Today's Strange Fruit Mention of the Day comes from MSN's "20 songs that changed the course of musical history."

Billie Holiday's recording of "Strange Fruit" kicks off the list:

"Inspired by Jewish American Abel Meeropol's poem, the haunting and controversial 'Strange Fruit' was written as a response to the horrifying lynchings of Black Americans throughout history. Singer Billie Holiday came across the song at one of her club shows, and made it a regular part of her set, which offended some audience members and moved others. Holiday's record label, Columbia, wouldn't let her record the song for fear of backlash, so she released it with the much smaller label Commodore Records. Radio stations in the southern states refused to play the song, but it still sold 1 million copies, and in 1999 Time magazine named it the song of the century."

#StrangeFruitMOTD #AbelMeeropol #StrangeFruit #BillieHoliday

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/20-songs-that-changed-the…