Lady in Satin (1958)

Recorded in early 1958, less than 18 months before her death, Lady in Satin finds Billie Holiday's voice worn and cracked, and she uses that damage as her point of view. Ray Ellis's lush string orchestra is a velvet cushion against which every frayed phrase sounds devastatingly human. Divisive for some listeners, but nowhere else do standard love songs sound this much like testimony.