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."
Back In Your Own Backyard
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hoping ev'ry cloud will be silver lined
But we all return as we live wo learn
That we left our happiness behind
When they sing you "look for the silver lining,"
It is silver dollars they're looking for
You will find my friend that the rainbow's end
The bird with feathers of blue, is waiting for you,
Back in your own back yard
You'll see your castle in spain, through your window pane,
Back in your own back yard
Oh you can go to the east go to the west
But someday you'll come weary at heart back where you started from
You'll find your happiness lies, right under your eyes
Back in your own backyard
In the song Back in your own backyard, Peggy Lee sings about a common human folly of leaving home with the hope of finding happiness elsewhere, only to realize that one's happiness was always within their reach. The lyrics poetically emphasize this point by saying that we leave our homes looking for a bluebird and hoping to find silver lining in every cloud, only to learn through life experience that our happiness was always right under our eyes, back in our own backyard. The song encourages individuals to look for contentment and happiness in their own homes, and that the true value of life lies in being surrounded by loved ones and the memories that one creates in one's own backyard.
Through the lyrics: "When they sing you 'look for the silver lining, It is silver dollars they're looking for,'" the song highlights the notion that the world is filled with illusions and temptations that often lead people astray. As the saying goes, "The grass is always greener on the other side." The song suggests that people need to stop searching for monetary wealth and take stock of the value of their own belongings, their own family, and their own backyard. Life is not about what we possess or acquire, but instead, it is about the feelings of contentment and joy that come from the simple pleasures of our daily lives.
In conclusion, Peggy Lee's "Back in your own backyard" is a beautiful composition that reminds individuals about the importance of cherishing the joys of their own homes and surroundings. The song highlights the universal truth that happiness lies within our own backyards and that one only needs to appreciate what they have, to find their path to happiness.
Line by Line Meaning
We leave home expecting to find a blue bird
When we leave our homes, we hope to find something special or experience something good.
Hoping ev'ry cloud will be silver lined
We hope that everything we encounter will be positive and good.
But we all return as we live wo learn
However, we realize as we grow up that life is not always easy or simple.
That we left our happiness behind
Sometimes we forget to appreciate what we have in life, and end up unhappy and discontented.
When they sing you "look for the silver lining,"
People often advise you to look for the good in your situation, even when things are difficult.
It is silver dollars they're looking for
However, some people only focus on money and material possessions when seeking happiness.
You will find my friend that the rainbow's end
In reality, happiness and contentment can be found in the most unexpected places.
Is somewhere around your kitchen door
Sometimes the happiest times are spent at home, surrounded by loved ones and familiar surroundings.
The bird with feathers of blue, is waiting for you,
Whatever you are searching for, it may be closer than you think.
Back in your own back yard
It might even be something that you left behind or that you took for granted in the past.
You'll see your castle in spain, through your window pane,
You might dream of far-off places and exciting adventures, but you may find that the things you truly value are right in front of you.
Oh you can go to the east go to the west
You may travel far and wide in search of something, but you may find what you were looking for was right at home all along.
But someday you'll come weary at heart back where you started from
If you tire of searching and longing for things, you may eventually return to where you began your journey.
You'll find your happiness lies, right under your eyes
You may find that the key to happiness was in front of you all along, if you just opened your eyes to see it.
Back in your own backyard
Whatever you are searching for, you may find it closer to home than you ever dreamed possible.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: Al Jolson, Billy Rose, Dave Dreyer
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@redcatbiker
"Julia" (series 2, episode 6) brought me here.
@alternateunreleasedshellac505
This is a really nice transfer. Thank you for uploading!
@TheVinylRestorationProject
Thank you!
@jlee29170
Impressive.
@MiaHessMusic
Beautiful job restoring this great PL song!
@pal035s
Powerful backup from Nelson Riddle and his orchestra !
@MrClassicalMusic1
Great restoration job!
@TheVinylRestorationProject
This was one of our 2019 archives. Friends, a lot has happened since then, even 2019. For starters, this classic could use another 'restoration Pass' (or two) to build on what we did in 2019, especially now. I hope to eventually make that happen at some point. But there is much more work to do. Let me explain.
Folks, are you aware that there exist many, many legacy artists that unfortunately, the digital age of music has NOT been so kind? For example, one of them is Pop/Country artist, B. J. Thomas. So my studio, LegacyVMP Studio, is on a mission to try and help do our part to change this kind of business climate within the legacy audio industry that we feel is long overdue. I think the time is right for studios like mine (and others!) to take what technology now affords us and turn it into something that can be very positive for the industry as a whole. Will you help us do that?
Here are some of our more recent restorations to help illustrate what I am talking about. I want to stress with these: 1.) the power of recent advances in audio restoration technology in particular to allow studios like mine to do what we do! 2.) I want you to hear just how far our sound has come (maturity-wise) since we began this channel in the fall of 2014. First, here is one you might recognize from Glen Campbell 🙂:https://youtu.be/l17HWcbU9lI. Or, how about this from Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 that you might also recognize 🙂:https://youtu.be/X7omaR4gS_A. In addition, here is one or two (or three or four 🙂) from B. J. Thomas: (https://youtu.be/RLjsKECP3lk, https://youtu.be/5yLgrE7-B-0, https://youtu.be/BFI8yBcX0qE, and https://youtu.be/ABPOzijuam4). Thanks for listening!
We are now a professional studio, LegacyVMP Studio ( https://www.facebook.com/legacyvmpstudio) and we need your help spreading the word about what we do! Please visit our Business page and "Like/Follow Us". Thanks so much again and stay safe.
@alternateunreleasedshellac505
Do you prefer the og mono or stereo
@TheVinylRestorationProject
Probably the mono. But I also love Alan Silverman's restoration he did a few years back from 3-track stereo. Thanks for listening and your comments. Take care for now.