The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol.1: 1933-1935

Billie Holiday | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: March 20, 1987
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000026A7
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,734 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Your Mother's Son-In-Law

2. Riffin' the Scotch

3. I Wished on the Moon

4. What a Little Moonlight Can Do

5. Miss Brown to You

6. A Sunbonnet Blue (And a Little Straw Hat)

7. What a Night, What a Moon, What a Girl

8. I'm Painting the Town Red

9. It's Too Hot for Words

10. Twenty-Four Hours a Day

11. Yankee Doodle Never Went to Town

12. Eeny Meeny Meiny Mo

13. If You Were Mine

14. These 'N' That 'N' Those

15. You Let Me Down

16. Spreadin' Rhythm Around

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Lady Could Move, May 3, 2001

By 

David Bradley "David Bradley" (Sterling, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol.1: 1933-1935 (Audio CD)

This, for me, is the best of the nine-volume Columbia "Essential" set of Billie Holiday albums, because she has so much enrgy and exuberence. On later sets the effects of her, shall we say 'exhausting', lifestyle seem to take some of the wind out of her sails.

Holiday can sound dirty without being dirty, if you get my drift. "I Wished On The Moon" gets across a pretty clear message, a very precise feel, without actually stating the message. Listen to the tune, you'll know exactly what I mean.

I love Billie Holiday, all of her stuff, but this record is a different Billie. She's younger and more vibrant, more romantic, more hopeful. She's always brilliant, but here she's in a kissing mood, rather than a crying mood.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historic!, November 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol.1: 1933-1935 (Audio CD)

I was so excited on my way home, knowing that this CD have very first songs Billie Holiday ever recorded! It was such a archeological experience - listening this (then) young girl full of life and optimism, singing her heart out to a silly songs of the day.Being young colored singer, she couldnt started with some best songs from the era and had to work on some third-rate material, but it was her enthusiasm (and her musicians, of course) that turned this silly songs into gold.This is not very best of Billie Holiday, but it is neccesary to understand her artistic growth and also a beautiful reminder that she was once happy and glowing human being, not always that sad,destroyed lady with sado-masochistic tendencies.The liner nottes are simply stunning, they are written very poeticaly and Im looking forward to collect all 9 volumes of this essential "Columbia" treasure!