Anything Muppet caricature of Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was a pioneering jazz singer whose accomplishments included singing with the bands of Count Basie and Artie Shaw, recording "Strange Fruit" (about a Southern lynching), and as one of the top record stars for Columbia and Decca. Nicknamed "Lady Day," some of her other best known songs include renditions of "Lady Sings the Blues," "I'll Be Seeing You," "Easy Living," and "Night and Day."
She wrote the lyrics to the song "God Bless the Child," performed in The Muppet Show episode 516. Her recording of "Lady Sings the Blues" was included on the record accompanying Sesame Street Music Magazine Vol. 3, No. 8.
In popular culture, she was portrayed by Diana Ross in the movie Lady Sings the Blues and by Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday.
References[]
- In The Muppet Show episode 516, Rowlf the Dog and Gladys Knight discuss Billie Holiday, as a lead-in to Knight performing "God Bless the Child" (which Holiday recorded and for which she wrote the lyrics).
- At the end of Sesame Street Episode 2259, Edith Prickley tells Hoots the Owl she knows something of jazz herself since she used to run a home for hep cats and joins him by scatting. "Ever hear of Lady Day? Well, they don't call me Lady Night for nothin'!"
- The Sesame Street song "Near and Far," which spoofs "Night and Day," is sung by an Anything Muppet caricature of Billie Holiday.