NightAire
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Joined: 20 February 2010
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Posts: 998
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| Posted: 18 October 2022 at 9:23pm | IP Logged
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I'm getting the impression Billie Holiday's version of "Gloomy Sunday" is, if not the highest charting version, at least one of the most recognized (best?) version of this song known for its urban legend of "triggering suicide" in listeners.
Two questions:
#1: Does anybody know the highest-charting version of this Hungarian composition from 1933?
#2: Has anybody come across a preferred version of Billie Holiday's version? Some releases are noisy; others are using aggressive noise reduction. Do you have a go-to release for this recording?
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Gene Savage
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ChicagoBill
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| Posted: 26 October 2022 at 8:18pm | IP Logged
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A little before my time... Although I distinctly remember the older guys that worked my store before I took over discussing how this 78 rpm
record was merchandised. The 'older guys' I refer to were older than my parents and heavily into the record biz. This was one of those records
sold 'under the counter'. You had to ask for it. I believe it was on Okeh, whose masters were acquired by Columbia\Sony. The rumors that
listening to this record could cause such depression that you might contemplate suicide if you were in a fragile state of mind. As far as
'highest charting', because this was an 'under the counter' record, its sales were never reported to radio stations or trade publications. What
good would it do? It would never get played on major radio stations. My go-to version on this is "The Quintessential Billie Holiday Volume 9",
Columbia/Legacy CK 47031. The box set "The Legacy" C3K 47724 and "The Essence of Billie Holiday" CK 47917 were released soon after and probably
have a digital clone of 'Quintessential'. True, a lot of noise reduction is used here. I think it's over CEDAR-ized and I expressed my opinion
before on other posts about my disdain for CEDAR. -Bill.
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: O/T? Billie Holiday - Gloomy Sunday
