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-fiancΓ©e, 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, "MaΓ±ana", 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."
All I Want
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm a fool to want you
To want a love that can't be true
A love that's there for others too
I'm a fool to hold you
Such a fool to hold you
To seek a kiss not mine alone
Time and time again I said I'd leave you
Time and time again I went away
But then would come the time when I would need you
And once again these words I'd have to say
I'm a fool to want you
Pity me, I need you
I know it's wrong, it must be wrong
But right or wrong I can't get along
Without you
Time and time again I said I'd leave you
Time and time again I went away
But then would come the time when I would need you
And once again these words I'd have to say
Take me back, I love you
Pity me, I need you
I know it's wrong, it must be wrong
But right or wrong I can't get along
Without you
Peggy Lee's "I'm A Fool To Want You" expresses the complicated emotions of being in love but knowing that it's not right. The song is about a failed relationship where the singer is still pining for their ex, even though they know deep down that they can never be together. The lyrics convey a sense of desperation, hopelessness, and resignation to a doomed fate.
The opening lines, "I'm a fool to want you / To want a love that can't be true," set the tone for the entire song. The singer is well aware that the love they desire can never be fulfilled. They are foolish for yearning for something that cannot exist. The lines "To seek a kiss not mine alone / To share a kiss the Devil has known" convey the searing pain that comes with knowing your partner is being unfaithful.
The chorus "I'm a fool to want you / Pity me, I need you" repeats multiple times. This repetition emphasises the desperation behind the singer's words. They understand that their need for love is pitiful, but they cannot help themselves. The lines "I know it's wrong, it must be wrong / But right or wrong I can't get along / Without you" encapsulate the internal struggle and conflict that the singer is experiencing.
Overall, "I'm A Fool To Want You" is a song that explores the complexities of love and the pull it has on us even when we know it's not right. Peggy Lee's haunting voice and the slow, mournful melody only add to the sad and melancholic tone of the lyrics.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm a fool to want you
I know it's foolish to desire you
I'm a fool to want you
I know it's foolish to desire you
To want a love that can't be true
To desire a love that is not genuine is foolish
A love that's there for others too
A love that is not exclusive to me is worthless
I'm a fool to hold you
I know it's foolish to embrace you
Such a fool to hold you
It's rash of me to hold on to you
To seek a kiss not mine alone
Yearning for a kiss that someone else also enjoys is foolish
To share a kiss the Devil has known
To share a kiss with someone who is not trustworthy is dangerous
Time and time again I said I'd leave you
Repeatedly, I vowed to walk away from you
Time and time again I went away
Repeatedly, I tried to move on from you
But then would come the time when I would need you
But inevitably, there would be a moment when I craved your presence
And once again these words I'd have to say
And I would find myself needing to say the same sentiments once more
I'm a fool to want you
It's senseless of me to crave you
Pity me, I need you
I beg for your sympathy, as I can't stand being without you
I know it's wrong, it must be wrong
I understand it's incorrect, but I am unable to control my emotions
But right or wrong I can't get along
Regardless of whether it's right or wrong, I can't function without you
Without you
I can't survive without you
Lyrics Β© TuneCore Inc., ABRAMUS, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, THE MUSIC GOES ROUND, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Frank Sinatra, Jack Wolf, Joel Herron, Taito Vainio
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?