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."
All Of Me
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Baby, can't you see I'm no good without you?
Take my lips, I'll never use them
Take my arms, I want to lose them
Your goodbye left me with eyes that cry
Tell me how can I go on, dear, without you?
You took the part that once was my heart
All of me, why not take all of me?
Can't you see I'm no good without you?
Take my lips, I want to lose 'em
Take my arms, I'll never use them
Your g-g-goodbye left me with eyes that cry
How can I go on, dear, without you?
You took the part that once was my heart
So why not take all of me?
Come on and take, take all of me
In Peggy Lee's song "All Of Me," the lyrics express a plea from the singer to her lover to fully embrace her and accept her love. The repetition of the phrase "All of me, why not take all of me?" suggests a desire for complete vulnerability and surrender in the relationship. The singer acknowledges her dependence on her lover, admitting that she is no good without them. She offers to give up her lips and arms, symbolizing her willingness to sacrifice and give her all for love.
The line "Your goodbye left me with eyes that cry" reflects the pain and anguish caused by the lover's departure. The singer questions how she can continue without her beloved and expresses the deep void in her heart that the lover has taken. Through these lyrics, the singer expresses her longing and desperation for the lover to fully accept and take all of her, both the good and the bad.
Overall, "All Of Me" showcases the vulnerability and emotional depth of the singer, pleading for the lover to reciprocate her feelings and embrace her completely.
Line by Line Meaning
All of me, why not take all of me?
I am offering you every part of myself, completely and unreservedly. Why not accept and take all of me?
Baby, can't you see I'm no good without you?
I am expressing how dependent I am on you. My life feels incomplete and unsatisfying without you.
Take my lips, I'll never use them
I am willing to give up the ability to speak or kiss. These actions are meaningless to me if you are not part of my life.
Take my arms, I want to lose them
I don't value my own physical strength or the ability to embrace others. Without you, I have no desire to hold or touch anyone.
Your goodbye left me with eyes that cry
Your departure has caused me immense sadness, and my eyes constantly shed tears as a result.
Tell me how can I go on, dear, without you?
I am questioning how I can possibly continue living without you. You are so essential to my happiness that I struggle to imagine existence without you.
You took the part that once was my heart
You have taken away the love and affection that used to reside in my heart. You possess the most important part of me.
So why not take all of me?
Given that you have taken such a significant part of me, it only makes sense for you to have all of me. There is nothing left for me to hold back.
Can't you see I'm no good without you?
I am emphasizing once again how much I rely on you for happiness and fulfillment. My life loses all value and purpose when you are absent.
Take my lips, I want to lose 'em
I reiterate my willingness to give up the ability to speak or kiss. These actions have no worth to me in the absence of your presence.
Take my arms, I'll never use them
I continue to express my indifference towards my own physical strength and the desire to embrace others. Without you, there is no purpose for these actions.
Your g-g-goodbye left me with eyes that cry
The memory of your goodbye has left me with continuous tears streaming from my eyes. The pain of your departure is overwhelming.
How can I go on, dear, without you?
I am pleading for an answer to the desperate question of how I can possibly continue my life without you. The thought of separation is unbearable to me.
You took the part that once was my heart
You have taken away the love and affection that used to reside in my heart. You possess the most important part of me.
So why not take all of me?
Since you have already taken such a significant part of me, there is nothing remaining for me to hold back. I want you to possess all of me completely.
Come on and take, take all of me
I am urging and inviting you to accept and take every aspect of who I am. I am wholeheartedly offering myself to you.
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Capitol CMG Publishing, Cloud9, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Gerald Marks, Seymour Simons
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@cjacja21
Forget skin colour, Peggy is one of the greatest jazz singers ever. A voice that will never be replicated
@renatonunes8694
Great song. great voice. Loved this singer. R.I.P.
@illbebad
Excellent version, thanks!
@michelacos8214
She was so beautiful.