fuckyeahbillieholiday:

For Anon:

Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra were indeed good friends. They loved each other’s music and respected each other’s music capabilities. 

Frank Sinatra never hid his admiration for Lady Day. He once even went so far to say, “It is Billie Holiday, whom I first heard in 52nd Street clubs in the1930s, who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence.

In 1939, the young Frank Sinatra went to hear her perform at the Uptown House (the same year she opened at Cafe Society in Greenwich Village). Sinatra was entranced: “Standing under a spotlight in a 52nd Street jazz spot, I was dazzled by her soft, breathtaking beauty.” Later, a year before she died, in an interview with Melody Maker, Sinatra opined, “Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular music in the last 20 years. With a few exceptions, every major pop singer in the United States during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius.”

(via vintagebeauties)