View source for Strange Fruit

{{Short description|1939 song made famous by Billie Holiday}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates |date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox song
| name       = Strange Fruit
| cover      = Strange-Fruit-Commodore-1939.jpg
| type       = single
| artist     = [[Billie Holiday]]
| album      =
| B-side     = [[Fine and Mellow]]
| released   = 1939
| recorded   = April 20, 1939<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.billieholidaysongs.com/all_songs.htm#1939 |title=Billie Holiday recording sessions |publisher=Billieholidaysongs.com |access-date=April 20, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528124535/http://www.billieholidaysongs.com/all_songs.htm#1939 |archive-date=May 28, 2010 }}</ref>
| studio     =
| genre      = *[[Blues]]
*[[jazz]]
| length     = 3:02
| label      = [[Commodore Records|Commodore]]
| writer     = [[Abel Meeropol]]
| producer   = [[Milt Gabler]]
| prev_title = [[I'm Gonna Lock My Heart]]
| prev_year  = 1938
| next_title = [[God Bless the Child (Billie Holiday song)|God Bless the Child]]
| next_year  = 1942
| misc       = {{External music video|header=Official audio|{{YouTube|Lx_mOECjT_8|"Strange Fruit"}}}}
}}
"'''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 [[Protest song|protests]] the [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]] of [[Black Americans|African 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 the 20th century, and most victims were African American.<ref name="Myrdal1944">{{Cite book|title=An American Dilemma|title-link=An American Dilemma|last=Myrdal|first=Gunnar|author-link=Gunnar Myrdal |year=1944 |publisher=[[Harper & Brothers]]}}</ref>{{rp|p=561}} The song was described as "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the [[civil rights movement]]" by [[Atlantic Records]] co-founder [[Ahmet Ertegun]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Margolick |first=David |author-link=David Margolick |title=Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights |publisher=[[Running Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=0-7624-0677-1 |chapter=Chapter One |quote=[[Ahmet Ertegun]], the legendary record producer, called 'Strange Fruit,' which Holiday first sang sixteen years before [[Rosa Parks]] refused to yield her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, 'a declaration of war ... the beginning of the civil rights movement.' |chapter-url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/first/m/margolick-fruit.html |via=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sonnenberg |first=Rhonda |date=September 29, 2023 |title=Artist collaborations with social justice organizations propel change |url=https://www.splcenter.org/news/2023/09/29/artist-collaborations-social-justice |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616212556/https://www.splcenter.org/news/2023/09/29/artist-collaborations-social-justice |archive-date=2024-06-16 |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]] |language=en}}</ref>

Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife Anne Shaffer and the singer [[Laura Duncan (American singer)|Laura Duncan]] and performed it as a [[protest song]] in [[New York City]] venues in the late 1930s, including [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]]. Holiday's version was inducted into the [[List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Q-Z|Grammy Hall of Fame]] in [[1978 in music|1978]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.proquest.com/blog/pqblog/2015/PQIS2015-No-Encore-Billie-Holiday-Strange-Fruit.html|last=Bessette Knight |first=Peg |title=No Encore {{!}} The 100th Anniversary of Billie Holiday's Birth and the Legacy of "Strange Fruit"|website=[[ProQuest]] |type=Blog |access-date=June 16, 2015}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 7, 2001 |title=Songs of the Century |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/07/list.top.365.songs/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913071148/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/07/list.top.365.songs/ |archive-date=2024-09-13 |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=[[CNN]]}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Allen2015">{{Cite web|last=Allen |first=Erin |date=April 16, 2015 |title=The Power of a Poem |website=[[Library of Congress]] |type=Blog |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2015/04/the-power-of-a-poem/|access-date=June 18, 2021}}</ref>

==Poem and song==
[[File:Lynching_of_two_African_American_men_in_Marion_Indiana_on_7_August_1930_detail,_"Marion,_Ind,_Aug._7,_1930"_(NBY_3117)_(cropped).jpg|thumb|Meeropol cited this photograph of the [[lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith]], August 7, 1930, as inspiring his poem.<ref name="ATC2010">{{Cite news |last1=Richman |first1=Joe |last2=Diaz-Cortes |first2=Anayansi |last3=George |first3=Deborah |last4=Shapiro |first4=Ben |last5=Freemark |first5=Samara |last6=Baer |first6=Annie |date=August 6, 2010 |title=Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129025516 |access-date=August 15, 2013 |work=[[All Things Considered]] |publisher=[[NPR]]}}</ref>|left]]

"Strange Fruit" originated as a protest poem against [[lynchings]].<ref >{{cite book |last=Margolick |first=David |title=Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights|url=https://archive.org/details/strangefruitbill00marg|url-access=registration |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=[[Running Press]] |date=2000|isbn=978-0762406777}}</ref>{{rp|pp=25–27}}<ref>{{cite news|date=September 5, 2012|work=[[Morning Edition]]|publisher=[[NPR]]|title=The Strange Story of the Man Behind 'Strange Fruit' |last=Blair |first=Elizabeth |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit}}</ref> In the poem, [[Abel 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]].<ref name="Moore2010">{{cite news|title=Strange Fruit is still a song for today |first= Edwin |last=Moore|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=September 18, 2010|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/18/strange-fruit-song-today |access-date=September 23, 2010 }}</ref>

Meeropol published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in January 1937 in ''The New York Teacher'', a [[Trade union|union]] magazine of the New York teachers union.<ref name="Lynskey2011" />{{page needed|date=October 2024}} Though Meeropol had asked others (notably [[Earl Robinson]]) to set his poems to music, Meeropol set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. First performed by Meeropol's wife Anne Shaffer and their friends in social contexts,<ref name="Carvalho2013">{{Cite journal|last=Carvalho|first=John M.|date=2013|title='Strange Fruit': Music between Violence and Death|journal=[[The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism]]|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|location=Hoboken, New Jersey|volume=71|issue=1|pages=111–119 at 111–112|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6245.2012.01547.x|jstor=23597541|issn=0021-8529|doi-access=free}}</ref> his protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. Meeropol, Shaffer, and the Black vocalist [[Laura Duncan (singer)|Laura Duncan]] performed it at [[Madison Square Garden]].<ref name="Margolick2001">{{Cite book |last=Margolick |first=David |title=Strange fruit: the biography of a song |date=2001 |publisher=[[Ecco Press]] |isbn=978-0-06-095956-2 |edition=1st |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|p=36-37}}

==Billie Holiday's performances and recordings==
One version of events claims that [[Barney Josephson]], the founder of [[Café Society]] in [[Greenwich Village]], New York's first [[Racial integration|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 the song at [[Madison Square Garden]] and introduced it to her.<ref name="Lynskey2011">{{Cite book |last=Lynskey |first=Dorian |title=33 revolutions per minute: a history of protest songs |title-link=33 Revolutions per Minute (book) |year=2011 |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |isbn=978-0-571-24134-7 |edition=1.|location=London}}</ref> 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 [[Clarence Halliday]], she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances.<ref name=Margolick2001 />{{rp|pp=40-46}} Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; 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.<ref name="Lynskey2011" /> During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.

{{Listen
 | type = music
 | filename = Strange Fruit (Billie Holiday).ogg
 | title = "Strange Fruit" (1939) by Billie Holiday
}}

Holiday approached her recording label, [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in [[Southern United States|the South]], as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, [[CBS]].<ref name="Margolick2001" />{{rp|p=61-62}} When Holiday's producer [[John H. Hammond|John Hammond]] also refused to record it, she turned to her friend [[Milt Gabler]], owner of the [[Commodore Records|Commodore]] label.<ref>{{Cite AV media |title=[[700 Sundays (film)|700 Sundays]] |date=2004 |publisher=HBO |id={{IMDb title|qid=Q48672679|id=tt3383040|title=700 Sundays}} |oclc=112 |people=[[Billy Crystal]]}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Kleinsinger |url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/george-kleinsinger/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=[[WNYC]] |location=New York |language=en}}</ref> Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist [[Sonny White]] to improvise an introduction. On the recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds.<ref name="Lynskey2011" /> It was recorded on April 20, 1939.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Amoako |first=Aida |date=April 17, 2019 |title=Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time? |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007110154/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time |archive-date=2024-10-07 |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=[[BBC]]}}</ref> Gabler worked out a special arrangement with [[Vocalion Records]] to record and distribute the song.<ref>Billy Crystal, ''700 Sundays'', pp. 46–47.</ref>

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,<ref name="Moore2010"/> in time becoming the biggest-selling recording of Holiday's career.<ref name="Smithsonian2018">{{Cite web |date=2018-12-04 |title=Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" (1939) |url=https://music.si.edu/object-day/billie-holidays-strange-fruit-1939 |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=Smithsonian Music |language=en}}</ref>

In her 1956 autobiography, ''[[Lady Sings the Blues (book)|Lady Sings 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 [[ghostwriter|ghostwritten]] by [[William Dufty]]—claimed, "I ain't never read that book."<ref name=Margolick2001 />{{rp|pp=31-32}}

Holiday was so well known for her rendition of "Strange Fruit" that "she crafted a relationship to the song that would make them inseparable".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perry |first=Samuel |year=2012 |title="Strange Fruit," Ekphrasis, and the Lynching Scene |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02773945.2013.839822 |journal=[[Rhetoric Society Quarterly]] |volume=43 |issue=5 |pages=449–474 |doi=10.1080/02773945.2013.839822 |s2cid=144222928 |url-access=limited |access-date=2024-10-28 |via=[[Taylor & Francis]]}}</ref> Holiday's 1939 version of the song was included in the [[National Recording Registry]] on January 27, 2003.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Strange Fruit {{!}} Lynching, Billie Holiday, Abel Meeropol, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Strange-Fruit-song |last=Sottosanti |first=Karen |date=2024-10-08 |language=en}}</ref>

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 [[La Marseillaise|Marseillaise]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/16/protest-songs-billie-holiday-strange-fruit|title=Strange Fruit: the first great protest song|first=Dorian|last=Lynskey|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=February 15, 2011}}</ref>  The anti-lynching movement adopted "Strange Fruit" as its anthem.<ref name="Strange Fruit">{{Cite web |last=Katz |first=Joel |date=January 17, 2003  |title=Strange Fruit |url=https://itvs.org/about/pressroom/press-release/strange-fruit |access-date=30 March 2020 |website=[[ITVS]]}}</ref> Since 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.<ref name=Margolick2001 /> {{rp|p=77}}<ref>{{cite web|title=How Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' Confronted an Ugly Era of Lynchings|url=https://www.history.com/news/billie-holiday-strange-fruit-lynchings|first=Karen Juanita|last=Carrillo|work=History Channel|date=May 10, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/CBSNews/videos/the-history-behind-lynching-protest-song-strange-fruit/502959267394021/|title=The history behind lynching protest song, "Strange Fruit"|work=[[CBS News]]|date=April 24, 2021|via=[[Facebook]]}}</ref>

==Cover versions==
Other notable cover versions of the song include the renditions of [[Nina Simone]], [[UB 40]], [[Siouxsie and the Banshees]] and [[Jeff Buckley]]. ''[[The Financial Times]]'' considered that Nina Simone "came close" to the original song "with her similarly bleak 1965 version". Journalist Fiona Sturges noted that "other interpreters have included [[Diana Ross]], Jeff Buckley, Siouxsie and the Banshees, [[Cocteau Twins]] and [[Robert Wyatt]]", adding that "[[Kanye West]] revived interest in the song when he sampled Simone’s recording for his 2013 track '[[Blood on the Leaves]]'."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/strange-fruit.html |archive-url= https://archive.today/20250811162418/https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/strange-fruit.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2025-08-11 |title=Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit — 'the first unmuted cry against racism' |publisher=The Financial Times |author=Sturges, Fiona |date=November 14, 2017 |access-date=2025-08-10}}</ref> ''[[The Times]]'' remarked that when West sampled it for a song, "about an ex-girlfriend, there was uproar." In contrast journalist Robert Dean noted that other covers "from acts as varied as UB40 and Siouxsie and the Banshees, have been highly respectful."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/the-united-states-vs-billie-holiday-how-the-fbi-tried-to-stop-the-protest-anthem-strange-fruit-fkr2qm8xf |archive-url= https://archive.today/20250811173126/https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/the-united-states-vs-billie-holiday-how-the-fbi-tried-to-stop-the-protest-anthem-strange-fruit-fkr2qm8xf |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2025-08-11 |title=
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday: how the FBI tried to stop the protest anthem Strange Fruit|publisher=The Times|author=Dean, Jonathan |date=February 28, 2021 |access-date=2025-08-10}}</ref> The ''[[New York Times]]'' wrote that "[[Josh White]] and Nina Simone were among the few artists to attempt it in the 1950s and 1960s. But [...] many other musicians—from [[Sting (musician)|Sting]] to [[Dee Dee Bridgewater]] to [[Tori Amos]] to [[Cassandra Wilson]] to UB40 to Siouxsie and the Banshees—have recorded "Strange Fruit," each cut an act of courage given Holiday's continuing hold over the song".<ref name=David>{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/margolick-fruit.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130427121121/http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/margolick-fruit.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-04-27 |title=Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights |author=Margolick, David |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2025-08-10}}</ref>

Nina Simone initially recorded the song for her album ''[[Pastel Blues]]'',<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time |title =Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time|date=17 April 2019 |first=Aida|last=Amoako |work=[[BBC]] |access-date=20 April 2020}}</ref> a recording described by journalist [[David Margolick]] in ''The New York Times'' as featuring a "plain and unsentimental voice".<ref name=David /> The ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' praised Siouxsie and the Banshees' version from the 1987 album ''[[Through the Looking Glass (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)|Through the Looking Glass]]'' for "a solemn string section behind the vocals" and "a bridge of New Orleans [[Funeral march|funeral-march]] jazz" which highlighted the singer's "evocative interpretation".<ref>{{cite news|first=Terry|last=Atkinson|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-15-ca-10501-story.html|title=Siouxsie Looks Back|newspaper=[[The Los Angeles Times]]|date=15 March 1987|access-date=15 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711171722/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-15-ca-10501-story.html|archive-date=2019-07-11 }}</ref> The group's rendition was selected by ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]'' magazine to be included on the compilation ''Music Is Love: 15 Tracks That Changed the World''.<ref>"Music Is Love! (15 Tracks That Changed The World) CD". [[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]. June 2007.</ref> Jeff Buckley covered "Strange Fruit" after discovering it through Siouxsie and the Banshees' rendition.<ref>{{cite web |last=Grosdemouge |first=Jean-Marc |date=June 2005 |title=Jeff Buckley l'Archange Dévoilé --[Stan Cuesta- interview] |url=https://www.epiphanies-mag.com/2005/06/jeff-buckley-larchange-devoile/ |access-date=2024-11-05 |publisher=Epiphanies-mag.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite work |last=Cuesta |first=Stan |title=Jeff Buckley |publisher=Castor Music |year=2009 |isbn=978-2859208073}}</ref> Journalist Lara Pellegrinelli wrote that Buckley seemed to "meditate on the meaning of humanity the way [[Walt Whitman]] did, considering all of its glorious and horrifying possibilities".<ref name="lara">{{cite web |first=Lara |last=Pellegrinelli |title=Evolution Of A Song: 'Strange Fruit' |website=[[NPR]]|url=https://www.npr.org/2009/06/22/105699329/evolution-of-a-song-strange-fruit|date=22 June 2009 |access-date=23 February 2015 }}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
In 1999 ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine named "Strange Fruit" as "Best Song of the Century" in its December 31, 1999, issue.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sanburn |first=Josh |date=2011-10-21 |title=Is 'Strange Fruit' one of the All-TIME 100 Best Songs? |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/24/the-all-time-100-songs/slide/strange-fruit-billie-holiday/ |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=[[Time.com]] |language=en-US}}</ref> In  2002 the [[Library of Congress]] honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to add to the [[National Recording Registry]].<ref>{{cite web|title=National Recording Registry 2002 |url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0401/nrr-02.html|website=loc.gov|access-date=29 January 2018}}</ref> In 2005 ''[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]'' listed the song as Number One on "100 Songs of the South".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/swf/songsofthesouth/index.html |title=100 Songs of the South &#124; accessAtlanta.com|publisher=Alt.coxnewsweb.com|access-date=April 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050915214809/http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/swf/songsofthesouth/index.html |archive-date=September 15, 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref> in 2010 the ''[[New Statesman]]'' listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2010/03/strange-fruit-holiday-blood|title=Top 20 Political Songs: Strange Fruit|first=Ian K|last=Smith|work=[[New Statesman]]|date=March 25, 2010|access-date=March 25, 2010}}</ref> In 2021: ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' listed it as the 21st best song on their "[[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time|Top 500 Best Songs of All Time]]".<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2021-09-15 |title=The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/ |access-date=2022-07-19 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2025 ''Rolling Stone'' placed it at number 3 on its list of "The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time."<ref>{{cite news |title=The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-protest-songs-1235154848/ |publisher=Rolling Stone |date=27 January 2025 |access-date=28 January 2025}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|last1=Clarke|first1=Donald|date=1995|title=Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon|location=München|publisher=Piper|isbn=978-3-492-03756-3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Angela |author-link=Angela Yvonne Davis |title=Blues Legacies and Black Feminism |date=1999 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=0-679-77126-3 |chapter="Strange Fruit": Musical and Social Consciousness |access-date=2024-10-28 |orig-date=1998 |chapter-url=https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/0574/Davis%20-%20Strange%20Fruit%20-%20Music%20and%20Social%20Consciousness.pdf |via=[[Amherst.edu]]}}
* {{cite book|last1=Holiday|first1=Billie|last2=Dufty|first2=William|date=1992|title=Lady Sings the Blues|publisher=Edition Nautilus|isbn=978-3-89401-110-9}}
* {{cite book|last1=Margolick|first1=David|author-link=David Margolick|date=2001|title=Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=978-0-060-95956-2|url=https://archive.org/details/strangefruitbill00marg|url-access=registration}}

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
* [https://www.slps.org/cms/lib03/MO01001157/Centricity/Domain/2510/Strange%20Fruit.pdf Text of poem "Strange Fruit."]
* [https://archive.org/details/78_strange-fruit_billie-holiday-and-her-orchestra-sonny-white-lewis-allan_gbia0160336a "Strange Fruit"], ''78rpm Record'', Internet Archive
* {{YouTube|-DGY9HvChXk|Film of Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" (1959)|link=no}}
* {{cite web |url= https://newsreel.org/video/strange-fruit |date= 2002 |title= Strange Fruit |work= Documentary |publisher= News Reel |url-status= live |archive-date= April 23, 2004 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040423102858/http://www.newsreel.org/films/strangefruit.htm }}
* {{cite web |url= https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/strangefruit/ |title= Strange Fruit |date= Mar 31, 2022 |orig-year= 2003 |series= Independent Lens |work= Documentary |publisher= [[PBS]] }}
* [http://www.shmoop.com/strange-fruit/ "Strange Fruit"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302082517/http://www.shmoop.com/strange-fruit/ |date=March 2, 2012 }}, Shmoop, analysis of lyrics, historical and literary allusions - student & teaching guide
* {{MusicBrainz work|mbid=e14b0233-5d5e-3d46-9ff5-87f89bb0ffb4|name=Strange Fruit}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jb1w1 BBC Radio 4 - ''Soul Music'', Series 17, Strange Fruit]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25034438 "Strange Fruit: A protest song with enduring relevance"]
* {{cite podcast
| url= http://www.radiodiaries.org/podcast-strange-fruit-voices-from-a-lynching/
| title= Strange Fruit
| website= Radio Diaries
| publisher= PRX
| access-date= 2015-09-04
}}

{{Billie Holiday}}
{{Lynching in the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1939 songs]]
[[Category:Billie Holiday songs]]
[[Category:Songs about black people]]
[[Category:Songs about death]]
[[Category:Songs about trees]]
[[Category:Works about lynching in the United States]]
[[Category:History of African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:Songs about racism and xenophobia]]
[[Category:Songs based on American history]]
[[Category:Songs based on poems]]
[[Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings]]
[[Category:Works originally published in American magazines]]
[[Category:American protest songs]]
[[Category:Songs about the American South]]