Im doing a school presentation on Billie Holiday for our section on the Harlem Renassiance. What are a couple of her most influential songs in your opinion? Thanks in advance.

Lady Day's signature songs:


Strange Fruit - one of the first Civil Rights songs and anthem for the anti-lynching movement.


There is even a book about that song and a documentary.

http://tinyurl.com/jzz62







There was an episode on that TV show Touched by An Angel called "God Bless The Child" that used the story about the first time she sings the song at the Café Society in 1939.


The man who wrote the song under the pseudonym Lewis Allan was a school teacher and union activist was actually Abel Meeropol. He later would adopt Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's children.



Her other signature songs would be:

God Bless The Child
I Cover the Waterfront