It was inspired by a terrible, gruesome picture taken in 1930s of two black men, strung up with rope, hanging from tree branches by their necks, surrounded by white men in fancy clothes. In the lyrics, black victims are portrayed as “strange fruit,” as they hang from trees, rotting in the sun, blowing in the wind, and becoming food for crows upon being burned. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, writing that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". Billie Holiday recorded her iconic version of Strange Fruit on 20 April 1939. The two men are the "Strange Fruit." This will appeal to any lover of Billie Holliday and her music. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece making it a regular part of her live performances. A good digitization of one of the most important jazz works and its performance from the 20th century. SUBSCRIBE. Billie Holiday first performed “Strange Fruit” in 1939 at Café Society, New York City’s first integrated jazz club, after reportedly being introduced to the song by the club’s founder. It was March 1939, a cold night. Then the sudden smell of burning flesh, Here is fruit for the crows to pluck View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1972 PR Vinyl release of Strange Fruit on Discogs. Billie Holiday’s song Strange Fruit talks about lynching. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution listed the song as Number One on “100 Songs of the South”. Please submit questions or licensing requests for the commercial use of her image and likeness via the email links below. The great Billie Holiday singing the classic Strange Fruit, one of the first great protest songs and certainly one of the earliest examples of a black singer performing on a regular basis a poweful anti-racism song. But there was no in between. [17] Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.[18]. Suite 450, Los Angeles, CA 90036 In 1978 Holiday’s version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Song information for Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday on AllMusic. During the musical introduction, Holiday would stand with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer. Written by a white, Jewish high school teacher from the Bronx and a member of the Communist Party, Abel Meeropol wrote it as a protest poem, exposing American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. Here is a strange and bitter crop. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. The song was first written as a poem by Abel Meerpol and was published in 1937. The song was highly regarded and the 1939 record sold a million copies, in time becoming Holiday’s biggest-selling record. [11], The lyrics are under copyright but have been republished in full in an academic journal, with permission.[12]. The song has been covered by numerous artists, including Nina Simone, UB40, Jeff Buckley, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Robert Wyatt, and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Listen to " strange fruit ". The song was originally written as a poem, by a school teacher in New York City, named Louis Allen. When Billie Holiday first performed Strange Fruit, the café was already on the verge of closing. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday’s show at Cafe Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song "Strange Fruit" is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in the American South. Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time? "Strange Fruit" Striking out on her own, Holiday performed at New York's Café Society. Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. Holiday sang “Strange Fruit” for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. Billie Holiday helped shape American popular music with her voice and unique style. Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, New York’s first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root [14] Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. With no support from her parents, she made arrangements with her older, married half-sister, Eva Miller, for Eleanora to stay with her in Baltimore. “Strange Fruit” is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. [30][31], Billie Holiday's performances and recordings, Review: Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights, "Strange Fruit is still a song for today", "The Strange Story of the Man Behind 'Strange Fruit, "Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching". (15 Tracks That Changed The World) CD", "100 Songs of the South | accessAtlanta.com", "Strange Fruit: A protest song with enduring relevance", Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport, The Essential Billie Holiday: Carnegie Hall Concert Recorded Live, Lady in Autumn: The Best of the Verve Years, Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933–1944. The film directed by Lee Daniels, who is responsible for classic entertainment like Precious, The Butler and Fox’s Star, will showcase how the Federal Bureau of Narcotics launched an undercover sting operation against Billie Holiday after her song “Strange Fruit” … "[21] In an attempt to have a two-thirds majority in the Senate that would break the filibusters by the southern senators, anti-racism activists were encouraged to mail copies of "Strange Fruit" to their senators. Considering the vivid images and sustained metaphor of the song “Strange Fruit,” it shouldn’t be surprising that it began as a poem. Album At Jazz At The Philharmonic (1954) by Billie Holiday. Sarah moved to Philadelphia at age 19, after she was evicted from her parents' home in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, for becoming pregnant. He published the poem under the title “Bitter Fruit” in 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine. The United States vs. Billie Holiday Trailer. Meeropol set it to music and with his wife and the singer Laura Duncan, performed it as a protest song in New York venues, including at Madison Square Garden. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees, Pastoral scene of the gallant south The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work, Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song writing that hers was “an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch”. The original title was "Bitter Fruit," and the song started as a poem Meeropol wrote. But, her legacy extends way beyond music with one song in particular — "Strange Fruit." Cigarettes were flashing like torches, but the breaths were frozen, even the smoke, when she began to sing: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root August 22, 2019 • Billie Holiday helped shape American popular music with her voice and unique style. “Strange Fruit” was originally a poem called “Bitter Fruit,” written by Jewish schoolteacher and … A great recording with strange fruit absent from so many of her recordings. Essay by Cary O’Dell . First performed by Meeropol's wife and their friends in social contexts,[10] his protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. Lewis Allen), but ever since Billie Holiday sang the three brief stanzas to music in 1937, she’s owned it. Billie Holiday was so well known for her rendition of "Strange Fruit" that "she crafted a relationship to the song that would make them inseparable". Columbia allowed Holiday a one-session release from her contract in order to record it and Frankie Newton’s eight-piece Cafe Society Band was used for the session. So she turned to friend Milt Gabler, whose Commodore label produced alternative jazz. [5], "Strange Fruit" originated as a poem written by Jewish-American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings. Everyone who listens to jazz or cares about Billie Holiday or the story of the arts as a part of the civil rights movement should have this CD in their collection. 1999, Time magazine called it the song of the century. Strange Fruit. The photo was a shot of two black men hanging from a tree after they had been lynched in Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930. She developed some of her trademark stage persona there—wearing gardenias in … Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. [27] Nina Simone recorded the song in 1965,[28] a recording described by journalist David Margolick in the New York Times as featuring a "plain and unsentimental voice". [23] Rene Marie's rendition was coupled with Confederate anthem "Dixie", making for an "uncomfortable juxtaposition", according to Pellegrinelli. [4] It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1999 Paper Sleeve CD release of Strange Fruit on Discogs. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, sh… In October 1939, Samuel Grafton of The New York Post described “Strange Fruit”: “If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its ‘Marseillaise’.”. [4] It was also included in the "Songs of the Century" list of the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Meeropol had seen Lawrence Beitler’s photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. [20] Holiday's 1939 version of the song was included in the National Recording Registry on January 27, 2003. Song information for Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday on AllMusic ... Four of a Kind: 200 Classic Songs (From Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong) Hli: Various Artists . Bob Dylan cited “Strange Fruit” as an influence in the 2005 documentary No Direction Home. Label Clef Records. Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract so she could record it; Frankie Newton's eight-piece Café Society Band was used for the session. CONCORD Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? [9] It was recorded on April 20, 1939. Holiday first performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939. In October 1939, Samuel Grafton of the New York Post said of "Strange Fruit", "If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its Marseillaise. Commodore Records/Universal Music Japan Mini LP 24k Gold CD #UCCU-9509 - UPC: 4988005355874 - Release Date: 2004/02/21 - ¥2,300 Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan, said she always thought of … Meeropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden. On the recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds. When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty—claimed, "I ain't never read that book."[19]. [7], Meeropol published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in January 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine of the Teachers Union. It is perhaps pertinent to remember that the song was written by an American Jew in the 1930's and… [9][10] Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. March 5, 2020 6:34 AM EST Billie Holiday knew the dangerous power of “ Strange Fruit ” when she first sang it at a Manhattan club in 1939. The Tragic Story Behind Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" "Strange Fruit" was originally a poem. One version of events claims that Barney Josephson, the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. This site is maintained by the Estate of Billie Holiday. [3], Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife and singer Laura Duncan and performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. Andra Day transforms into “Lady Day” in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, the upcoming Lee Daniels biopic about the iconic Blues singer that will debut on Hulu this February. Slash Film . 2002, the Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to be added to the National Recording Registry. [15] When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, owner of the Commodore label. In accordance with the generous wishes of William Gottlieb, the photographs in the William P. Gottlieb Collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010. “Strange Fruit” may have been written by American song-writer and poet Abel Meeropol (a.k.a. List of lynching victims in the United States, William "Froggie" James and Henry Salzner, Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN), Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, National Museum of African American History and Culture, "The United States of Lyncherdom" (Twain), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strange_Fruit&oldid=997228600, United States National Recording Registry recordings, Works originally published in American magazines, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 30 December 2020, at 15:36. The poem was published in the January 1937 issue of a union publication called The New York Teacher. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday's show at Café Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit - The Greatest Interpretations Of Billie Holiday Rare o.o.p. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the great majority of victims were black. Because he was worried that the song was too short, Gabler asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction so that Holiday only starts singing after 70 seconds. Such lynchings had occurred chiefly in the South but also in other regions of the United States. 5750 Wilshire Blvd. Licensing Inquiries: [email protected], SUBSCRIBE NOWGet the latest on all things Billie Holiday, Email Address “Strange fruit” as sung by Billie Holiday, is a protest song about the lynching of black people and uncovers the brutality of racism and violence in South America. [16] Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. [6][7][8] In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings, inspired by Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. Hardy. "Strange Fruit" is a song recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939, written by Abel Meeropol and published in 1937. Though he had often asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set “Strange Fruit” to music himself and the piece gained a certain success as a protest song in and around New York. [9] During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer. [2] The song has been called "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement". [22], Notable cover versions of this song include Nina Simone (whose version was sampled in Kanye West's "Blood on the Leaves"[23]), René Marie,[23] Jeff Buckley,[23] Siouxsie and the Banshees,[24] Dee Dee Bridgewater,[24] Josh White,[25] UB40,[24] Bettye LaVette[26] and Edward W. Greatest Songs of the 1930's. "Strange Fruit: the first great protest song", Bettye LaVette Unleashes Cover of Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’, "Video: Listen To Edward W. Hardy's Haunting String Quartet Arrangement Of 'Strange Fruit'", "Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time", "Music Is Love! Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze About Strange Fruit lyrics. By checking this box I consent to the use of my information provided for email marketing purposes. Watch The United States vs. Billie Holiday trailer below. Serbian rock musician, journalist and writer Dejan Cukić wrote about “Strange Fruit” as among 45 songs that changed the history of popular music in his book 45 obrtaja: Priče o Pesmama. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song. “Strange Fruit” is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. Diana Ross recorded the song for her debut film, the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and it was included on the chart topping soundtrack album. Why is that? In her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. “Strange Fruit” is a poem written by American-Jewish songwriter and poet Abel Meeropol in 1937, and was famously covered and recorded by Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan) in … [23] Journalist Lara Pellegrinelli wrote that Jeff Buckley while singing it "seems to meditate on the meaning of humanity the way Walt Whitman did, considering all of its glorious and horrifying possibilities". In 1939, at the height of the Jim Crow era, a 23-year-old blues singer did the unthinkable. Audience members roared with applause and clapped until their hands stung, with a comparably low number of walkouts by obvious racists. Billie Holiday Original label Abel Meeropol . The song reminded Holiday of her father. [29] The group's rendition was selected by the Mojo magazine staff to be included on the compilation Music Is Love: 15 Tracks That Changed The World . Written by a white, Jewish high school teacher from the Bronx and a member of the Communist Party, Abel Meeropol wrote it as a protest poem, exposing American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty—claimed, “I ain’t never read that book.”, Numerous other singers have performed the work. For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck [23] LA Times noted that Siouxsie and the Banshees's version contained "a solemn string section behind the vocals" and "a bridge of New Orleans funeral-march jazz" which enhanced the singer's "evocative interpretation". Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh “Strange Fruit”—Billie Holiday (1939) Added to the National Registry: 2002 . View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1975 RI Vinyl release of Strange Fruit on Discogs. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. Not long after Eleanora w… The song was highly regarded; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies,[7] in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording. By checking this box I consent to the use of my information provided for email marketing purposes. Holiday's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday's show at Café Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. One version of events claims that Barney Josephson, the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. General Inquiries: [email protected] The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth Billie Holiday made history when she sang a denunciation of racial violence, well ahead of the Civil Rights movement: "Strange Fruit." Even John Hammond, Holiday’s producer, refused. [9] Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. Because of the poignancy of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday’s face; and there would be no encore. As written by … Eleanora Fagan was born on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, the daughter of African-American unwed teenage couple Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan and Clarence Holiday. It protests the lynching of Black Americans, with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. 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