Billie Holiday(April 7, 1915 / July 17, 1959), also called Lady Day (and born Eleanora Fagan Gough in Baltimore MD), was an American singer, generally considered one of the greatest female jazzvoices of all time, alongside Sarah Vaughanand Ella Fitzgerald. She sang with Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Artie Shawand more - but it was her voicethat was said to dominate many others' music. Holiday was working for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to a song entitled "Strange Fruit," which began as a poem about the lynching of a black man written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allen" for the work. The poem was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings, where it was eventually heard by the manager of Cafe Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday.
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Didn't Know What Time It Was Lyrics
Billie Holiday
Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart
Once I was young --
yesterday, perhaps --
danced with Jim and Paul
and kissed some other chaps.
Once I was young,
but never was naive.
I thought I had a trick or two
up my imaginary sleeve.
And now I know I was naive.
REFRAIN
I didn't know what time it was
then I met you.
Oh, what a lovely time it was,
How sublime it was too!
I didn't know what time it was
you hold my hand.
Warm like the month of May it was,
and I'll say it was grand.
Grand to be alive, to be young,
to be mad, to be yours alone!
Grand tosee your face, feel your touch,
hear your voice say I'm all your own.
I didn't know what time it was
live was no prize.
I whanted love and here it was
shining out of your eyes.
I'm wise,
and I know what time it is now.
VERSE 2
Once I was old --
Twenty years or so --
rather well preserved:
the wrinkles did't show.
Once I was old,
but not too old for fun.
I used to hunt for little girls
up my immaginary gun.
But now I ain for only one!
REFRAIN
I didn't know what time it was
then I met you.
Oh, what a lovely time it was,
How sublime it was too!
I didn't know what time it was
you hold my hand.
Warm like the month of May it was,
and I'll say it was grand.
Grand to be alive, to be young,
to be mad, to be yours alone!
Grand tosee your face, feel your touch,
hear your voice say I'm all your own.
I didn't know what time it was
live was no prize.
I whanted love and here it was
shining out of your eyes.
I'm wise,
and I know what time it is now.