Nina Simone's album Pastel Blues released in 1965 includes her own version of the song. Which is what you have here. Follow us @ https://www.facebook.com/iloveancestry https://twitter.com/LovingAncestry http://iloveancestry.tumblr.com http://pinterest.com/iloveancestry https://www.youtube.com/iloveancestry A brief history of "Strange Fruit" "Some folks missed the point...They'll ask me to sing that sexy song about the people swingin'." -- Billie Holliday (from a 1958 interview, where she was asked about the popularity of the song "Strange Fruit," which charted at #16 when she first recorded it in 1939) Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to "Strange Fruit", a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings. It was eventually heard by Barney Josephson, proprietor of Café Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday. She performed it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, fearing possible retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death and that this played a role in her resistance to performing it. When Holiday's producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive, Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his Commodore Records. That was done on April 20, 1939, and "Strange Fruit" remained in her repertoire for twenty years. She later recorded it again for Verve. While the Commodore release did not get any airplay, the controversial song sold well, though Gabler attributed that mostly to the record's other side, "Fine and Mellow", which was a jukebox hit. "The version I did for Commodore," Holiday said of "Strange Fruit", "became my biggest selling record." "Strange Fruit" was the equivalent of a top twenty hit in the 1930s. For her performance of "Strange Fruit" at the Café Society, she had waiters silence the crowd when the song began. During the song's long introduction, the lights dimmed and all movement had to cease. As Holiday began singing, only a small spotlight illuminated her face. On the final note, all lights went out and when they came back on, Holiday was gone. Holiday said her father Clarence Holiday was denied treatment for a fatal lung disorder because of prejudice and that singing "Strange Fruit" reminded her of the incident. "It reminds me of how Pop died, but I have to keep singing it, not only because people ask for it, but because twenty years after Pop died the things that killed him are still happening in the South," she said in her autobiography. (info: "Lady Sings the Blues" (1956) & Time magazine) Stay informed about our work. Subscribe to I Love Ancestry eNews: http://eepurl.com/CLJan - Our strength lies in collective action. Join Us NOW! I Love Ancestry http://www.iloveancestry.com

• published: 22 Aug 2013
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