Lady in Satin was Billie Holiday’s penultimate album, completed by the singer and last released in her lifetime (her final album, Billie Holiday, being recorded in March 1959 and released just after her death). The original album was produced by Irving Townsend, and engineered by Fred Plaut.

Song material for Lady in Satin derived from the usual sources for Holiday in her three decade career, that of the Great American Songbook of classic pop. She also decided that she wanted the album to be arranged and recorded in the same contemporary vein of Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald on her Songbooks series.