And of course Billie Holiday always destroyed me. There was something Lady Day had that no one else could claim. People have told me that she and I share the same sort of sadness in our voice. I know what they're talkin' 'bout. I don't know where that comes from--in her or in me--but it's there. Billie could sing her ass off any given night of the week. And I remember back during the forties how her version of "Hush Now, Don't Explain" stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn't listen to [the recording] enough; it made a lasting impression inside my brain. The woman was a natural, always her own, strange self. << less