Almost everything Billie Holiday recorded, and maybe everything Billie recorded before 1941, like these sides, was great. Certainly, this collection doesn't have any of the very important work Billie Did during WWII for Commodore, nor does it have some of th exciting Jazzy recordings Billie did for Verve in the late 1940s and 1950s. Nor are any of the outstanding live performances by Billie for Jazz at the Philharmonic or in her Carneige Hall concerts on this CD.

With Billie who recorded for about 30 years on a lot of labels, the tendency was, particularly back in the days of LPs, for every owner of some Billie material to put out whatever they could crip together as Billie's greatest hits.

I have to say that I was introduced to Billie's greatest work, that in the 1930s, by owning this collection on Vinyl. This is nice fun and engaging music. On some of the great standards, she really makes it. Like all of her recordings for Columba and its ancestors back then, John Hammond Sr, gathers together some of the masters of Black and white swing Jazz to join her. Very shortly after she started recording, the greatest names in Jazz would flock to her sessions and play on her recordings for litte because of the innovation and creativity Billie showed as a jazz creator in her own right.
One special treat here is "I can't get started" with the Count Basie Orchestra. Billie was the first female singer with Count Basie's band, but because she was booked to Columbia and the Count had been shanghied by Decca, there were no studio recordings of Billie singing with the Basie Orchestra. This is an enormous loss to human culture. "I can't get started" is one of the two air checks (recordings made off of radio broadcasts) we have of Billie with the Baseities. The other "Swing it Brother Swing" is available on an album with air checks from a Basie broadcast from the Savoy Ballroom.

I really love the way her singing interplays with the backing particularly from the reed section, and love the sinuous solo Lester takes which is more mellow and romantic than the one he takes in the small group Billie Holiday recording of "I can't get started."

All of this is nice music. If you are not ready to take the plunge and get everything from the 1930s and early 1940s (to be followed by everything from the 1940s and then most of the stuff from the 1950s) this is as good as any place else to start. Nice fun, wonderful music, great jazz in both her voice and in the way that the sidemen swing in her honor.

when i'm in a jazzy mood, i listen to billie for the same reason i listen to charlie parker: makes me jumpy. and jazzy jumpy moods are good for the soul. she was, of course, the original diva. i like billie a little more than i like ella, who i like a whole lot more than i like aretha, who i like more than tina, who i like more than mariah, and so on and so forth all the way down.

This review refers to the Audio Cassette of "Billie Holiday..Greatest Hits"(Columbia).....

So there I was on a hot and smoggy afternoon, on an L.A. Freeway stuck in rush hour traffic, with plenty of time to choose just the right music to spend the two hours it would take to go the ten miles home. Rummaging through my tapes and rejecting most, there she was..my recently purchased Billie Holiday tape. I popped it in and spent the most delightful time in my car with this music.

Billie's soulful,soothing and uniquely recognizable vocals, accompianied by such greats as The Teddy Wilson Orchestra, Count Basie and His Orchestra, Lester Young on Sax, Buck Clayton on Trumpet, Freddie Green on Guitar,Jo Jones on Drums, and many more wonderful artists,had me smiling and took me away to another time and place. I loved it so much I listened to it several times on the drive.

The album is a great mix of Blues, Standards and songs that just say "Billie!", and You may just want to sing along.This wonderful treat includes "A Sailboat in the Moonlight"(Lombardo/Loeb)), "I Can't Get Started"(Gershwin/Duke),"Solitde"(Ellington/Mills/Delange),"God Bless The Child"(Holiday/Herzog),my personal favorite, "What a Little Moonlight Can Do"(Woods), the oh so marvelous "The Very Thought of You"(Noble), and of course "Billie's Blues(I Love My Man"). There are thirteen intoxicating tracks in all(see buying info for complete list), that will have you humming them for days after.

It's a very good recording of these old songs, although a little low and does have to be turned up a few notches in volume. You'll be under the infulence of Billie from the minute you start listening...and..you won't care about that guy who just cut you off!!!!

A great addition to your Billie Holiday collection or a great way to get to know her! But watch out! You may get hooked!

Enjoy...Laurie

I really enjoyed this particular selection of Holiday's work. I looked everywhere for a compiliation CD that included "The Very Thought of You" (my copy of Lady's Decca Days didn't) and this one had it, along with other songs that weren't included on Decca Days either. Short of purchasing a wildy expensive boxed set of her work, I would reccomend this for anyone even remotely interested in the talent of Billie Holiday: the sound quality is excellent and the choice of songs is great, as well. Even the liner notes are an welcome addition---they include an informative bio about Billie as well as her rise to fame and anecdotes from some of the people she worked with.
As a side note, the only song I would have added to this collection is "Strange Fruit," one of the most haunting and politically-charged Holiday songs to date. If you get a chance to hear that, you'll be doing yourself a favor. Otherwise, this album is a great choice.

...Fortunately, this CD contains recordings made in her early years (1930's) when her voice had not yet been affected and when her phrasing was innovative and inspired.

I enjoyed the first half of the CD more so than the second half mainly because the last 6 tracks are quite melancholy. ... This is real blues music from a woman who experienced nothing but the blues.
I enjoyed the opening, peppy teaser "Miss Brown to You", including a more somber "Some Other Spring". But I would have to say my favorite track is the unabashedly romantic "Sailboat in the Moonlight".

I was surprised at the lyricism of the songs. This is more like poetry set to jazz and blues chords. ..

An excellent collection from the most beautiful and sensuous voice the world has ever heard. However, a little short, and not enough from her later period. Still excellent and beautiful, but it makes you want more!

The sweet voice of lady day tells many stories. The mellow style, the fine jazz base, the high pitched voice. A small part of black history lies within the album.

Many of the songs are unheard of, and to many the name Billie Holiday meerly rings a bell. Having heard the lyrics and finding out what Billie Holiday represents it's hard not to be inspired.

Billie Holiday was born in Baltimore, on 7th April 1915. Her life story was a tragic one right to the very end. Having been raped at the age of 11, having worked as a prostitute, having been addicted to the pulses of heroin and then living all this through the era of apartheid. Her music therefore comes from the heart.

The blues tells the sad stories but yet remains life affirming at the same time. Living in an era with little hope, her music tells you to dream a little more, teaches you what a "little moonlight can do". The songs have a quality which is timeless.

Her songs also show a little more about the society in which she had lived. "Georgio on my mind" and "God Bless the child" and other such songs. It contains the strong spirits that black women had to have.

Billie Holiday had died in 1959 through a drug related death. The life full of tragedies and contradictions had passed away but her songs have lived on still containing the same emotional dynamite. The album is an essential tribute for someone that represents so much. Her mellow jazz sounds are timeless. The album manages to bring an essential part of black history alive!

To many, Billie Holiday is tragically linked to drugs and alcohol, including the rapid decline of her unique voice after the 1940s. But as this set demonstrates, her voice was still in peak form in the 1930s and early 40s, the eras from which this set culls the songs. For this greatest hits, Sony-Columbia picks mostly slow tempo songs despite the fact that Billie swings fast tempo songs aplenty back then. The only fast one here is "What A Little Moonlight Can Do", otherwise the rest are ballads and slow burners. I wish Columbia had included more "swingers" in their remastered hits package. No doubt this will NOT be the last Billie Holiday reissue or hits compilation we'll see from Sony-Columbia. There will be more to come---just put more "fast ones" on the next one. For that shortcoming, I rate this package 4 stars instead of 5. But the singing here is still inspiring and enjoyable as any Lady Day CD from the 1930s.

This album is timeless. You can definitely feel the great romantic vision Lady Day had through the music and her beautiful vocals. A MUST HAVE!

Billie doesn't sing the blues, she IS the blues. Even with her songs that are upbeat, you still hear the pain in her voice. Buy this CD, or any Billie holiday CD. It will become an important part of your collection.

HEARING THE PASSION&DRIVE in Billie Holiday's voice will Blow your mind.She Phrases a Lyric in A way like no other.Her VOice&Material are Timeless Jewels.this Disc Captures Some Of Her Greatest Moments With also SOme Great Musicians who are as Incredible as Lady Day'.GOD BLESS THE CHILD Alone is a Timeless Gem.Her Music is Very Essential To Any True Collection.SHE IS Timeless TO THE HUMAN EAR DRUM.