Lady in Satin Billie Holiday & Ray Ellis - I’m A Fool To Want You (Columbia Records 1958)

Lady in Satin is an album by jazz singer Billie Holiday released in 1958 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 1157 in mono and CS 8048 in stereo. It is the next to final album completed by the singer and released in her lifetime (her final album, Billie Holiday, being recorded in March 1959 and released just after her death). The original album was produced by Irving Townsend, and engineered by Fred Plaut. Unlike the bulk of Holiday’s recordings, rather than in the setting of a jazz combo Holiday returns to the backdrop of full orchestral arrangements as done during her Decca years. The album consists of songs Holiday had never recorded before. The arrangements were by bandleader Ray Ellis. Soloists on the album included Mel Davis, Urbie Green, and bebop trombone pioneer J.J. Johnson. Ray Ellis said of the album in 1997: “I would say that the most emotional moment was her listening to the playback of “I’m a Fool to Want You“. There were tears in her we finished the album I went into the control r