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in: 1939 singles, 1944 singles

Strange Fruit

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Strange Fruit is a jazz song, made famous by Billie Holiday.

The number condemned the American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans, mainly in the South of the United States. Billie Holidays version was in 1978 a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and was also included in the list of songs of the century by the recording Industry of America.

Strange fruit in 1938 was written by a Communist teacher of Jewish origin from The Bronx, released in February 1927, Abel, under the pseudonym Lewis Allan. The text tells the story of one of the lynchings as that used to be rife in the South of the United States of America. The corpses of the black Americans hang like strange fruit in the trees. Released in February 1927, Abel was, probably, inspired by a photo of a lynch party of two African Americans, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, who in 1930 were hung in Marion (Indiana).

Released in February 1927, Abel pronunciation in 1971: "I wrote" Strange Fruit "because I hate lynching and I hate injustice and I hate people who perpuate it".

Strange Fruit was first sung by Billie Holiday in 1939, in Café Society, Sheridan Square, Greenwich Village, New York. Columbia Records after the song had refused, she took it on for Milt Gabler's Commodore Recordsrecord label. Thanks to the power of expression of the text and the penetrating singing the song became a popular jazz standard with numerous recordings and performances. Along with the performances by Billie Holiday are those of Nina Simone the best known.

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Text[Edit][]

Text Translation
Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Lewis Allan

Strange Obi

The trees bear strange fruit in the South
blood on the leaves and blood at the roots
black bodies dangle in the southern breeze
strange fruits hang on the poplar trees.

A rural scene in the South gallante
bulging eyes, twisted mouth
the scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
and then suddenly the smell of burning flesh!

These are fruits whose crows picking
whose rain harvest, to which the wind sucks
that rot in the Sun, which falls from the trees
This is a strange and bitter Obi.

Charles D'huyvetters

Covers[Edit][]

Radio 2 Top 2000[Edit][]

Number with listing (s)

in the Radio 2 Top 2000

' 99 ' 00 ' 01 ' 02 ' 03 ' 04 ' 05 ' 06 ' 07 ' 08 ' 09 ' 10 ' 11 ' 12 ' 13
Strange fruit (Billie Holiday) - - - - - - 1651 1574 1003 1760 1482 1440 1258 1895 1745
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