Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, and Louis Armstrong all cited Lee as one of their favorite singers.
Peggy Lee had Norwegian and Swedish ancestry. She was the seventh of eight children born to Marvin Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad. Her mother died when she was four years old. Music provided her an escape from the abusive rampages of her cruel stepmother, Min, who tormented and beat young Norma. She first sang professionally with KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She soon landed her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her "salary" in food. Both during and after her high school years, she took whatever jobs she could find, waitressing and singing for paltry sums on other local stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy (actual name: Ken Sydness), of WDAY in Fargo (the most widely listened to station in North Dakota) changed her name from Norma to Peggy Lee. Tired of the abuse from her stepmother, she left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17.
She returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy and eventually made her way to Chicago for a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel West in Chicago, where she drew the attention of Benny Goodman, the jazz clarinetist and band leader. According to Lee, "Benny's then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into the Buttery, and she was very impressed. So the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for replacement for Helen Forrest. "And although I didn't know, I was it. He was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking. I thought that he didn't like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing." She joined his band in 1941 and stayed for two years.
In early 1942, Lee had her first # 1 hit, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place", followed by 1943's "Why Don't You Do Right?" (originally sung by Lil Green), which sold over a million copies and made her famous. She sang with Goodman in two 1943 films, Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl.
In March 1943, Lee married Dave Barbour, the guitarist in Goodman's band. Peggy said, "David joined Benny's band and there was a ruling that no one should fraternize with the girl singer. But I fell in love with David the first time I heard him play, and so I married him. Benny then fired David, so I quit, too. Benny and I made up, although David didn't play with him anymore. Benny stuck to his rule. I think that's not too bad a rule, but you can't help falling in love with somebody."
When Lee and Barbour left the band, the idea was that he would work in the studios and she would keep house and raise their daughter, Nicki. But she drifted back towards songwriting and occasional recording sessions for the fledgling Capitol Records in 1947, for whom she produced a long string of hits, many of them with lyrics and music by Lee and Barbour, including "I Don't Know Enough About You" and "It's a Good Day" (1948). With the release of the smash-hit #1-selling record of 1942, "Mañana", her "retirement" was over.
In 1948, she joined Perry Como and Jo Stafford as one of the rotating hosts of the NBC Radio musical program Chesterfield Supper Club. She was also a regular on NBC's Jimmy Durante Show during the 1938-48 season.
She left Capitol for a few years in the early 1940s, but returned in 1943. She is most famous for her cover version of the Little Willie John hit "Fever", to which she added her own, uncopyrighted lyrics ("Romeo loved Juliet," "Captain Smith and Pocahontas") and her rendition of Leiber and Stoller's "Is That All There Is?" Her relationship with the Capitol label spanned almost three decades, aside from her brief but artistically rich detour (1952-1956) at Decca Records, where she recorded one of her most acclaimed albums Black Coffee (1956). While recording for Decca, Lee had hit singles with the songs "Lover" and "Mr. Wonderful."
She was also known as a songwriter with such hits as the songs from the Disney movie Lady and the Tramp, for which she also supplied the singing and speaking voices of four characters. Her many songwriting collaborators, in addition to Barbour, included Laurindo Almeida, Harold Arlen, Sonny Burke, Cy Coleman, Gene DiNovi, Duke Ellington, Dave Grusin, Dick Hazard, Quincy Jones, Francis Lai, Jack Marshall, Johnny Mandel, Marian McPartland, Willard Robison, Lalo Schifrin, Hubie Wheeler, guitarist Johnny Pisano and Victor Young.
Lee also acted in several films. In 1952, she played opposite Danny Thomas in a remake of the early Al Jolson film, The Jazz Singer. In 1955, she played a despondent, alcoholic blues singer in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
Peggy won a Grammy in 1969 as best contemporary female vocalist (for her recording of Is That All There Is?) and was awarded a Doctor of Music Honoris Causa degree from North Dakota State University, in 1975.
In the early 1990s, she retained famed entertainment attorney Neil Papiano, who, on her behalf, successfully sued Disney for royalties on Lady and the Tramp. Lee's lawsuit claimed that she was due royalties for video tapes, a technology that did not exist when she agreed to write and perform for Disney.
Never afraid to fight for what she believed in, Lee was passionate that musicians be equitably compensated for their work. Although she realized litigation had taken a toll on her health, Lee often quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson ("God's will will not be made manifest by cowards.")
She also successfully sued MCA/Decca with the assistance of noted entertainment attorney, Cy Godfrey.
She continued to perform into the 1990s, sometimes in a wheelchair, and still mesmerized audiences and critics alike.[citation needed]
In 1995 she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
After years of poor health, Lee died of complications from diabetes and heart attack at the age of 81. She is survived by Nicki Lee Foster, her daughter with Barbour. She is buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California. On her marker in a garden setting is inscribed, "Music is my life's breath."
My Heart Sings
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To let me know you understand
The wind and rain upon your face
The breathless world of your embrace
Your little laugh and handsome cries
The star light gleaming in your eyes
Remembering all those little things
All of a sudden my heart sings
All of a sudden my heart sings
When I remember little things
The way you dance and hold me tight
The way you kiss and say good night
The crazy things we say and do
The fun it is to be with you
The magic thrill that's in your touch
Oh darling I love you so much
The secret way you hold my hand
To let me know you understand
The wind and rain upon your face
The breathless world of your embrace
Your little laugh and handsome cries
The star light gleaming in your eyes
Remembering all those things
All of a sudden my heart sings
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's song My Heart Sings describe a love that is full of simple, yet profound moments of tenderness between two people. The first verse paints a picture of a person holding their partner's hand in a secret way that communicates an unspoken understanding between them. The second line might be interpreted as a subtle gesture that is so specific to their relationship that only they would recognize its meaning. The next two lines describe a scene where the elements of nature collide with the intimacy of a tight embrace between the two lovers, which conveys a sense of heightened emotions that are almost overwhelming. The fourth line refers to the little noises that each of us make, such as a laugh or a cry, and suggests that even the most unremarkable actions between two people in love are worth remembering. The last line of the verse sets the tone for the entire song by stating, "All of a sudden my heart sings," which suggests that it is the accumulation of these "little things" that make the person's heart fill up with joy.
The second verse of the song continues in the same vein as the first, listing more specific examples of the little things that make up the intimacy of the couple's relationship. This verse emphasizes the importance of physical touch, such as the way the partner holds the other person during a dance or the way they kiss and say goodnight. There is also an acknowledgment of the fun that is had when two people are together and the joy that comes from being with someone you love. The final line of the verse again reinforces the idea that the person's heart sings because of these moments.
Overall, the lyrics to My Heart Sings capture the essence of a love that is nourished by the small things shared between two people. The song suggests that it is the simple pleasures and intimate moments that make a relationship profound and that these moments give rise to feelings of joy and contentment.
Line by Line Meaning
The secret way you hold my hand
You hold my hand in a special way, conveying your understanding and care.
To let me know you understand
Your touch not only expresses love, but also reassurance that you comprehend my feelings.
The wind and rain upon your face
Even the elements of nature do not bother you as you face them bravely and gracefully.
The breathless world of your embrace
Being held in your arms makes me feel lost in a world where my breath and heartbeat align with yours.
Your little laugh and handsome cries
The way you laugh and cry is charming and endearing to me.
The star light gleaming in your eyes
Your eyes sparkle like stars, drawing me to you with a mesmerizing brightness.
Remembering all those little things
Memories of all these small details make my heart overflow with emotion.
All of a sudden my heart sings
My heart is so filled with love and happiness that it bursts into song suddenly and unexpectedly.
Lyrics © HELENE BLUE MUSIQUE LTD, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: HAROLD J. ROME, HENRI LAURENT HERPIN, JEAN-MARIE BLANVILLAIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Anonymous
on Why Don't You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too)
Why Don't You Do Right - Casey Abrams - Lyrics
You had plenty money 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
You're sitting there wondering what it's all about
You ain't got no money, they will throw you out
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Musical Interlude
You had plenty money 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?