Left Alone (song)

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"Left Alone"
Song by Mal Waldron
Composer(s) Mal Waldron
Lyricist(s) Billie Holiday

"Left Alone" is a jazz song written by singer Billie Holiday and pianist/composer Mal Waldron, and published by E.B. Marks.

Contents

Background

This is one of seven songs written by or co-written by Holiday that she never recorded. [1] [2] According to Waldron, Holiday "came up with the lyrics and sang them to him on a cross-country flight; when the plane landed the song was done." [3]

Mal Waldron began working as pianist for Holiday in mid-1953. Holiday had intended to record the song a number of times but "always forget the damned sheet music." [4] However, Waldron himself recorded the song on his 1959 album Left Alone , and near the end of the LP discusses the origin of the song. [5]

Recordings

Waldron frequently performed the song for albums, often with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin (who also played on the Left Alone album). Versions are included in Mal: Live 4 to 1 (1971), Like Old Times (1976), Left Alone '86 (1986), Into the Light (1989), My Dear Family (1993), and Left Alone Revisited (2002).

Other jazz performers who've recorded the song include:

An instrumental version of the song appeared on Joe Satriani's Time Machine in 1993. The Satriani version, titled "All Alone", was released as a single, reached No. 21 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart [7] and received a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1995 Grammy Awards. [8]

Notes

  1. ↑ Stuart Nicholson (1995). Billie Holiday . Northeastern University Press. ISBN   1-55553-303-5.
  2. ↑ Billie Holiday. THE BEST OF BILLIE HOLIDAY: Songs Recorded and Made Famous By Lady Day. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN   0-7935-3687-1.
  3. ↑ Griffin, Farah Jasmine (2002). If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday. Random House. p. 173.
  4. ↑ Studio chatter. The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945–1959. ASIN: B0000046P3, Polygram Records
  5. ↑ Liner Notes for Mal Waldron LP "Left Alone"
  6. ↑ "Sixteen Sunsets - Jane Ira Bloom | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic . Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Time Machine – Joe Satriani | Awards". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
  8. ↑ "37th Grammy Awards – 1995". Rock on the Net. Retrieved May 13, 2016.

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References

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