Los Angeles – September 25, 2020 – Verve/UMe will release the official companion soundtrack for the anticipated documentary “Billie” about legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday on November 13. Billie: The Original Soundtrack, which will be available on CD, LP and digitally for streaming and download, collects some of Holiday’s most popular songs featured throughout the transfixing film including “God Bless The Child,” “I Only Have Eyes For You,” “I Loves You, Porgy” and “Strange Fruit” along with instrumental cues. Pre-order is available now and “I Only Have Eyes For You” is available to stream or as an instant grat download with digital pre-order.

Pre-order Billie: The Original Soundtrack and stream “I Only Have Eyes For You” here: https://UMe.lnk.to/BillieOriginalSoundtrack

Playing out like a film noir, “Billie,” directed by James Erskine, explores the story of the world’s greatest jazz singer, whose life was mired in controversy, through a wealth of never-before-heard taped recorded in the 1970s by the journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl. Over eight years, Kuehl tracked down and recorded over 200 hours of interviews with extraordinary and brilliant characters that populated the iconic and controversial singer’s short, tumultuous life. But after Kuehl’s unexpected death, her tapes were never heard. Until now. Using state-of-the-art techniques to bring her performances to life in color for the first time together with home movie footage, specially shot material, archive and still images, “Billie” plays out as a film noir and captures the complexity of a legend through the eyes of a woman whose obsession would lead to her own mysterious death.

Holiday had one of the greatest voices of all time. She was a woman of breathtaking talent and global popularity while also stirring controversy. She started a notable rebellion singing “Strange Fruit” which exposed the realities of Black life in America and earned her powerful enemies. Raw, emotional and brutally honest, “Billie” is filled with incredible, unheard testimonies from musical greats like Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie. These intimate testimonies are not only told by some of the musical greats that knew Holiday best, but Holiday herself is revealed through the eyes of her cousin, her school friends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her.

Riveting performances, many newly restored and colorized, are featured throughout the film, showcasing Holiday doing what she did best and like never seen before. The perfect musical companion to the film, Billie: The Original Soundtrack, includes the classic studio versions of many of these songs such as “Now or Never,” “God Bless The Child,” “Fine And Mellow,” “I Only Have Eyes For You” and “Strange Fruit,” the anti-lynching protest song which Rolling Stone recently remarked, “with the return of Black Lives Matter protests to national headlines, a song written just over 80 years ago has taken on startling new relevance.” Other highlights on the album include a live performance of “Don’t Explain,” recorded at Carnegie Hall, and two instrumental pieces from the film.

Taken together the documentary and companion soundtrack offer an extraordinary and illuminating portrait of the beguiling Lady Day whose life and legacy continues to fascinate and come into even more focus more than six decades after hear death as her timeless music remains as relevant and influential as ever.

 

BILLIE: THE OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK TRACKLISTING

1. Now or Never
   2. God Bless the Child
   3. Hoppin’ Around
   4. Blues are Brewin’
   5. Funeral in New Orleans
   6. Fine and Mellow
   7. Strange Fruit
   8. Just One More Chance
   9. My Man
   10. I Only Have Eyes For You
   11. I’ll Never Smile Again
   12. Don’t Explain
   13. I Loves You, Porgy

Billie – In Theaters & Premiering Virtually December 4th, 2020

 

 

Crafted from extraordinary unheard interviews, and restoring key performances into color for the first time, BILLIE is the story of the singer who changed the face of American music, and the journalist who died trying to tell it.

Billie Holiday had one of the greatest voices of all time. She was a woman of breath-taking talent and global popularity while also stirring controversy.  She started a notable rebellion singing “Strange Fruit” which exposed the realities of Black life in America and earned her powerful enemies.  Raw, emotional and brutally honest, Billie is filled with incredible, unheard testimonies from musical greats like Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie.” 

Then in the late 1960’s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer’s short, tumultuous life. 

These incredibly intimate testimonies are not only told by some of the musical greats, but Billie Holiday herself is revealed through the eyes of her cousin, her school friends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her. Linda’s book was never finished and the tapes unplayed – until now.

With unprecedented and exclusive access to Linda’s astonishing 200 hours of never-before-heard interviews, BILLIE showcases an American legend, capturing her depths and complexity through the voices of those who knew her best. Painstakingly restored with footage and stills colorized by one of the leading color artists, it is an arresting and powerful tale of one of the greatest singers who ever lived, and of Linda Lipnack Kuehl, the woman who would sacrifice her life in trying to tell it.