Editing Billie Holiday (section)

===1929–1935: Early career===
As a young teenager, Holiday started singing in nightclubs in Harlem. She took her professional pseudonym from [[Billie Dove]], an actress she admired, and Clarence Halliday, her father.{{Sfn|Holiday & Dufty,|1956|p=13}} At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name "Halliday", her father's birth surname, but eventually changed it to "Holiday", his performing name. The young singer teamed up with a neighbor, [[tenor saxophone]] player Kenneth Hollan. They were a team from 1929 to 1931, performing at clubs such as the Grey Dawn, [[Pod's and Jerry's]] on [[133rd Street (Manhattan)|133rd Street]], and the Brooklyn Elks Club.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|pp=35–37}}{{Sfn|Vail,|1996|p=32}} [[Benny Goodman]] recalled hearing Holiday in 1931 at the Bright Spot. As her reputation grew, she played in many clubs, including the Mexico's and the [[The Harlem Alhambra|Alhambra]] Bar and Grill, where she met Charles Linton, a vocalist who later worked with [[Chick Webb]]. It was also during this period that she connected with her father, who was playing in [[Fletcher Henderson]]'s band.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|pp=35–39}}

Late in 1932, 17-year-old Holiday replaced the singer [[Monette Moore]] at Covan's, a club on West 132nd Street. Producer [[John Hammond (record producer)|John Hammond]], who loved Moore's singing and had come to hear her, first heard Holiday there in early 1933.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|p=39}} Hammond arranged for Holiday to make her recording debut at age 18, in November 1933, with Benny Goodman. She recorded two songs: "[[Your Mother's Son-In-Law]]" and "[[Riffin' the Scotch]]", the latter being her first hit. "Son-in-Law" sold 300 copies, and "Riffin' the Scotch", released on November 11, sold 5,000 copies. Hammond was impressed by Holiday's singing style and said of her, "Her singing almost changed my music tastes and my musical life, because she was the first girl singer I'd come across who actually sang like an improvising jazz genius." Hammond compared Holiday favorably to Armstrong and said she had a good sense of lyric content at a young age.{{Sfn|Gourse,|2000|p=73}}

In 1935, Holiday had a small role as a woman abused by her lover in [[Duke Ellington]]'s [[musical short]] film ''[[Symphony in Black|Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life]]''. She sang "Saddest Tale" in her scene.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|p=56}}