“God Bless the Child”
Composed by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.; arrangement by Eddie Heywood or Danny Mendelsohn..
Recorded by Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra(*) for Okeh on May 9, 1941 in New York.
Billie Holiday, vocal. Eddie Heywood, piano, directing: Roy Eldridge, trumpet; Jimmy Powell, Ernie Powell and Lester Boone, saxophones; Paul Chapman, guitar; Grachan Moncur, bass; Herbert Cowans, drums.
(*) Actually, the small band used by Billie on this recording was pianist Eddie Heywood’s. Session #44, Columbia/Okeh: Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue.(1)
The story:
Billie Holiday was many things. First and foremost, she was a woman. She was also very beautiful, and she was black. These things made her a prime candidate for exploitation. From puberty on until her death in 1959 at age 44, she was exploited sometimes to and beyond the point of abuse by many people in many ways. What complicated Billie’s already complicated life was that often she was a willing participant in her own abuse, especially when it came to the men in her life, and narcotics. But these things alas do not greatly differentiate her from many other women who have been exploited, degraded and abused for various reasons. What made Billie Holiday unique was her ability as a singer.
Many books have already been written about Billie, and I suspect many more will be written about her. The combination of the powerful attraction of her music with the often lurid details of her life have seemingly made her story endlessly fascinating. For those who may want to delve more deeply into the details of Billie Holiday’s life and music, I have made a short bibliography which can be accessed at endnote (2)
At the time the recording presented with this post was made, Billie’s early career was in high-gear. As 1940 ended, she began a lengthy stand at the new Kelly’s Stable, 137 West 52nd Street in Manhattan. On the same bill with her initially was tenor saxophone titan Coleman Hawkins and a septet. This lineup of talent continued through February 1941. On February 21, Billie opened with a show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem for a one-week engagement, but nevertheless also continued performing at Kelly’s Stable. At the end of February, Lester Young, another tenor saxophone giant, recently out of Count Basie’s band and trying his hand at leading a small group, replaced the Coleman Hawkins band at Kelly’s. At this point, pianist Clarence Profit’s Trio was added to the show at Kelly’s. Young departed after three weeks, replaced by trumpeter Frankie Newton and his small band. Billie was presented as a part of a one-week (April 3-9) variety engagement headlined by Louis Armstrong at the Loew’s-State Theater in Times Square. This show was presented at least four times a day through that engagement. Incredibly, she continued doubling at Kelly’s during that week. Billie celebrated her 26th birthday on April 7, 1941, two days before she closed with the Armstrong show. She continued at Kelly’s through the month of April, and through May. The new band at Kelly’s starting on May 1 was led by violinist Stuff Smith who featured trumpeter/singer Hot Lips Page with his small band. Billie finally closed at Kelly’s in mid-June after a successful six-months run.(3)
A radiant Billie Holiday poses with her mother Sadie at Kelly’s Stable near the end of her engagement there in June of 1941.
The music:
I have discussed the dispute between network radio and ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), which ran from January 1 to October 31, 1941, in a number of posts here at swingandbeyond. The essence of that conflict was that ASCAP wanted more money when the music of its members, the composers of popular songs, was played on the air. During that dispute, ASCAP members’ songs were prohibited from being played on radio. This created a vacuum, which was filled partially by the writing of new songs by non-ASCAP composers. Many great new compositions appeared during this dispute, including Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train.” Also, many “classical” compositions, written before ASCAP existed, were retooled for performance by swing bands. The result was that the music of the swing era was enriched by the non-ASCAP music that found its way into the world of swing in the year 1941.
The ASCAP-radio dispute was one of the causes for the creation of the song “God Bless the Child.” Billie Holiday noticed that during this dispute, almost none of her recordings were being played on the local New York City radio stations she listened to. This bothered her because she understood that radio play of her recordings promoted their sale, and that, in part, was how she made a living. Among the musicians in Manhattan in 1941, there was a lot of discussion about the ASCAP radio ban, and what musicians could do to resist it. Billie was undoubtedly a part of that discussion.
“God Bless the Child” has been one of Billie Holiday’s most requested songs and most purchased recordings since 1941, when it was composed and first recorded. In addition, it has attracted a number of covers over the decades, with the one done in 1968 by Blood, Sweat and Tears being the most commercially successful. (A link to that recording can be found at endnote 3A.)
There have been at least two versions of how “God Bless the Child” came into being, one by Billie herself, and the other by Arthur Herzog, Jr., with whom Billie undoubtedly worked on developing the words and music. For purposes of clarity and historical accuracy, I will blend the two together. It appears that Billie got the basic idea for the song a while before it was actually put down on paper, possibly as early as 1939. Based on the evidence I have gathered, she definitely began taking steps to get the song formalized in early 1941. At that time, she met with Herzog, and the elusive Danny Mendelsohn(4), who either was still writing arrangements for her then, or had been previously, and they began discussing ideas. The song was written, with Mendelsohn taking down notes for both the lyric and the melody. Soon thereafter, Herzog took the song to a publisher and it was readily accepted. Shortly after that, Billie made the recording presented with this post.
The sheet music for “God Bless the Child” contains some curious things. I don’t understand why there is an apostrophe after the word Bless, and I am not certain which “authentic” proverb is being referred to. Nevertheless, Billie’s performance of the song is quintessential.
The arrangement on “God Bless the Child” that is used to support Billie throughout this performance was likely written by either Eddie Heywood, or Danny Mendelsohn. I also suspect that it was prepared beforehand, probably with input from Billie.
The brief introduction of ethereal unison saxophones and soft rhythm establishes the mood for what follows. Billie had a small voice and limited range, but she compensated for those limitations by imbuing her singing with great warmth and her extraordinarily elastic use of rhythm. Although she had an impeccable sense of pitch, she would often bend notes subtly to inject the sound of surprise into her singing. The backing she gets throughout the first chorus consists of gently played saxophones, Heywood’s tasty piano, and aphoristic asides provided by trumpeter Roy Eldridge. (Above right: Roy Eldridge with Billie Holiday.)
Billie’s singing on the secondary melody is a great example of her projecting at the top of her range, but doing so with such elongated phrases that one senses no strain. The Heywood/Mendelsohn arrangement facilitates Ms. Holiday’s singing here by thickening the instrumental mix behind her.
The brief cup-muted trumpet solo was played by Roy Eldridge. It provides a subtle contrast soundwise to Billie’s voice. She returns to sing the finale.
There has been a good bit of critical discussion over the years about the meaning of both the song’s title and its lyric. One opinion is: “While Billie claimed (they were) based on a passage in the Bible, the relevant verse has not yet been found. Matthew 25:29, sometimes called ‘The Parable of the Talents,” has been suggested: ‘For everyone who has will be given more and he will have abundance. Whoever does not have will be taken from him.’ But as has been true of much biblical exegesis, that passage has been subject to many different interpretations, none of which seems to fit the song.”(5) Another is that: (‘God Bless the Child’) …is not a religious song but a song about religion that’s both sacred and profane. It describes, in poetically abstract fashion, how man’s knowledge of God has no effect on his treatment of other men.”(6)
The recording presented with this post was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) The recording studio that existed at 711 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan during and after the swing era was located on the seventh floor of the building that was on the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and West 52nd. Columbia Records used that studio from the late 1930s until October 14, 1966. The last Columbia recording session in that studio was for Barbra Streisand. Shortly after that, A & R Recording, headed by the great recording engineer Phil Ramone, took over the space. Ramone recalled the facility describing the large studio there (A1) as “an A frame.” “The room’s dimensions were sixty-five feet by fifty-five feet with a forty-foot domed ceiling,…” and a wooden floor. (There was at least one other smaller studio there.) Ramone also discussed the famous Columbia “echo chamber” in the building: “Since the studio was on the top floor of the building, we had seven floors of hard steel in the back stairwell. When Columbia Records owned the building, they used the stairwell for echo. Microphones and speakers were placed on different landings; the sound that bounced off the hard surfaces was folded back into the mix.” Ramone largely abandoned that technique when he made recordings in that studio, opting instead for “my EMT plates.” (7)
(2) Here are some books that may help one to understand Billie Holiday as a person and as an artist:
— Wishing on the Moon …The Life and Times of Billie Holiday (1994), by Donald Clarke.
— Lady Day’s Diary …The Life of Billie Holiday 1937-1959 (1996), by Ken Vail.
— Billie Holiday …The Musician and the Myth (2015), by John Szwed.
Less authoritative are Billie’s own highly entertaining but often sad recollections contained in Lady Sings the Blues (1956), with William Dufty; and Billie’s Blues …The Billie Holiday Story 1933-1959 (1975), by John Chilton.
(3) Lady Day’s Diary …The Life of Billie Holiday 1937-1959 (1996), by Ken Vail, 38-41.
(3A) Here is a link to the Blood, Sweat and Tears recording of “God Bless the Child,” with David Clayton Thomas singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qS9JMJ0aaE
The first cover of “God Bless the Child” was done, perhaps surprisingly, by swing era vocalist Bea Wain on July 29, 1941. Here is a link to her recording of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82mDFmaAxrI
(4) For more information on Danny Mendelsohn, follow this link: https://swingandbeyond.com/2021/01/09/st-james-infirmary-1941-artie-shaw-with-hot-lips-page/ Please scroll down to the endnotes at the bottom of that post to access the excellent research done by swing era historian David Fletcher.
(5) Billie Holiday …The Musician and the Myth (2015), by John Szwed, 171-172.
(6) Jazz Singing …America’s Great Voices From Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond (1996), by Will Friedwald, 135.
(7) Making Records …The Scenes Behind the Music (2007), by Phil Ramone with Charles L. Granata, 136-139.
Here are links to other great recordings by Billie Holiday:
https://swingandbeyond.com/2018/04/29/strange-fruit-1939-billie-holiday/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/11/04/i-hear-music-1940-billie-holiday/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2020/09/19/any-old-time-1938-artie-shaw-and-billie-holiday/
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