Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday

Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday's sixth studio album, came out on Clef Records in December 1956, landing at the same time as her autobiography of the same name. Norman Granz produced it, and it was pulled together from sessions taped in 1954 and 1956, and it turned out to be her last album for Clef, which was folded into Verve the following year.

Lady Day sings the way the great horn players of her time played, bending the phrasing and tugging at the tempo until a line sounds half-spoken, half-sighed, and the blues here feel lived in rather than performed. "God Bless the Child" is the song from it that has found its way onto the countdowns.

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