"Fine and Mellow" is a jazz standard written by Billie Holiday, who first recorded it on April 20, 1939 on the Commodore label. It is a blues lamenting the bad treatment of a woman at the hands of "my man".
The song was famously performed by Billie Holiday in 1957 in a television special, The Sound of Jazz. The line-up included several jazz legends (the first six are listed in the order of their solos):
It has been covered several times, sometimes with a change in lyrics or emphasis. For example, Lou Rawls switched the gender to a girlfriend and Eva Cassidy sang it in a defiant tone. Notable cover versions were sung by Nina Simone (on the 1959 At Town Hall), Dee Dee Bridgewater on her , and Ella Fitzgerald on her eponymous album.