"Left Alone" is a jazz song written by singer Billie Holiday and pianist/composer Mal Waldron, and published by E.B. Marks.

Background

This is one of seven songs written by or co-written by Holiday that she never recorded.^[1][2] According to Waldron, Holiday "came up with the lyrics and sang them to him on a cross-country flight; when the plane landed the song was done."^[3]

Mal Waldron began working as pianist for Holiday in mid-1953. Holiday had intended to record the song a number of times but "always forget the damned sheet music."^[4] However, Waldron himself recorded the song on his 1959 album Left Alone, and near the end of the LP discusses the origin of the song.^[5]

Recordings

Waldron frequently performed the song for albums, often with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin (who also played on the Left Alone album). Versions are included in Mal: Live 4 to 1 (1971), Like Old Times (1976), Left Alone '86 (1986), Into the Light (1989), My Dear Family (1993), and Left Alone Revisited (2002).

Other jazz performers who've recorded the song include:

• Abbey Lincoln – Straight Ahead (with Waldron on piano, 1961)
• Johnny Griffin – White Gardenia (1961).
• Jeanne Lee and Ran Blake – The Newest Sound Around (1962)
• Eric Dolphy and Booker Little – Far Cry (1962)
• Kimiko Kasai – One For Lady (with Waldron on piano, 1971)
• Archie Shepp and Dollar Brand – Duet (1978)
• Abraham Burton – Closest to the Sun (1994)
• Jackie McLean and Junko Onishi – Hat Trick (1996)
• Steve Kuhn – Plays Standards (2009)
• Tsuyoshi Yamamoto – Gentle Blues (2013)
• Jane Ira Bloom - Sixteen Sunsets (2013)^[6]

An instrumental version of the song appeared on Joe Satriani's Time Machine in 1993. The Satriani version, titled "All Alone", was released as a single, reached No. 21 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart^[7] and received a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1995 Grammy Awards.^[8]