U2's "Angel of Harlem" was written about Billie Holiday, a Jazz singer who moved to Harlem as a teenager in 1928. She had a difficult childhood which affected her life and career, but she went on to play a variety of nightclubs and became famous for her spectacular voice and ability to move her audience to tears. Her final years, however, were tragic. She became addicted to heroine, was swindled out of her earnings, and died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 44 with only $0.70 in the bank. She was arrested on her deathbed, in 1959, as narcotic addiction at that time was considered a crime, not an illness.