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22-406: " Strange Fruit " is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol (under his pseudonym Lewis Allan) and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of

44-506: A Song , writing that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty —claimed, "I ain't never read that book." Meeropol wrote numerous other poems and songs, including the Frank Sinatra and Josh White hit " The House I Live In ." He also wrote the libretto of Robert Kurka 's opera The Good Soldier Schweik , which

66-545: A certain success in and around New York. Meeropol, Shaffer, and the Black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden . One version of events claims that Barney Josephson , the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village , New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday . Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Holiday's show at Café Society, heard

88-578: A copyright infringement lawsuit over Distel's plagiarism as Distel initially had claimed the song as his. After the case was settled, Meeropol started receiving the royalties. Meeropol published his work under the pseudonym of "Lewis Allan" in memory of the names of his two stillborn children. Meeropol was a member of the American Communist Party from 1932 to 1947. He was sympathetic to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg , who were convicted and executed for espionage. Later, he and his wife Anne adopted

110-826: A protest poem against lynchings . In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings of African Americans , inspired by Lawrence Beitler 's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana . Meeropol published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in January 1937 in The New York Teacher , a union magazine of the New York teachers union. Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson ) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. First performed by Meeropol's wife and their friends in social contexts, his protest song gained

132-449: A six-song session with Victor , a four-song session for Vocalion , two individual one-song sessions for Blue Note , and finally one two-song session for Vocalion — 14 records in all. He also played with Art Tatum on extended versions of " Sweet Georgia Brown " and " Oh, Lady Be Good! ", recorded in Harlem after hours. These finally came out in 1973 as part of Tatum's album God Is in

154-450: The Bronx , New York. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1921 (his classmate Countee Cullen graduated in 1922); he earned a B.A . from City College of New York and an M.A. from Harvard University . He taught English at DeWitt Clinton for 17 years. During his tenure as a high school teacher, Meeropol taught author and racial justice advocate James Baldwin . Meeropol wrote

176-450: The Commodore label. Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella , and moved him to tears. Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract so she could record it; Frankie Newton 's eight-piece Café Society Band was used for the session in an arrangement by Newton. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. On

198-568: The 1930s several unsuccessful attempts were made in Congress to have lynching made a federal crime which were stymied by filibusters in the Senate by Southerners. In an attempt to achieve a two-thirds majority in the Senate that would break the filibusters by Southern senators, anti-racism activists were encouraged to mail copies of "Strange Fruit" to their senators. Cover versions of this song include Nina Simone , René Marie , Jeff Buckley , Siouxsie and

220-494: The 20th century and the great majority of victims were black. The song was described as "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement " by Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun . Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife Anne Shaffer and the singer Laura Duncan and performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden . Holiday's version

242-640: The Banshees , Dee Dee Bridgewater , Josh White , UB40 , Bettye LaVette and Edward W. Hardy . Simone recorded the song in 1965, a recording described by journalist David Margolick in The New York Times as featuring a "plain and unsentimental voice". René Marie's rendition was coupled with the Confederate anthem " Dixie ", making for an "uncomfortable juxtaposition". Journalist Lara Pellegrinelli wrote that Jeff Buckley while singing it "seems to meditate on

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264-556: The Blues , Holiday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song , writing that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty —claimed, "I ain't never read that book." Holiday

286-1064: The Rosenbergs' two sons, Michael and Robert , who were orphaned after their parents' executions. Both children took the surname "Meeropol." Meeropol died October 30, 1986, at the Jewish Nursing Home in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Frankie Newton In the 1940s, he played with bands led by Lucky Millinder and Pete Brown. He played in clubs in New York and Boston , with musicians such as pianist Art Tatum , pianist James P. Johnson , drummer Sid Catlett and clarinetist Edmond Hall . He accompanied Bessie Smith on her final recordings (November 24, 1933), Maxine Sullivan on ' Loch Lomond ', and Billie Holiday on her original " Strange Fruit " session in 1939. Between March 1937 and August 1939, eight recording sessions issued under Newton's name were produced. Three sessions in 1937 were made for Irving Mills 's Variety label. In 1939, Newton recorded

308-457: The anti- lynching poem " Strange Fruit " (1937), first published as "Bitter Fruit" in a teacher union publication. He later set it to music. The song was recorded and performed by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone . Holiday notes in the book Lady Sings the Blues that she co-wrote the music to the song with Meeropol and Sonny White . The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work Strange Fruit: The Biography of

330-465: The compilation Music Is Love: 15 Tracks That Changed the World . Abel Meeropol Abel Meeropol (February 10, 1903 – October 29, 1986) was an American songwriter and poet whose works were published under his pseudonym Lewis Allan. He wrote the poem and musical setting of " Strange Fruit " (1937), which was recorded by Billie Holiday . Meeropol was born in 1903 to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants in

352-453: The meaning of humanity the way Walt Whitman did, considering all of its glorious and horrifying possibilities". LA Times noted that Siouxsie and the Banshees's version contained "a solemn string section behind the vocals" and "a bridge of New Orleans funeral-march jazz" which enhanced the singer's "evocative interpretation". The group's rendition was selected by the Mojo staff to be included on

374-475: The recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds. It was recorded on April 20, 1939. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song. Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. The song was highly regarded; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies, in time becoming the biggest-selling recording of Holiday's career. In her 1956 autobiography, Lady Sings

396-406: The song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it;

418-644: The waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer. Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South , as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS . When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler , owner of

440-825: Was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978 . It was also included in the " Songs of the Century " list of the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts . In 2002, "Strange Fruit" was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". "Strange Fruit" originated as

462-589: Was premiered in 1958 by the New York City Opera . According to his adopted son Robert Meeropol , the songs "Strange Fruit" and "The House I Live In," along with the Peggy Lee hit "Apples, Peaches and Cherries," provided most of the royalty income of the family. "Apples, Peaches and Cherries" was translated into French by Sacha Distel and became a number one hit in France under the title " Scoubidou ." Meeropol filed

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484-552: Was so well known for her rendition of "Strange Fruit" that "she crafted a relationship to the song that would make them inseparable". Holiday's 1939 version of the song was included in the National Recording Registry on January 27, 2003. In October 1939, Samuel Grafton of the New York Post said of "Strange Fruit", "If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its Marseillaise ." The anti-lynching movement adopted "Strange Fruit" as its anthem. Since

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