Billie Holiday | BEST OF/20TH CENTURY | CD

Producers: Milt Gabler, Tony Scott, Norman Granz, Leroy Leavitt.
Compilation producer: Andy McKaie.
Recorded between 1939 & 1956. Includes liner notes by Joseph F. Laredo.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Liner Note Author: Joseph F. Laredo.
Recording information: 04/20/1939-11/10/1956.
Photographers: Michael Ochs; William Gottlieb; Herman Leonard.
While it can't hope to compete with the impressive box sets of her work or even more specialized single-disc collections, 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Billie Holiday still manages to present a fair amount of her most definitive work from the '40s, even though it's only 12 tracks long. "Strange Fruit," "Lover Man," "Lady Sings the Blues," and "My Man" are all here, along with "Fine and Mellow," "'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do," and "I Loves You Porgy." Not surprisingly since its track listing is so small, this collection is somewhat unfocused and definitely incomplete, but it offers a tantalizing taste of Billie Holiday's most musically fruitful period. ~ Heather Phares

• Format: CD
• Genre: Pop
• Released: 7/30/2002
• Released: 07/30/2002