the listener and not purely in the inanimate object... if you believe it is the unclassifiable product of the rapport and intimacy that builds up between the mood of the listener and the mood and tone of the artist... if you believe the beauty of a song to be dependant on an unlimited number of variables such as: mood, location, memory etc... then you may find as many others have that 'Lady in Satin' provides a fitting finale to one of the most intriguing figures in 20th century music.
If you want vocal dexterity above all else then maybe you should go for one of Billie Holiday's earlier collections.. if however you think you may want to hear Lady Day wistfully croak twelve wonderful melodies (yes croak - after all Louis Armstrong croaked some of the most beautiful sounds every known!!), then purchase this album, go straight to song three (my personal fav) and sit back and get to know a whole new Billie and a whole new world...

Simply The Best !
Lady Day sings from the soul on this album, I have many Billie Holiday albums, but this is simply exceptional, with full orchestral support Miss Holiday pours out her soul through her voice on this album, you can feel the emotion and sadness in her voice, along with some "outtake" bonus tracks in which you can get a real feel for her mood, it makes this an album not to have missing from your Billie Holiday collection...buy it now !!

Lady's favourite
Billie Holiday led four lives in one. And that is saying something considering she never made her 45th birthday! She was raped at an early age, spent time involved in prostitution,and was a drug addict. She probably had just about every vice that anyone could have.

Yet she was a beautiful lady, although she had a reputation for being very difficult, and had one of the most distinctive voices of the twentieth century. Yes, by the time she recorded her last album just over a year before her death, her voice was no way near what it was in her prime. But to leave it like that is missing the point.

In her later years Billie Holiday's voice contained all the experiences of life and it was enriched for this. It had a certain timbre and you immidiately sympathise. The songs that she sung reflected this and the quality of the arrangements and the musicians around her are first rate and seem to put a comforting arm around her.

Listening to some songs on this recording reduce me to tears. Tears more for her than anything else. As I said, the songs are so well selected that they seem autobiographical. This album was her favourite and it's one that should be in everyones collection.