78 RPM Billie Holiday COMMODORE 526 Strange Fruit / Fine and Mellow pressed 1939
$
125
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Description
78 vintage Commodore 526 record from 1939 - Billie Holiday - blues and jazz singer
I believe this is an original pressing with 52nd Street address at bottom of labels. This variation with recording date written out as "April, 1939" (not "4-39"). The side A writers credit is "Lewis Allen", without the hyphen between. Also, the side B artist text boldness and orientation is the same as side A.
- Matrix / Runout (Side A): WP 24403-B 5 at the 12:00 position
- Matrix / Runout (Side B): WP 24405-A 3 at the 12:00 position
Recorded April 20, 1939.
From [link removed by eBay]:After overcoming a reluctance to tackle it, Holiday made “Strange Fruit” her signature closing. As her set was coming to an end, waiters would stop serving. Then Holiday would sit by herself on a stool with only the mic and a pin spotlight on her face as she sang. After the last lines: "Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck/For the rain to gather/For the wind to suck/For the sun to rot/For the tree to drop/Here is a strange and bitter crop”—a chilled silence often followed, and Holiday would leave the stage.
“When the lights came back on, she would be gone, there’d be no encore,” says Whitehead. “She would be off the stage—that was her request—but she wanted to just let the song hang there. And that would be her final statement. And they often talk about how the white audiences would be uncomfortable to clap.”
Strange Fruit / Fine and Mellow - rates E- to E, still shiny, light rubs or scuffs, light digs, plays super well on my Dual 1219 turntable with 2.7 78 stylus, very slight background noise, an occasional light pop - a really nice playing record.
Please look at the photos.
jazz pop blues black racist racial hanging
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