This 2CD set is two entirely separate albums in one cover. The idea is to draw together all the songs that Billie Holiday wrote or co-composed, firstly in her own performances and secondly in interpretations by others singers including Helen Merrill, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Etta Jones, Abbey Lincoln and Anita O’Day (whose extensive personnels are not listed above). Good as some of those other versions are, the real interest here is in Billie’s own records, and some of them in particular are lesser-known gems. She is perfectly complemented by Tab Smith on soprano sax (rather than his usual alto) on ‘Everything Happens for the Best’ and ‘Long Gone Blues’, and she revels in the swinging accompaniment of Sy Oliver’s band on ‘Now or Never’. There are several blues here, with Billie’s lyrics veering from the lovelorn (‘Fine and Mellow’) to the authoritative (‘Now or Never’ – on two versions), but her best work tends to be in longer form, including ‘Somebody’s On My Mind’, a collaboration with Arthur Herzog that deserves to be just as well-known as their famous ‘God Bless The Child’. A couple of Basie film short soundtracks are included and these, together with some excellently recorded work from Decca, Columbia, and Commodore, force us to reconsider Billie as an even more complete and rounded artist than we already know from her consummate vocal delivery.