Billie Holiday: The Legacy Box 1933-1958 (1933)

About this title: The logic behind this sampler is puzzling. Rather than reissue the very best of Billie Holiday's Columbia recordings on a three-CD box set or a package of her rare alternate takes, CBS tries it both ways by including 60 common selections already available in the Quintessential series along with 10 rarities that were either unissued or alternates. This otherwise attractive box (which includes a colorful booklet) will drive completists and veteran collectors crazy. The music (mostly from 1933-42 with three weaker performances from 1957-58) is often classic but duplicates more coherent reissues. ... read more

Tracks:

1. Your Mother's Son-In-Law [Holiner/Nichols]
2. I Wished on the Moon [Parker/Rainger]
3. What a Little Moonlight Can Do [Woods]
4. Miss Brown to You [Rainger/Robin/Whiti]
5. Saddest Tale [Ellington]
6. If You Were Mine [Malneck/Mercer]
7. These 'N' That 'N' Those [Fairchild/Pascal]
8. You Let Me Down [Dubin/Warren]
9. Life Begins When You're in Love [Brown/Schertzinger]
10. It's Like Reaching for the Moon [Lewis/Marqusee/Sher]
11. These Foolish Things [Link/Marvell/Strach]
12. Summertime [Gershwin/Gershwin]
13. Billie's Blues [Holiday]
14. A Fine Romance [Fields/Kern]
15. I Can't Pretend [Breuder/Rusincky/To]
16. One, Two, Button Your Shoe [Burke/Johnston]
17. Let's Call a Heart a Heart [Burke/Johnston]
18. Easy to Love [Porter]
19. Pennies from Heaven [Alternate Take] [Burke/Johnston]
20. That's Life I Guess [Alternate Take] [DeRose/Lewis]
21. I Can't Give You Anything But Love [Fields/McHugh]
22. One Never Knows, Does One? [Gordon/Revel]
23. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm [Berlin]
24. He Ain't Got Rhythm [Berlin]
25. This Year's Kisses [Berlin]
26. Why Was I Born? [Hammerstein/Kern]
27. I Must Have That Man! [Fields/McHugh]
28. The Mood That I'm In [Sherman/Silver]
29. My Last Affair [Johnson]
30. Moanin' Low [Dietz/Rainger]
31. Where Is the Sun? [Lee/Redmond]
32. Let's Call the Whole Thing Off [Gershwin/Gershwin]
33. Don't Know If I'm Comin' or Goin' [Fien/Wainer]
34. I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You) [Ahlert/Turk]
35. Mean to Me [Ahlert/Turk]
36. Foolin' Myself [Lawrence/Tinturin]
37. Easy Living [Rainger/Robin]
38. I'll Never Be the Same [Kahn/Malneck/Signor]
39. Me, Myself and I [Alternate Take] [Gordon/Kaufman/Robe]
40. A Sailboat in the Moonlight [Loeb/Lombardo]
41. Born to Love [Jerome/Scholl]
42. Without Your Love [Alternate Take] [Lange/Stryker]
43. They Can't Take That Away from Me [Gershwin/Gershwin]
44. Swing, Brother, Swing [Bishop/Raymond/Will]
45. I Can't Get Started [Duke/Gershwin]
46. Who Wants Love? [Kahn/Waxman]
47. Trav'lin' All Alone [Johnson]
48. He's Funny That Way [Moret/Whiting]
49. My Man [Charles/Pollack/Wil]
50. I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me [Alternate Take] [Gaskill/McHugh]
51. When a Woman Loves a Man [Hanighen/Jenkins/Me]
52. You Go to My Head [Coots/Gillespie]
53. Havin' Myself a Time [Alternate Take] [Rainger/Robin]
54. The Very Thought of You [Noble]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.