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."
At Last
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Tell me, do you love me too?
I'm confessin' that I need you,
Honest I do, need you every moment.
In your eyes I read such strange things,
But your lips deny they're true,
Will your answer really change things
Making me blue?
I'm afraid some day you'll leave me,
Saying "can't we still be friends"
If you go, you know you'll grieve me,
All in life on you depends.
Am I guessin' that you love me,
Dreaming dreams of you in vain,
I'm confessin' that I love you, over again.
In Peggy Lee's song "I'm Confessin'," the lyrics refer to one person confessing their love to another and seeking a response in return. The first verse and chorus state the person's love and need for the other, as well as their uncertainty about the other's feelings. The second verse expresses the fear of the person being abandoned and the dependency they have on the other. The final lines of the song repeat the confession of love, indicating that the person is willing to continue loving the other despite the uncertainty and fear.
The lyrics of "I'm Confessin'" are very simple in structure and language, yet they convey a deep sense of vulnerability and raw emotion. The repetition of the confession throughout the song emphasizes the intensity of the person's feelings and the importance of the other's response. The use of contrasting images between the eyes and lips of the other person also creates an intriguing sense of ambiguity, highlighting the internal conflict of the person confessing their love.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm confessin' that I love you,
I am revealing that I have strong feelings for you
Tell me, do you love me too?
Can you confirm that you share the same feelings for me?
I'm confessin' that I need you,
I am acknowledging that I cannot live without you
Honest I do, need you every moment.
I am being truthful when I say that I require your presence constantly
In your eyes I read such strange things,
I see a confusing mix of emotions when I look into your eyes
But your lips deny they're true,
However, you deny those emotions when asked directly
Will your answer really change things
Would your response significantly affect our relationship?
Making me blue?
Would it make me sad?
I'm afraid some day you'll leave me,
I am scared that one day you will abandon me
Saying "can't we still be friends"
You will try to salvage the relationship by suggesting friendship
If you go, you know you'll grieve me,
You should understand that your departure will cause me immense pain
All in life on you depends.
My happiness and life seem to be based around your presence
Am I guessin' that you love me,
Do I just think that you have feelings for me?
Dreaming dreams of you in vain,
Are my desires for you unrealistic and impractical?
I'm confessin' that I love you, over again.
I am repeating my declaration of love for you
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Al J Neiburg, Doc Daugherty, Ellis Reynolds
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@HansWienhold
What I like about this performance, in addition to the music and singing, is the number of smiles.
Peggy is smiling as she walks to the microphone.
The guitar player just behind them smiles.
Benny smiles as he launches into his solo, during which, the drummer smiles and looks at the trumpet player who smiles. I count five.
And I notice that I am smiling too.
The rest of the guys are playing horns, so they can't smile. But it comes out in their music anyway.
The guy on the bass fiddle. I don't see him smiling. Then again, the video is kind of blurry. Besides which, it's obvious he is having a whale of a time and probably thinking about how glad he is that he quit that factory job in Des Moines, if indeed, there were any factory jobs in Des Moines at the time.
Who'd 've thunk? Something that entertains, and makes you feel good at the same time.
You don't see much of that these days. Makes me feel like we might have lost something.
@ClassyOldMusic
Thanks for introducing me to that Dave Barbour version. But It seemed like Peggy was getting as bored and sleepy as I was while struggling to get through it. You could see it, Especially in the shots where she's looking over toward Dave, looking like she couldn't wait for him to finish his anemic, lack-of-creative-spark solo bit. I always felt that music after '49 really began to go down the toilet.
By the way, before I forget, The camera work in this film was just above High School kid, amateur, and they mostly focused above her waist, or breast... and it seemed they only had limited movement or positioning of their equpment, or maybe because there wasn't anything worth filming... in fact, there was hardly any movement from Anybody! NO One Even Cracked a Smile, except for Peggy. Maybe because she knew she was getting paid for it anyway. There was no "Swing" or Life to any of this number at all. It's was more like some Bohemian bar scene than a Live Performance.
Look at this "Benny" number, Benny, Peggy, the Band, and the Audience are Swingin' Happy Cats! Any person with Any Life and/or Rhythm is going to have Fun with Benny's number... JUST Look at Benny! He IS the Quintessential Band Leader, Leading the whole Swinging Mess!
Maybe that's why Benny Goodman is known as The KING OF SWING! And, You can see in Peggy's body language and hear it in her voice, that she agrees and is adoring her Fun with Him too.
On a List of Top Ten Big Bands of All Time, where Votes came from Real Swing Loving, Band Knowing, People, Consistently, between the Top 2 Bands, The Benny Goodman Orchestra was #2 after Glenn Miller #1. Consistently.
The Dave Barbour Band isn't on Any List, about Anything, Anywhere.
Look at Dave in the Barbour version, jeeeze! he's not having any fun neither, and his sleepy one note picked off the simple scale guitar playing and solos are tired, droopy, weak, like he's annoyed with the whole project. That huge oversized guitar was way too much guitar for the work he was doing. Way, waaayyy too much tool for the simple job.
Everybody around him looks Grumpy! The Piano Player seemed like the only one with life in him but I felt like he was holding back from what he really wanted to paste onto them 88's. Peggy looks like she's just remembering she forgot to feed the dog before she left the house.
The Benny version, when played off my 78 RPM's lights up the room and the people in it, and makes 'em smile and laugh and say things like "they don't play 'em like that anymore"... I can play it over and over on my 1959 Telefunken Verdi Phonograph/Radio console (awesomely made in W. Germany) forever and people get a Kick out of it...
If I wanted to impress anybody with an old 78 RPM record, and try to Promote the Music of the Golden Era, (like I do!) and to keep it from dying, "Hands Down"! I'd play the Benny version, and No Way At All, for Any reason would I play that boring, Golden Era Killing, Dave Barbour lullabye.
"Get outta here, Give me some money too"
@cant144
"I knew I couldn't sing over them, so I decided to sing under them. The more noise they made the more softly I sang. When they discovered they couldn't hear me, they began to look at me. Then they began to listen. As I sang, I kept thinking, 'softly with feeling.' The noise dropped to a hum; the hum gave way to silence. I had learned how to reach and hold my audience -- softly, with feeling."Peggy Lee
@ruthiebelle1
A really smart girl to figure that out.
@upthedownescalator630
That's better than Hedy Lamarr who found out that "All a girl has to do to be glamours is just stand still and look stupid."
@williamheyman5439
And it was hard for her to look stupid, as she was a co-inventor of spread-spectrum radio, had a patent, and several inventions.
@RobCummings
Prettiest smack-down I ever saw.
@richardbenitez7803
Notice the super soft glance at here and there as if she singing just for you.... very brilliant. Perfect song forever
@Henry-vu5sg
No one in 2023 can touch it.
God bless our predecessors x
@robertbruce7686
2024 ❤
@Miss_Aralys
@@Henry-vu5sg Except maybe every respectful music artist within the Electro Swing community, like Caro Emerald 🤭
@dimtso6107
Year 2025, January