On October 4, 1944, Billie Holiday cut her first record for Decca, and it nearly didn’t start. Milt Gabler had signed her that August, and for the song she wanted, “Lover Man,” she asked him for strings — the treatment reserved for singers like Frank Sinatra, not for jazz vocalists working with six pieces. “I went on my knees to him,” she later said. Gabler gave in. When Holiday walked into the session and saw the string section Toots Camarata had assembled, she turned around and walked straight back out; Camarata said she was simply overwhelmed. She came back. The song itself had waited out the musicians’ union recording ban: Holiday said Jimmy Davis wrote it while in the Army, brought it straight to her, and shipped out to Europe, and she grumbled that co-writer Ram Ramirez got all the credit. Released as Decca 23391, it reached No. 5 R&B and No. 16 pop, one of her biggest hits.
Billie Holiday at the Downbeat club, New York, ca. February 1947, about two years after “Lover Man” became one of her biggest hits. (Photo: William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Sources: Billie Holiday — Wikipedia (Gabler signed her to Decca on August 7, 1944; “Lover Man” her first Decca recording, No. 16 pop / No. 5 R&B; she asked for strings, associated with Sinatra; “I went on my knees to him”; on October 4, 1944, she saw the string ensemble and walked out; Camarata said she was overwhelmed with joy) , Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) — JazzStandards.com (recording ban delayed the song until October 4, 1944; Holiday’s account that Jimmy Davis wrote it in the Army, brought it to her and was sent to Europe; her complaint that Ramirez got all the credit; Camarata’s “turned right around and walked out”) , Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) — Wikipedia (written by Davis, Ramirez and Sherman; Holiday’s Decca recording, Grammy Hall of Fame 1989) , Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?), Decca 23391 A, matrix 72404 — Internet Archive, Great 78 Project (label: Davis–Sherman–Ramirez; recorded October 4, 1944)
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