`The Best Of Billie Holiday' Presents the Legendary Singer's Greatest Recordings, Featuring `God Bless the Child,' `Strange Fruit,' `Lover Man,' `Lady Sings the Blues' and More.

Entertainment Editors and Music/Jazz Writers

After Billie Holiday, no woman since has taken the stage to sing jazz, blues or pop without feeling her influence. She is the standard. Now 12 of her signature songs have been brought together for the first time.

"The Best Of Billie Holiday" edition of "20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection" (Hip-O Records), released July 30, 2002, gathers her greatest recordings, from "Strange Fruit" and "Lover Man" to "Don't Explain" and "God Bless The Child." Taken from her legendary Commodore, Decca and Verve sessions, each selection has been digitally remastered from its original source. "The Best Of Billie Holiday" truly is just that.

Struggling against the racism that restricted which original songs she would be given by publishers as well as against the Tin Pan Alley musical style of the time, Holiday was having a hard time of it in her early 20s in the late-`30s. Her breakthrough came when she began performing at New York's hip Cafe Society club, where writer Lewis Allen gave her a new poem that was unusually honest and forthright about racism -- "Strange Fruit." Her label at the time, Columbia, passed on her recording the song, and Billie lamented this fact to owner/Commodore Records President Milt Gabler. Gabler approached Columbia about doing it for his label, and Columbia gave Billie the requisite permission. Though the recording was banned by many radio stations, "Strange Fruit" became one of the singer's signature songs, and the flipside, "Fine and Mellow," became a jukebox hit.

She recorded her next signature tune, the self-penned "God Bless The Child," originally in 1941, but Billie's first true pop hit came in 1944 when Gabler, now an A&R man/producer for Decca, signed the singer and gave her the song "Lover Man." That record finally earned her star status outside jazz circles.

During the rest of the decade, she recorded some of her best-loved songs, including a cover of "T'ain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do," a signature of her greatest influence, Bessie Smith. She also began recording for Norman Granz, owner of the Clef, Norgran and Verve labels. Then, in 1959, suffering from disease and a drug problem, Lady Day died at the age of 44.

Besides the tracks already mentioned, "The Best Of Billie Holiday" also includes "Good Morning Heartache," "My Man," "I Loves You Porgy," "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," "I Cover The Waterfront" and "Lady Sings The Blues." The latter became the title song for the 1972 film starring Diana Ross which brought Holiday's story of triumph and tragedy -- and her music -- to another generation of fans and to singers who still follow in her footsteps whenever they step onto a stage.

The series "20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection" features new "best of" albums from the most significant music artists of the past century.