At age 44, Billie Holiday died of cardiac arrest on July 17, 1959, depriving the world of one of its greatest jazz singers.
The illegitimate daughter of a guitar player, Billy had the kind of impoverished childhood that compels some people to strive for greatness, and others to take to crime. She picked the former option, although via a tragic route that even included her working as a prostitute and singing at bars by age 12. By 14, she had been arrested for prostitution in New York. Through it all though, she simply kept singing.
When a recording executive heard her at a club, he convinced her to record. Within a couple of years, she was a star. Listen to her performance of Strange Fruit -- about the lynching of black folk in the American South -- for an idea of why that happened. The legend only grew with time and, by the time she hit 40, she had managed to push the envelope for jazz musicians everywhere, inspiring a number of them to enhance their own skills to keep up with her particular brand of genius.
Eventually, Holiday's dependence on drugs got the better of her. Substance abuse led to her death, and all we have now are CDs to remind us of what could have been.
Photograph: A compilation CD that include the Billy Holiday's favorite songs, at Dizzy's Club in New York City.(Desiree Navarro/Getty Images)
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