“Revisionists and counter-revisionists argue back and forth, but it remains unmistakable that Holiday’s inimitable way with a heartache song only deepened as her own life unravelled. A compilation of her dozen years recording for Verve was put out under the title Lady in Autumn, which is a marketing cliché, but also a perfect description, for these are autumnal performances: ripe with experience, laden with anticipations of the chill of death, hanging on precariously but ready to fall.”
PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ


“Every track is performed in an inimitable and extraordinary way, and the tragic mood never falls into the pathetic. Even today Billie continues to influence the style of innumerable singers and instrumentalists, both male and female. What’s the secret? Just the fact that Billie Holiday simply invented a way of singing: a language.”
JAZZ MAGAZINE

Side A:
1. I’M A FOOL TO WANT YOU 3:25
2. FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE 3:29
3. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS 3:51
4. I GET ALONG WITHOUT YOU VERY WELL 3:01
5. FOR ALL WE KNOW 2:55
6. VIOLETS FOR YOUR FURS 3:26
7. ALL OF YOU 2:33*

Side B:
1. YOU’VE CHANGED 3:20
2. IT’S EASY TO REMEMBER 4:03
3. BUT BEAUTIFUL 4:32
4. GLAD TO BE UNHAPPY (4:09
5. I’LL BE AROUND 3:26
6. THE END OF A LOVE AFFAIR 4:48
7. THERE’LL BE SOME CHANGES MADE 2:54*

BILLIE HOLIDAY, vocals
RAY ELLIS and His Orchestra

New York, February 18-20, 1958

Original sessions produced by Irving Townsend.

*BONUS TRACKS (A7 & B7): BILLIE HOLIDAY (vc) with Harry “Sweets” Edison, Joe Wilder (tp), Billy Byers (tb), Al Cohn (ts), Danny Bank (bs),
Hank Jones (p), Barry Galbraith (g), Milt Hinton (b), Osie Johnson (d), Ray Ellis (arr, cond).

New York, March 11, 1959. From Last Recording (MGM Records E3764). Original sessions produced by Ray Ellis.