Strange Fruit

{{Infobox song

| name = Strange Fruit

| cover = Strange-Fruit-Commodore-1939.jpg

| type = single

| album =

| released = 1939

| recorded = April 20, 1939{{cite web |url=http://www.billieholidaysongs.com/all_songs.htm#1939 |title=Billie Holiday recording sessions |publisher=Billieholidaysongs.com |access-date=April 20, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528124535/http://www.billieholidaysongs.com/all_songs.htm#1939 |archive-date=May 28, 2010 }}

| studio =

| genre = *Blues

jazz

| length = 3:02

| label = Commodore

| writer = Abel Meeropol

| producer = Milt Gabler

| prev_title = I'm Gonna Lock My Heart

| prev_year = 1938

| next_title = God Bless the Child

| next_year = 1942

| misc = {{External music video|header=Official Audio|{{YouTube|Lx_mOECjT_8|"Strange Fruit"}}}}

}}

"Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol (under his pseudonym Lewis Allan) and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song

protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century and the great majority of victims were black.{{Cite book|title=An American Dilemma|title-link=An American Dilemma|last=Myrdal|first=Gunnar|author-link=Gunnar Myrdal |year=1944 |publisher=Harper & Brothers}}{{rp|p=561}} The song was described as "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement" by Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun.{{Cite book |last=Margolick |first=David |author-link=David Margolick |title=Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights |publisher=Running Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-7624-0677-1 |chapter=Chapter One |quote=Ahmet Ertegun, the legendary record producer, called 'Strange Fruit,' which Holiday first sang sixteen years before Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, 'a declaration of war ... the beginning of the civil rights movement.' |chapter-url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/first/m/margolick-fruit.html |via=The New York Times}}{{Cite web |last=Sonnenberg |first=Rhonda |date=September 29, 2023 |title=Artist collaborations with social justice organizations propel change |url=https://www.splcenter.org/news/2023/09/29/artist-collaborations-social-justice |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616212556/https://www.splcenter.org/news/2023/09/29/artist-collaborations-social-justice |archive-date=2024-06-16 |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}

Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife Anne Shaffer and the singer Laura Duncan and performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. Holiday's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978.{{cite web |url=http://www.proquest.com/blog/pqblog/2015/PQIS2015-No-Encore-Billie-Holiday-Strange-Fruit.html|last=Bessette Knight |first=Peg |title=No Encore {{!}} The 100th Anniversary of Billie Holiday's Birth and the Legacy of "Strange Fruit"|website=ProQuest |type=Blog |access-date=June 16, 2015}} It was also included in the "Songs of the Century" list of the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.{{Cite web |date=March 7, 2001 |title=Songs of the Century |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/07/list.top.365.songs/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913071148/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/07/list.top.365.songs/ |archive-date=2024-09-13 |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=CNN}} In 2002, "Strange Fruit" was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".{{Cite web|last=Allen |first=Erin |date=April 16, 2015 |title=The Power of a Poem |website=Library of Congress |type=Blog |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2015/04/the-power-of-a-poem/|access-date=June 18, 2021}}

Poem and song

File:Lynching_of_two_African_American_men_in_Marion_Indiana_on_7_August_1930_detail,_"Marion,_Ind,_Aug._7,_1930"_(NBY_3117)_(cropped).jpg, August 7, 1930, as inspiring his poem.{{Cite news |last1=Richman |first1=Joe |last2=Diaz-Cortes |first2=Anayansi |last3=George |first3=Deborah |last4=Shapiro |first4=Ben |last5=Freemark |first5=Samara |last6=Baer |first6=Annie |date=August 6, 2010 |title=Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129025516 |access-date=August 15, 2013 |work=All Things Considered |publisher=NPR}}]]

"Strange Fruit" originated as a protest poem against lynchings.{{cite book |last=Margolick |first=David |title=Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights|url=https://archive.org/details/strangefruitbill00marg|url-access=registration |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=Running Press |date=2000|isbn=978-0762406777}}{{rp|pp=25–27}}{{cite news|date=September 5, 2012|work=Morning Edition|publisher=NPR|title=The Strange Story of the Man Behind 'Strange Fruit' |last=Blair |first=Elizabeth |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit}} In the poem, Abel Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings of African Americans, inspired by Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.{{cite news|title=Strange Fruit is still a song for today |first= Edwin |last=Moore|newspaper=The Guardian|date=September 18, 2010|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/18/strange-fruit-song-today |access-date=September 23, 2010 }}

Meeropol published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in January 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine of the New York teachers union.{{page needed|date=October 2024}} Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. First performed by Meeropol's wife Anne Shaffer and their friends in social contexts,{{Cite journal|last=Carvalho|first=John M.|date=2013|title='Strange Fruit': Music between Violence and Death|journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=Hoboken, New Jersey|volume=71|issue=1|pages=111–119 at 111–112|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6245.2012.01547.x|jstor=23597541|issn=0021-8529|doi-access=free}} his protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. Meeropol, Shaffer, and the Black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden.{{Cite book |last=Margolick |first=David |title=Strange fruit: the biography of a song |date=2001 |publisher=Ecco Press |isbn=978-0-06-095956-2 |edition=1. |location=New York}}{{rp|p=36-37}}

Billie Holiday's performances and recordings

One version of events claims that Barney Josephson, the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Holiday's show at Café Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her.{{Cite book |last=Lynskey |first=Dorian |title=33 revolutions per minute: a history of protest songs |title-link=33 Revolutions per Minute (book) |year=2011 |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn=978-0-571-24134-7 |edition=1.|location=London}} Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father Clarence Holiday, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances.{{rp|pp=40-46}} Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.

{{Listen

| type = music

| filename = Strange Fruit (Billie Holiday).ogg

| title = "Strange Fruit" (1939) by Billie Holiday

}}

Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS.{{rp|p=61-62}} When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, owner of the Commodore label.{{Cite AV media |title=700 Sundays |date=2004 |publisher=HBO |id={{IMDb title|qid=Q48672679|id=tt3383040|title=700 Sundays}} |oclc=112 |people=Billy Crystal}} Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract so she could record it; Frankie Newton's eight-piece Café Society Band was used for the session in an arrangement by Newton.{{Cite web |title=George Kleinsinger |url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/george-kleinsinger/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=WNYC |location=New York |language=en}} Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. On the recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds. It was recorded on April 20, 1939.{{Cite web |last=Amoako |first=Aida |date=April 17, 2019 |title=Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time? |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007110154/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time |archive-date=2024-10-07 |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=BBC}} Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.Billy Crystal, 700 Sundays, pp. 46–47.

Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. The song was highly regarded; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies, in time becoming the biggest-selling recording of Holiday's career.{{Cite web |date=2018-12-04 |title=Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" (1939) |url=https://music.si.edu/object-day/billie-holidays-strange-fruit-1939 |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=Smithsonian Music |language=en}}

In her 1956 autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, writing that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty—claimed, "I ain't never read that book."{{rp|pp=31-32}}

Holiday was so well known for her rendition of "Strange Fruit" that "she crafted a relationship to the song that would make them inseparable".{{Cite journal |last=Perry |first=Samuel |year=2012 |title="Strange Fruit," Ekphrasis, and the Lynching Scene |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02773945.2013.839822 |journal=Rhetoric Society Quarterly |volume=43 |issue=5 |pages=449–474 |doi=10.1080/02773945.2013.839822 |s2cid=144222928 |url-access=limited |access-date=2024-10-28 |via=Taylor & Francis}} Holiday's 1939 version of the song was included in the National Recording Registry on January 27, 2003.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Strange Fruit {{!}} Lynching, Billie Holiday, Abel Meeropol, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Strange-Fruit-song |last=Sottosanti |first=Karen |date=2024-10-08 |language=en}}

In October 1939, Samuel Grafton of the New York Post said of "Strange Fruit", "If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its Marseillaise."{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/16/protest-songs-billie-holiday-strange-fruit|title=Strange Fruit: the first great protest song|first=Dorian|last=Lynskey|work=The Guardian|date=February 15, 2011}} The anti-lynching movement adopted "Strange Fruit" as its anthem.{{Cite web |last=Katz |first=Joel |date=January 17, 2003 |title=Strange Fruit |url=https://itvs.org/about/pressroom/press-release/strange-fruit |access-date=30 March 2020 |website=ITVS}} Since the 1930s several unsuccessful attempts were made in Congress to have lynching made a federal crime which were stymied by filibusters in the Senate by Southerners. In an attempt to achieve a two-thirds majority in the Senate that would break the filibusters by Southern senators, anti-racism activists were encouraged to mail copies of "Strange Fruit" to their senators. {{rp|p=77}}{{cite web|title=How Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' Confronted an Ugly Era of Lynchings|url=https://www.history.com/news/billie-holiday-strange-fruit-lynchings|first=Karen Juanita|last=Carrillo|work=History Channel|date=May 10, 2023}}{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/CBSNews/videos/the-history-behind-lynching-protest-song-strange-fruit/502959267394021/|title=The history behind lynching protest song, "Strange Fruit"|work=CBS News|date=April 24, 2021|via=Facebook}}

Cover versions

Cover versions of this song include Nina Simone, René Marie, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Jeff Buckley, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Josh White, UB40, Bettye LaVette, and Edward W. Hardy.{{rp|p=24}}{{cite web|first=loc|last=gov|title=Josh White:Strange Fruit|publisher=loc.gov|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/smor.ALB-1521/|access-date=13 May 2019 }}{{cite web |first=Lara |last=Pellegrinelli |title=Evolution Of A Song: 'Strange Fruit' |website=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2009/06/22/105699329/evolution-of-a-song-strange-fruit|date=22 June 2009 |access-date=23 February 2015 }}{{Cite magazine |last=Shaffer |first=Claire |date=June 12, 2020 |title=Bettye LaVette Unleashes Cover of Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bettye-lavette-strange-fruit-billie-holiday-1014411/ |access-date=2024-10-28 |magazine=Rolling Stone}}{{Cite web |last=Cristi |first=A. A. |date=June 24, 2020 |title=Video: Listen To Edward W. Hardy's Haunting String Quartet Arrangement Of "Strange Fruit" |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwclassical/article/Video-Listen-To-Edward-W-Hardys-Haunting-String-Quartet-Arrangement-Of-Strange-Fruit-20200624 |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=BroadwayWorld.com |language=en}}

Simone recorded the song for her album Pastel Blues in 1965,{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time |title =Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time|date=17 April 2019 |first=Aida|last=Amoako |work=BBC |access-date=20 April 2020}} a recording described by journalist David Margolick in The New York Times as featuring a "plain and unsentimental voice". René Marie's rendition was coupled with the Confederate anthem "Dixie" on her album Vertigo, making for an "uncomfortable juxtaposition". LA Times noted that Siouxsie and the Banshees's version from the 1987 album Through the Looking Glass contained "a solemn string section behind the vocals" and "a bridge of New Orleans funeral-march jazz" which enhanced the singer's "evocative interpretation".{{cite news|first=Terry|last=Atkinson|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-15-ca-10501-story.html|title=Siouxsie Looks Back|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|date=15 March 1987|access-date=15 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711171722/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-15-ca-10501-story.html|archive-date=2019-07-11 }} The group's rendition was selected by the Mojo staff to be included on the compilation Music Is Love: 15 Tracks That Changed the World."Music Is Love! (15 Tracks That Changed The World) CD". Mojo. June 2007.{{cite web|first=John Edward |last=Hasse |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/strange-fruit-still-haunting-at-80-11556654252|title='Strange Fruit': Still Haunting at 80|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=30 April 2019 |access-date=20 May 2019}} Jeff Buckley covered "Strange Fruit" after discovering it via the Siouxsie and the Banshees' rendition.{{cite web |first=Jean-Marc |last=Grosdemouge|url=https://www.epiphanies-mag.com/2005/06/jeff-buckley-larchange-devoile/|title=Jeff Buckley l'Archange Dévoilé --[Stan Cuesta- interview] |publisher=

Epiphanies-mag.com

|date=June 2005 |access-date=2024-11-05}}{{cite work |first=Stan |last=Cuesta |title=Jeff Buckley |publisher=Castor Music |year=2009 |isbn=978-2859208073}} Journalist Lara Pellegrinelli wrote that Buckley while singing it on the live album Live at Sin-é: (Legacy Edition) "seems to meditate on the meaning of humanity the way Walt Whitman did, considering all of its glorious and horrifying possibilities".

=Influence in other media=

Kanye West sampled Nina Simone’s 1965 rendition of the song on his 2013 song "Blood on the Leaves" from his album Yeezus.{{Cite magazine |last=Browne |first=David |date=2020-08-07 |title='Strange Fruit': The Timely Return of One of America's Most Powerful Protest Songs |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/strange-fruit-history-legacy-1030942/ |access-date=2024-10-28 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}{{Cite thesis |last=Walker |first=Charles |title=Sampling Nina Simone in Modern Hip-Hop |date=2019 |access-date=2024-10-28 |degree=Music |publisher=Texas Christian University |url=https://repository.tcu.edu/bitstream/handle/116099117/27054/Walker__Charles-Honors_Project.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |language=en}}
Lillian Smith's novel Strange Fruit (1944) was said to have been inspired by Holiday's version of the song.{{cite news|last=Bass |first=Erin Z. |url=http://deepsouthmag.com/2012/12/the-strange-life-of-strange-fruit/|title=The Strange Life of "Strange Fruit"|work=Deep South Magazine|date=December 12, 2012}}
Patrick Phillips' non-fiction book Blood at the Root (2016) takes its name from words in the song.{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Carol |date=2016-09-28 |title=American Apartheid: A Georgia County Drove Out All Its Black Citizens in 1912 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/books/review/blood-at-the-root-patrick-phillips.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240124001816/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/books/review/blood-at-the-root-patrick-phillips.html |archive-date=2024-01-24 |access-date=2024-10-28 |work=The New York Times |department=Nonfiction |language=en-US |type=Review |issn=0362-4331}}

Awards and honors

1999: Time magazine named "Strange Fruit" as "Best Song of the Century" in its December 31, 1999, issue.{{Cite web |last=Sanburn |first=Josh |date=2011-10-21 |title=Is 'Strange Fruit' one of the All-TIME 100 Best Songs? |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/24/the-all-time-100-songs/slide/strange-fruit-billie-holiday/ |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=Time.com |language=en-US}}
2002: The Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to add to the National Recording Registry.{{cite web|title=National Recording Registry 2002 |url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0401/nrr-02.html|website=loc.gov|access-date=29 January 2018}}
2005: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution listed the song as Number One on "100 Songs of the South".{{cite web|url=http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/swf/songsofthesouth/index.html |title=100 Songs of the South | accessAtlanta.com|publisher=Alt.coxnewsweb.com|access-date=April 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050915214809/http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/swf/songsofthesouth/index.html |archive-date=September 15, 2005 |url-status=dead}}
2010: The New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2010/03/strange-fruit-holiday-blood|title=Top 20 Political Songs: Strange Fruit|first=Ian K|last=Smith|work=New Statesman|date=March 25, 2010|access-date=March 25, 2010}}
2021: Rolling Stone listed it as the 21st best song on their "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time".{{Cite magazine |date=2021-09-15 |title=The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/ |access-date=2022-07-19 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}
2025: Rolling Stone placed it at number 3 on its list of "The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time."{{cite news |title=The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-protest-songs-1235154848/ |publisher=Rolling Stone |date=27 January 2025 |access-date=28 January 2025}}

Bibliography

{{cite book|last1=Clarke|first1=Donald|date=1995|title=Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon|location=München|publisher=Piper|isbn=978-3-492-03756-3}}
{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Angela |author-link=Angela Yvonne Davis |title=Blues Legacies and Black Feminism |date=1999 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=0-679-77126-3 |chapter="Strange Fruit": Musical and Social Consciousness |access-date=2024-10-28 |orig-date=1998 |chapter-url=https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/0574/Davis%20-%20Strange%20Fruit%20-%20Music%20and%20Social%20Consciousness.pdf |via=Amherst.edu}}
{{cite book|last1=Holiday|first1=Billie|last2=Dufty|first2=William|date=1992|title=Lady Sings the Blues|publisher=Edition Nautilus|isbn=978-3-89401-110-9}}
{{cite book|last1=Margolick|first1=David|author-link=David Margolick|date=2001|title=Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=978-0-060-95956-2|url=https://archive.org/details/strangefruitbill00marg|url-access=registration}}

References

External links

[https://www.slps.org/cms/lib03/MO01001157/Centricity/Domain/2510/Strange%20Fruit.pdf Text of poem "Strange Fruit."]
[https://archive.org/details/78_strange-fruit_billie-holiday-and-her-orchestra-sonny-white-lewis-allan_gbia0160336a "Strange Fruit"], 78rpm Record, Internet Archive
{{YouTube|-DGY9HvChXk|Film of Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" (1959)|link=no}}
{{cite web |url= https://newsreel.org/video/strange-fruit |date= 2002 |title= Strange Fruit |work= Documentary |publisher= News Reel |url-status= live |archive-date= April 23, 2004 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040423102858/http://www.newsreel.org/films/strangefruit.htm }}
{{cite web |url= https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/ |title= Strange Fruit |date= Mar 31, 2022 |orig-year= 2003 |series= Independent Lens |work= Documentary |publisher= PBS }}
[http://www.shmoop.com/strange-fruit/ "Strange Fruit"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302082517/http://www.shmoop.com/strange-fruit/ |date=March 2, 2012 }}, Shmoop, analysis of lyrics, historical and literary allusions - student & teaching guide
{{MusicBrainz work|mbid=e14b0233-5d5e-3d46-9ff5-87f89bb0ffb4|name=Strange Fruit}}
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jb1w1 BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Series 17, Strange Fruit]
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25034438 "Strange Fruit: A protest song with enduring relevance"]
{{cite podcast