Kermit Ruffins & the Rebirth Brass Band, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee"

Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit"

Originally a poem by Abel Meeropol (aka "Lewis Allan"), "Strange Fruit" was conceived as a reaction to a photo published in 1930 of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.  An All Things Considered piece chronicled the event on its 80th anniversary in 2010.  The third young man targeted that day--James Cameron, a 16-year-old--escaped alive.  He went on to found the National Black Holocaust Museum (originally in Milwaukee, now residing online).

Holiday's haunting, definitive version of the song was recorded 73 years ago today.
 

MARCH OF THE COVERS: Johnny Cash, "Hurt" (Nine Inch Nails)

Let's wrap things up with one of the greatest covers in recent memory...

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, "If You Don't Know Me by Now" (Soul Train)

R.I.P., Don Cornelius.

EVERY OTHER DAY IS CHRISTMAS... Death Cab for Cutie, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

Sarah Vaughan, "Black Coffee"

I'm hangin' out on Monday
My Sunday dreams to die...