Billie Holiday: Lover Man (1944)

According to her autobiography, Billie Holiday begged Decca Records to let her record "Lover Man" with strings. "People don't understand the kind of fight it takes," she wrote, "to record what you want to record the way you want to record it." She got her way, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. What ever made Billie think that she and schmaltz would be well matched? Her singing is amazing as always. But Toots Camarata's syrupy fiddles and lugubrious tempo diminish Billie's dignity, not enhance it. "Sometimes," Billie conceded, "it's worse to win a fight than to lose." Amen to that.