Billie Holiday with Nine ~ "Fine and Mellow" Vintage Collection 1958-1961 "Fine and Mellow" is a jazz standard written by Billie Holiday, who first recorded it on April 20, 1939 on the Commodore label. It is a blues lamenting the bad treatment of a woman at the hands of "my man". The song was famously performed by Billie Holiday in 1957 in a television special, The Sound of Jazz. The lineup included several jazz legends (the first six are listed in the order of their solos): Ben Webster – tenor saxophone Lester Young – tenor saxophone Vic Dickenson – trombone Gerry Mulligan – baritone saxophone Coleman Hawkins – tenor saxophone Roy Eldridge – trumpet Doc Cheatham – trumpet Danny Barker – guitar Milt Hinton – double bass Mal Waldron – piano Osie Johnson - drums It has been covered several times, sometimes with a change in lyrics or emphasis. For example Lou Rawls switched the gender to a girlfriend and Eva Cassidy sang it in a defiant tone. Notable cover versions were sung by Nina Simone (on the 1959 At Town Hall), Dee Dee Bridgewater on her Billie Holiday tribute album, and Ella Fitzgerald on her eponymous album. "Fine and Mellow" Single by Billie Holiday Released: 1939 Recorded: April 20, 1939 Written by Billie Holiday
My man don't love me Treats me oh so mean My man he don't love me Treats me awfully He's the, lowest man That I've ever see
He wears high trimmed pan Stripes are really yellow He wears high trimmed pan Stripes are really yellow
But when he starts in to love me He's so fine and mellow
Love will make you drink and gamble Make you stay out all night long repeat Love will make you drink and gamble Make you stay out all night long repeat
Love will make you do things That you know is wrong
But if you treat me right baby I’ll stay home everyday But if you treat me right baby I’ll stay home everyday
But you're so mean to me baby I know you're gonna drive me away
Love is just like the faucet It turns off and on Love is just like the faucet It turns off and on
Sometimes when you think it's on baby It has turned off and gone
