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."
Baby
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When we are all alone
"Baby" is what he calls me
'Cause he's mine, my own
"Baby" is what he calls me
When he is feelin' gay
"Baby", what he'll call me
"Darling", "Dear" and "Honey"
May be alright with you
But to me this sounds so funny
Funny through and through!
"Baby" is what he calls me
When all the lights are low
"Baby", he will whisper
"I love you so!"
"Baby" is what he calls me
When all the lights are low
"Baby", he will whisper
"I love you so!"
The song "Baby" by Peggy Lee is a delightful tune about a lover expressing their love in the most endearing way possible. The central theme of the song is the term "Baby," which the lover uses to call her. She shares that "Baby" is the word her lover uses to address her when they are together, and the term "Baby" symbolizes the deep emotional connection they share. The opening line of the song "Baby is what he calls me when we are alone" reveals the intimacy that the couple shares. Although "Darling," "Dear," and "Honey" are acceptable pet names, she finds them funny and not as soul-stirring as her lover's pet name – "Baby." The song's chorus reiterates how the term "Baby" is endearing and special, making it the only name she wants to be called by, now and forever.
The song is a testament to the power of a loving relationship between two individuals. The song's sentiment is innocent, sweet, and lovely, as it captures the profound sense of love that someone can possess for another person. The song's simplicity and Peggy Lee's charming vocals make it a timeless classic that has remained popular to date.
Line by Line Meaning
Baby" is what he calls me
When we are all alone
"Baby" is a term of endearment that he uses when we are alone
"Baby" is what he calls me
'Cause he's mine, my own
"Baby" is an expression of his ownership of me
"Baby" is what he calls me
When he is feelin' gay
"Baby" is a nickname he uses when he's happy
"Baby", what he'll call me
Now and forever, I pray!
"Baby" is what he will call me forever, which I hope never changes
"Darling", "Dear" and "Honey"
May be alright with you
Although other terms of endearment like "Darling", "Dear" and "Honey" may be acceptable to you
But to me this sounds so funny
Funny through and through!
I find them comical and insufficiently affectionate
"Baby" is what he calls me
When all the lights are low
"Baby" is a pet name he uses when it's dark
"Baby", he will whisper
"I love you so!"
He expresses his love for me in a whisper by calling me "Baby"
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JOSHUA TODD GRUBER, JONATHAN BRIGHTMAN, KEITH NELSON, DEVON GLENN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@rosmerylue9762
It's so insane how talented she was
@donaldauguston9740
Fabulous doo, fabulous dress, fabulous voice!
@putridus_oculi
this song is so cooooool!!!!!!
@misslemon6032
blues jazz sparkle clear as a springgg
@nocount1
She's magnificent.
@BrianR.
Dave Barbour on guitar, who was also Peggy Lee's husband at the time.
@Boddissatva
Bring back cool.
@BB-cf9gx
You was so right baby, you was so right.
@romeucovelloneto
Peggy Lee!!....💕💕💕
@marialuisavasconez2726
hahaha I justo love this song ...and Peggy Lee is just a Queen💫