Lady Sings The Blues (1972 Film)

Face it, when searching for female singers to portray the hard-knock life of troubled jazz legend Billie Holiday, Diana Ross's name shouldn't even have come to mind. But portray her she did, earning herself an Oscar nod in the process. The mother of all divas did Lady Day's legacy proud. This soundtrack (which includes dialogue from the 1972 film) ain't Holiday, but it ain't bad; Ross is in fine and flavorful voice. She manages to both capture Holiday's idiosyncratic sound (which such pretenders to the throne as Erykah Badu have trampled on) and still sound enough like herself to satisfy her own legions of fans. She conjures up Holiday's vulnerability and phrasing without attempting to slavishly imitate. As an homage this works. --Amy Linden