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The recordings included on the classic album Lady Sings the Blues come from two different studio dates: a complete session recorded in 1956, and four tunes from a 1954 date. Five additional tracks were also recorded at the latter session. Three of them later surfaced on compilation LPs, and have been added here following the 12 tracks from the original album. (The other two tunes -which, according to discographies, consist of new versions of Billie's classics "I Cried For You" and "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" - were never issued and are now considered lost.) With the addition of these three bonus tracks, this release contains all known surviving tracks from the second session. The emphasis on both sessions is placed on Billie's singing. Although important musicians are present on both dates (Charlie Shavers, Tony Scott, Paul Quinichette and Wynton Kelly, on the 1956 session, and Harry "Sweets" Edison, Willie Smith and Barney Kessel, on the 1954 date), little room is left for any instrumental improvisation. Billie's voice is clearly the showcased instrument here, which as Miles Davis stated, sounded "like a horn, anyway". As the short unsigned original liner notes stated, Lady Sings the Blues was the title of a song, an album, and a book. The book came first, and it contained Billie's memories, co-written by William Dufty (a writer for the New York Post). They originally planned to call the book Bitter Crop, a line from the song "Strange Fruit", about the lynching of an African American in the South. Billie used to end all of her sets with the tune, which she re-recorded for this labum. However, the title of the book was changed to Lady Sings the Blues at the suggestion of the publisher, even though Holiday only rarely recorded blues tunes and didn't consider herself a blues singer. In any case, the title stuck, and Billie recorded a song by that title shortly after (written by the underrated pianist Herbie Nichols with lyrics by Billie.