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."
Be Anything
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Be a thief be my sunshine
Or my grief be anything
But, darling, be mine
Be a wise man
Be a fool treat me tender
Or be cruel, be anything
But, darling, be mine
Be master of all you survey
Fail and it still doesn't matter if you love me
Everything is okay
Be the angel of my prayers
Be the devil
Who cares be anything, but, darling be mine
Be the angel of my prayers
Be the devil, who cares
Be anything, but, darling, be mine
The lyrics of Peggy Lee & Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra's song Be Anything are about unconditional love. The singer is expressing their love for someone and telling them that they can be anything they want, whether it is good or bad, it does not matter as long as they are theirs. The singer asks their love interest to be their sunshine, or their grief, to be wise or foolish, tender or cruel, climb to the top or fail, be an angel or a devil; but, most importantly, they should be theirs because it is their love that matters the most.
The song conveys that true love accepts and embraces all of someone's facets without judgment. It tells the listener to be whomever they want to be and to know that they will still be loved. Despite the ups and downs of life, the message is that their love can weather any storm as long as they are together. It is a beautiful portrayal of unconditional love, and it reminds us that love is not always about fixing someone's flaws but accepting them for who they are.
Line by Line Meaning
Be a beggar
Whether you are rich or poor, I will still love you.
Be a thief be my sunshine
Even if you get into trouble or do something wrong, you will still light up my life.
Or my grief be anything
You can be my happiness or my sadness. I will still love and accept you.
But, darling, be mine
I want you to be with me and be a part of my life.
Be a wise man
You can be someone with great knowledge and experience, and I will still love you the same.
Be a fool treat me tender
Even if you act silly or foolish, as long as you treat me gently and with care, our love will still thrive.
Or be cruel, be anything
Even if you treat me harshly or cruelly, I will still love you.
Climb to the top of the ladder
If you succeed in life and become wealthy or powerful, it doesn't change my feelings for you.
Be master of all you survey
You can be in control of everything and still, I will love you.
Fail and it still doesn't matter if you love me
Even if you fail or face struggles in life, our love will sustain us.
Everything is okay
No matter what happens, everything will be okay as long as we are together.
Be the angel of my prayers
You can be my source of comfort and hope, and I will still love you unconditionally.
Be the devil
Even if you have flaws or negative qualities, I will still accept and love you.
Who cares be anything
It doesn't matter what you are or what you do, I will still love you the same.
But, darling be mine
I want you to be mine forever.
Lyrics © BOURNE CO., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Irving Gordon
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@novaste1238
My mom sang this song to me as a child, and I sang it to my daughter (who's 12 now and knows every word😊❤). Just beautiful...
@ahcdiva1
So tender and beautiful. There was no one like Peggy Lee. Happy Valentine's Day, Holly Foster Wells, and thanks for unearthing this gem!
@plotodebbarma1381
I love you Peg, happy valentine's day darlin' 🥺
@tayronadreamer
Perfect for Valentine's Day ❤️🌹
@cabbuccino5558
Miss Peggy Lee =Legend.
@SavvyJazzy1
Beautiful song! Thank you for sharing this on Valentines Day! 💗
@mehdi_mzz
it's actualy 5am and i'm listening to the most peacefull music, m'am keep singing for us please 🫶🏼
@Goldenhawk5211
Thank you so much for this!
@bluefandango
this song, tickles.
no, it gives goosebumps.
or maybe something in between ;)
@BC-ru8zd
Обожаю ❤, милый голос, полный нежности и чистоты. Теперь так не поют, а жаль. Браво! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤