--- title: Adoring Billy Eckstine: Portrait of a Jazz Legend and His Fans description: On Billy Eckstine's 100th birthday--he was born July 8, 1914, in Pittsburgh, Penn.--LIFE.com remembers the music pioneer and style icon. canonical: https://time.com/3722145/adoring-billy-eckstine-portrait-of-a-jazz-legend-and-his-fans/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-07T15:33:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:24.400Z og:title: Adoring Billy Eckstine: Portrait of a Jazz Legend and His Fans og:description: On Billy Eckstine's 100th birthday--he was born July 8, 1914, in Pittsburgh, Penn.--LIFE.com remembers the music pioneer and style icon. og:url: https://time.com/3722145/adoring-billy-eckstine-portrait-of-a-jazz-legend-and-his-fans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae0811f3f377bca2/698780e58e060120a145a7a6/150225-billy-eckstine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2447 og:image:height: 1376 og:image:alt: Billy Eckstine, New York, 1949 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Adoring Billy Eckstine: Portrait of a Jazz Legend and His Fans twitter:description: On Billy Eckstine's 100th birthday--he was born July 8, 1914, in Pittsburgh, Penn.--LIFE.com remembers the music pioneer and style icon. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae0811f3f377bca2/698780e58e060120a145a7a6/150225-billy-eckstine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Adoring Billy Eckstine: Portrait of a Jazz Legend and His Fans > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jul 7, 2014 3:33 PM UTC  Singer Billy Eckstine getting a hug fr. an adoring female after his show at Bop City. Singer Billy Eckstine getting a hug fr. an adoring female after his show at Bop City. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jul 7, 2014 3:33 PM UTC There was a time in the post-World War II era when William Clarence [“Billy” Eckstine](http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/billyeckstine) (1914 – 1993) was, for millions of fans and peers around the world, one of the most influential singers and bandleaders of the age. Women and girls—and, no doubt, more than a few men and boys—swooned over him; young musicians wanted to dress, sound and look like him; music clubs and recording studios wanted to book him. The names of the vocalists and jazz legends who played in Eckstine’s big band, meanwhile, is a Who’s Who of early, mid-1940s bebop: [Miles Davis](http://www.milesdavis.com/us/home), Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon and more. All the more mysterious, then, why hearing Eckstine’s name—not to mention his music—in discussions of jazz greats is such a rarity today. After all, an artist who made an impact on giants ranging from [Duke Ellington](http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist%5Fid%5Fellington%5Fduke.htm) (who played in Eckstine’s big band) to Quincy Jones (who looked up to him as “an idol”) deserves to be celebrated. Here, on what would have been Billy Eckstine’s 100th birthday—he was born July 8, 1914, in Pittsburgh, Penn.—LIFE.com remembers the music pioneer and style icon with a marvelous Martha Holmes photo that both captures the man’s charisma and highlights the adoration he inspired in his fans.  Singer Billy Eckstine getting a hug fr. an adoring female after his show at Bop City. 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