Maps of Music
Stay With Me (1958)
Where the lyrics of Stay With Me take you, and where it was really made.
Recorded in New York in 1955, this Billie Holiday album did not reach release until 1958, and its 1991 CD reissue added a session from 1954.
View on the mapKey places
Where the 1955 session was recorded (1955)
Recording site Record Plant Studios — The album's main session was recorded on 14 February 1955 in New York City. The point is set at city-centre level, not at the exact studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there: See the map for directions.
Album story
Overview
- Stay with Me (MGV 8302): ninth studio album by jazz singer Billie Holiday
- Accompanied by Tony Scott and his Orchestra
- Contains all material from a session recorded on 14 February 1955 in New York City
- Released in 1958 on Norman Granz's Verve label
- The 1991 CD reissue appended another session, previously issued on Granz's Clef label
- The appended session is from 14 April 1954, credited to Billie Holiday and Her Band
Background
- The appended 1954 session first came out as part of the self-titled Billie Holiday LP on Clef (10-inch LP, Clef EPC 224 / Verve MGC 690)
- Billie Holiday recorded in the late 1950s with Granz as producer and label head
- Most tracks on this album later appeared on many compilations and complete recording issues of Billie Holiday
Recording
- Original session of 14 February 1955 with Tony Scott and his Orchestra
- Personnel: Holiday (vocals), Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Budd Johnson (tenor sax), Tony Scott (clarinet)
- Piano by Carl Drinkard or Billy Taylor, Billy Bauer (guitar), Leonard Gaskin (bass), Cozy Cole (drums)
- Leroy Lovett credited as arranger
- 1954 session at the same studio: Oscar Peterson (piano), Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), Ed Shaughnessy (drums), Charlie Shavers (trumpet)
- Shavers and Holiday were the only musicians on both sessions
- The 1954 session was credited as 'Billie Holliday and Her Band' on its original issue
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Tracklist
| 1 | I Wished on the Moon | 6:49 |
| 2 | Ain’t Misbehavin’ | 4:38 |
| 3 | Everything Happens to Me | 6:20 |
| 4 | Say It Isn’t So | 3:01 |
| 5 | I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm | 3:56 |
| 6 | Always | 3:57 |
| 7 | Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me | 5:00 |
| 8 | How Deep Is the Ocean? | 2:56 |
| 9 | What a Little Moonlight Can Do | 3:10 |
| 10 | I Cried for You (Now It’s Your Turn to Cry Over Me) | 2:27 |
Sources: musicbrainz.org
Artist
Formation
- Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia; grew up in Baltimore.
- Began singing in Harlem nightclubs as a young teenager, taking her stage name from actress Billie Dove and her father Clarence Halliday.
- Discovered by producer John Hammond, who arranged her recording debut in November 1933 with Benny Goodman.
Members
- Solo artist; frequent collaborators included pianist Teddy Wilson and tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who nicknamed her "Lady Day".
Career
- Signed to Brunswick in 1935; recorded many sessions with Teddy Wilson, including "What a Little Moonlight Can Do".
- Toured with Count Basie and Artie Shaw in 1937–1938, among the first Black women to work with a white orchestra.
- Recorded "Strange Fruit" for Commodore in 1939, which became her best-selling record.
- Had hits on Decca in the 1940s, including "Lover Man" and "God Bless the Child".
- Arrested for narcotics in 1947 and sentenced to prison; returned to perform a sold-out Carnegie Hall concert in 1948.
- Recorded for Verve and Columbia in the 1950s, including the album Lady in Satin (1958).
- Died on July 17, 1959, at age 44 from cirrhosis and heart failure.
- Won four posthumous Grammy Awards; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Reception
At release
- AllMusic's Ron Wynn wrote that Holiday was fading but had not lost the dramatic quality of her delivery.
- Wynn said she still had the ability to project and tell a shattering story.
- Jazz Views' Jack Kenny said her readings of the popular tunes of her day revealed depths that the lyricists probably never envisaged.
- Kenny cited 'Love For Sale' as the track that stands out on this CD.
- Kenny wrote that she sings it as though for the first time, so the listener hears it as if for the first time.
- Kenny said it was fortunate that Norman Granz signed her to a contract in her final years.
- The album was released in 1958 on Verve, Granz's label, after the February 1955 session.
- The 1991 CD reissue added three tracks from an April 1954 session first issued on the Billie Holiday LP.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Trivia
- The 1954 session's trumpeter Charlie Shavers and Holiday were the only musicians who took part in both sessions.
- Leroy Lovett is credited as arranger on the original 1955 session.
- Carl Drinkard or Billy Taylor played piano on the 1955 session, and the credit lists both names.
- Most tracks on the album were later collected on many compilations and complete recording issues of Billie Holiday.
- The 1991 CD added the 1954 session as its last three tracks, starting with 'How Deep Is the Ocean'.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
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