ALBUM TITLE: Lady in Satin
ARTIST NAME: Billie Holiday
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1958
Favourite Song:
Holly: You Don’t Know What Love Is
Kelly: I Get Along Without You Very Well
ALBUM HISTORY:
Lady in Satin was the 2nd to last album recorded by Billie Holiday, released in 1958. Most of her previous work in the 1950s saw Billie paired with jazz combos and there were talks of her recording “songbooks”, like with the songs of the Gershwins or Cole Porter, but that never happened and the honour went to Ella Fitzgerald. By 1957 Holiday was unhappy with her Verve contract, and decided not to renew. She was later approached by Columbia producers who wanted to pair her with a different band leader and orchestral arrangements, which Billie was excited about because she wanted to record something “pretty” and “delicate”. Columbia Records gave them an unlimited budget and recording began in February 1958. Billie wanted these lush, full orchestral arrangements of American Standards, but arranger Ray Ellis had to make sure the arrangements suited Billie’s voice – her voice had changed recently due to her ongoing alcohol and drug abuse. Ultimately they used a 40-piece orchestra and would end up being Billie’s most expensive recording. Reviews were mixed, a big reason for which was the condition of Billie’s voice – she’d lost her upper range and the ‘punch’ her voice used to give was gone. Arranger Ray Ellis looks back fondly on the recording however, saying it was his favourite of Billie’s catalogue.
ARTIST HISTORY:
To learn about Billie Holiday, check out our many song reviews of hers!
FACTOID CORNER:
This is the last of her albums that Billie would hear – the final album she recorded was released posthumously.
Holly’s review:
Oh, I’m so excited to sit down and listen to some Billie Holiday! She’s just so unique, identifiable, and strong-voiced.
This album starts off with a Sinatra song, “I’m a Fool to Want You”. It seems like a big change from our last few album reviews to start off with a ballad, but I’m here for it. Holiday’s voice is clear, and very very much at the front of the mix, with a weird reverb that makes her sound like she’s not in the same room as the rest of the ensemble. Speaking of which, I’m always just a little skeptical of the whole “orchestra and jazz” thing, but this first song pulls it off relatively nicely. Especially nice is the warm and tasteful trombone solo.
For Heaven’s Sake is up next, which unfortunately includes the weird ethereal female backup singers, and harp. Ugh. But Billie keeps things grounded, and completely in her wheelhouse. This song to me is relatively forgettable, and the melody I think kind of handcuffs Billie as far as improvisation goes as well. Not my favourite.
Then we move into You Don’t Know What Love Is. I think there is no more than a 10bpm difference between each of these three first songs. I do really like this song though, and the arrangement is great, with different sections of the orchestra really emphasizing the chromaticism that goes on in the harmonies. The melody is super nice, and gives Billie Holiday a nice range to work in which is also great to hear. The trumpet solo that comes in is weirdly mixed. It’s the first trumpet we hear on the album and it sure comes at you guns a-blazin’ for such an otherwise gentle song. Also of note in this one is the two oboes playing in harmony and super active in this song, unexpectedly.
I Get Along Without You Very Well is next up, and the beginning is so warm and inviting, but somehow kind of fights against Holiday’s voice in a way I don’t love. The guitar chunking away after the intro makes this version sound consciously old fashioned, and the orchestra feels a little heavy-handed. Some brushes on the drums, that trombone solo, and the guitar and bass would be plenty under Holiday’s powerful voice.
Coming up next is For All We Know, which is a song I’m not familiar with, but I really like how this song sounds. There’s a lot of space in this arrangement and it allows Holiday to really stretch out some words, and move through phrases at her own pace. I think one of the problems with doing this kind of music with a whole backing orchestra is that Holiday is skilled enough to do whatever she wants with phrasing, and the orchestral parts require the peaks of phrases to be at the same place every take, so sometimes her interpretation and the orchestra’s are not matched
The last song on side one of this LP is Violets for Your Furs, which frankly, is fairly forgettable. Also, at this point, being halfway through the album, I really crave a change in tempo or mood. The best thing on this song is the bass clarinet that sometimes wanders out of the texture to say hi.
Side Two opens with You’ve Changed. Hm. You know, I’m looking forward to concept albums at this point. Many of the albums we’ve reviewed so far choose a thing/style/tempo and stick with it the whole time, but many of them, this album included, could do with some variety. I understand that Billie Holiday sounds GREAT on a ballad, but still. It could be made even clearer if there was anything to compare it to. Anyway, the thing I like the most about this song is how much more forward in the mix the bass is. It sounds great. The “ooohs” in the background, on the other hand…..not for me.
Next up is a Rodgers and Hart number, It’s Easy to Remember. These songs are really starting to meld together, which is unfortunate. This song’s orchestral stars are the flutes and harp. I wonder who chose the songs for this album. Did Billie Holiday want to do only ballads or was this a producer who had benefited from previous ballads with her and wanted to capitalize on her strongest asset.
But Beautiful is next. It sounds weird, balance wise. Why are the strings so loud? How is the harp so loud? Why does the piano sound like it’s out in a hallway with the door closed? I feel like the oboes and weird ethereal singers could have been replaced by a saxophone section as well. I do like this song, but like many other songs on this album, it’s a bit over-orchestrated and the trumpet solo sounds entirely out of place. I would have expected a flugelhorn.
Onwards to Glad to Be Unhappy. Which starts with strings and harp. Again. I think maybe this is as close to a fast, upbeat number we’re going to get for this album. That’s all I have to say about this one.
I’ll Be Around features a solo viola in its high range at the beginning, which is such a nice contrast to Billie Holiday’s voice – she’s so strong, and the high viola is so fragile, it’s really nice. I like the melody of this one, and the bass clarinet and trombone section parts sound really fun. One of the better arrangements on this album.
The album ends with The End of a Love Affair, which sounds weird because it’s the only song in the version of the album I’m listening to that’s in mono. This song doesn’t sound much different from the majority of the tunes on this album, but it does somehow have a little more energy than some of the previous songs.
I enjoyed getting to listen to this album, once. However, it does get notably tedious listening to a solid hour of ballads with orchestra and I would never choose to listen to this album again. All in all, I realize it must be what was done at the time, but more variety would have been great. With a big sigh of “thank God that’s over”, I give it a 5/10.
Kelly’s review:
I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t excited to have to sit down and listen to an entire Billie Holiday record. I don’t love her style of singing in general, and an entire 11 track album is…a lot.
Anyway, we start off with I’m a Fool For You, which I find suits Billie’s voice very well – it invokes a very noir, femme fatale, smoky nightclub feel. Then halfway through the song I noticed the FULL orchestra. Like we’re not just talking strings only, but everyone is there. And they are serving HAM. There’s some gorgeous trombone work on here, but some annoying reverb behind it. I feel like I mostly enjoy Billie’s voice when she’s singing sad songs, so this one works pretty well for me.
Next is For Heaven’s Sake, and at first I thought oh good! We have a nice jazz ensemble, but no. Orchestral woodwinds make themselves known. They’re all still here. I like this song, but it’s a bit of a similar tempo to the first song, so I hope we get some peppier numbers coming up! Also, I feel like a lot of pop girlies of our current day and age listened to some Billie Holiday and were like “oh, I’m going to try and sing like that too” and then we got that horrible “cursive” style of singing (think “I’ll be home for chwismois”). Also, are there super faint background singers here?
You Don’t Know What Love Is is our next song, and it starts immediately with the Ham Philharmonic. I shouldn’t be so mean to them, they objectively sound good. I just don’t know that I like them paired with Billie? Anyway, we have another song very similar to the first 2, sounds like the same key, could honestly be the same song. Billie doesn’t have a lot of movement to her voice, so things are starting to sound verrrrrry similar. The ghoul sisters are back in the background, but we do have a nice trumpet solo! This song is extremely forgettable for me.
Then we have the old standard I Get Along Without You Very Well. I like this song! But I can’t get behind this weird stylistic thing that Billie does where she hits the note and then dips down, which we hear at the beginning here when she sings “very well”. We have some very bare drums on this one, with some poor guy and his brushes who it sounds like was forced to sit in the back corner. The nice trombonist was back, so that was a positive. This song was a nice departure from the previous 3!
Next is “For All We Know”. I’m only really familiar with the Donny Hathaway version, and Donny is such an incredible powerhouse vocalist who gives his all on that song that it’s hard to compare to a voice that is just not at the same level. The song is almost unrecognizable, I had to double check that it was the same one. I can’t say that I’m a fan of this version, but if I didn’t already know this song it would have honestly blended into the taupe tableau that is this album so far.
So Violets for Your Furs is the next track. I hate to beat a dead horse, but this is sounding so similar to the other songs for me – same key, same tempo, same style, same Ham and Cheese Philharmonic with vocal provided by the fabulous Ghoul sisters singing from across the hall, and a nice trombone solo to create a bit of variety in the song. I’m taking a candy break.
Ok I’m back for side 2 and You’ve Changed and…no we haven’t. I mean, there is a bit more versatility in Billie’s voice in this song, a bit more range, which is refreshing! Everything else is the same. Ghouls, Orchestra, tempo, the same. But I’ll give Billie points for shaking up the range a bit. Honestly I was hoping for a bit of a change in mood for the different side, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is just going to all sound the same. I’d like to hear another version of the song though, the sound itself sounds pretty good.
It’s Easy to Remember is Next and I’m pretty sure whoever did the arrangements, it was their last day so they set that shit to G major/minor and 68 bpms and took off, because this is another song that sounds so incredibly similar to all the other songs. Part of me feels badly that I’m being so critical, especially because Billie is such a legendary figure, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Like Frank Sinatra, that guy was loved by millions but I think his voice is dog water.
Next is But Beautiful and the woodwinds were clearly excited to have some interesting lines. Lots of very forward oboe. I feel like that poor drummer on brushes who they made play on the roof or something is bored to tears. And then HOLY SHIT THERE’S A TRUMPET. It’s comically loud, like he kicked in the door and was like TRUMPET SOLO!!!! And then dipped. It was SO weird. IT did wake me up though.
Second to last song (I’m going to make it!) is Glad to Be Unhappy. A good 1/3rd of the song is rubato until Brushes McGee comes in at the 90 second mark. I’m running out of things to say about what could easily be the same 10 songs. Even the trombone solo, which I enjoyed in the earlier songs, sounds tired and cliche now on this album.
Finally – FINALLY – we come to the end of the album with I’ll Be Around. Another slow tempo number that sounds the exact same as the majority of this record.
I’m so sorry but this album was a painfully dull listen for me. By the end of it Billie’s voice really started to grate on me and I kept losing focus while writing my review. Definitely not one I’ll look for or listen to again. 4.5/10
Average grade out of 10: 4.75/10
Link to the album on Spotify:
Holly & Kelly Music Review 