Thursday 9 September 2010

Billie Holiday - I Get Along without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)

Album: Lady In Satin (Columbia,1958) Chart pos:N/A



While under the influence of alcohol I admitted to a female acquaintance that I'm a massive fan of Etta James. This led to her bringing up Billie Holiday, to be honest Ive never really tried to get into her music bar this song; (that was originally composed by Hoagy Carmichael). I was familiar through listening to Nina Simone's version but this particular reading of the song blew me away. As much as I'm a fan of Nina Simone , I think her version pales in comparison to Cher Bakers and Billie Holiday's. Billie Holiday sang it in the twilight of her career and it shows with the amount of substance abuse she endured had affected her voice. However this beautifully arranged song manges to eek out some beauty from her croaky, smack addled voice making it somewhat affecting.

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