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I love this collection of Billie Holiday's songs for Decca better than the complete Decca set, because in the latter there are a lot of alternative Versions, but not at the end of each CD, but during the sequence of songs, which means that identical songs are sometimes presented several times, one after the other, which means I can't put these CDs in the stereo and push play without first programming out the songs that are duplicated. The complete set should have had the alternate songs at the very end of the second CD.This Greatest Hits contain practically all of the good songs from the Complete Set, which is beautifully presented in a lovely, if difficult to store, tall linen bound book. I ended up selling the complete set, because it was too cumbersome.Highly recommended, together with the "Love Songs" (1) of all her good Columbia Records positive love songs.
I grew up listening to some of the great singers such as "Miss Holiday" You feel her pain and her truimph's she lived through her music. She will be remembered through her music forever more. She has been a major trail blazer.
Interesting thing that Billie Holiday best remembered years were either early ones with "Columbia" (happy,swinging,small combos,Teddy Wilson on piano) or later ones for "Verve" (sad,melancholic,depressing) while nobody knows her middle years when she ruled the charts with recording for "Decca" (even lesser known are her "Commodore" recordings).The thing is,on "Decca" Holiday was backed with strings and lush orchestras so people usually dismiss these records as "pop" rather than jazz,which is nonsense of course - she was vocally in her prime and her lazy growl was nothing if not seductive at its best.As a "torch" singer Holiday was excellent - not a bad note here - songs all jewels ("Solitude","Crazy he calls me","That ole devil called love") and its fun to hear intro to "You're my thrill" copied note for note on Joni Mitchell's torch album "Both sides now" recorded decades later.It has been said that strings were almost status symbol for singers at the time and nobody had to twist Holiday's arm to do it,she liked the strings,wanted them and enjoyed being surrounded with cinematic sweep.Only strange choice is silly vocal chorus on "God bless the child" that betrays the time of recordings,everything else is first-class and luckily we even have spare original of that song recorded few years previously so even that is not bad thing.If only for two breathtakingly beautiful Holiday singles collected here - "Don't explain" and "Lover man" - this CD is definitely worth purchase. This is the time when she actually had hits,was played on jukeboxes and finally was lifted above cult-status into big time,"Downbeat" awards as singer of the year on national level and so on,really great CD.
From the first song to the last, I was crazy about her. The first time I heard Billie Holiday's voice was when my parents were visiting friends. The cut called "You're My Thrill" was unlike anything I had ever heard before. I looked over their record collection and asked if I might play this Billie Holiday one. (I had never heard of her). All these years later, I never forgot that first experience and looked for this music at Amazon. Lucky for me, I found it.
Although there are a few good cuts on this collection, despite the generally terrible arrangements, almost any other collection of Billie's is better. If you want a single disc Greatest Hits album, try an obscure Brit import called "Fine and Mellow." The only thing the DECCA CD has going for it is better sound quality, because it was recorded much later than most of her good recordings.
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