Billie Holiday facts
While investigating facts about Billie Holiday Songs and Billie Holiday Strange Fruit, I found out little known, but curios details like:
When Billie Holiday died, she had 70 cents in her bank account and $750 taped to her leg.
how billie holiday died?
When Billie Holiday would perform “Strange Fruit” at gigs, the club owner would order the waiters to stop serving, and the room would be in complete darkness except for a single spotlight on her face. It would close her act and there would be no encore.
What happened to billie holiday?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what year did billie holiday die. Here are 20 of the best facts about Billie Holiday Death and Billie Holiday Strange Fruit Lyrics I managed to collect.
what did billie holiday die of?
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The war on drugs was persecuted as a personal crusade by one man. During his 31 year career,Harry Anslinger helped shape global drugs policy and ordered that a dying Billie Holiday be handcuffed to her death bed
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After abusing alcohol and drugs for the better half of her life, iconic jazz singer Billie Holiday was swindled out of her earnings and died with all of 70 cents (US$6 in 2016 dollars) in the bank.
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Jazz legend Billie Holiday was raised in a brothel by teenage parents, worked as a prostitute alongside her mother, was addicted to heroin her entire life and, weeks before her death at 44, was arrested for heroin possession in her hospital bed.
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The civil rights song "Strange Fruit" made famous by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone was written by a white, Jewish, New York high school teacher who was a member of the Communist Party.
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Billie Holiday gave her final performance in New York City on May 25, 1959. Not long after this event, Holiday was admitted to the hospital for heart and liver problems. She was so addicted to heroin that she was even arrested for possession while in the hospital.
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In 2008, a fire at Universal Studios destroyed masters of 500,000 songs including recordings by Ray Charles, Tom Petty, Buddy Holly, Barry White, Tupac Shakur, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and hundreds more. It took a decade for Universal to admit the extent of the damage.
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Billie Holiday worked in the same brothel as her mother at the rate of 5$ per client
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In it's final data transmission to Oppy (Opportunity), NASA sent the song "I'll Be Seeing You" by Billie Holiday.
Why is billie holiday important?
You can easily fact check why is billie holiday famous by examining the linked well-known sources.
Billie Holiday babysat Billie Crystal-his father and uncle were the co-founders of Commodore Records-the label that recorded and released "Strange Fruit" after Columbia deemed it "too sensitive".
Billy Crystal's uncle, Milt Gabler, created Commodore Records and produced Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," which TIME Magazine named Song of the Century. - source
Strange Fruit", the Billie Holiday song about Lynchings in the South, was written by a Jewish communist (and high school teacher) in New York, who years later adopted the sons of executed atomic spies Julius and Ethyl Rosenberg. - source
The melody in the song summertime(Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Sublime, many otherwise) was initially created by American composer George Gershwin in 1934
Jazz legend Billie Holiday was arrested and sent to jail for prostitution at age fourteen. - source
When billie holiday died?
Kanye West's song "Blood on the Leaves" uses quotes from Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" which refers to black people being hung and it being such a common thing in the south that Holiday called them strange fruit, as if it were just apart of nature.
How did billie holiday die?
Lester Young, an influential Count Basie Saxophonist and one of Billie Holidays jazz partners, was the original Hipster.
