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."
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
I forgive you, 'cause I can't forget you
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
[Repeat: x2]
I ought to cross you off my list
But when you come a-knocking at my door
And I come running back for more
I should hate you, but I guess I love you
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
The devil and the deep blue sea
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's song "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" express the dilemma of being caught between two equally challenging options. The singer cannot fully commit to their lover, as they do not want them, but they cannot let go of them either because of their feelings. The title itself is a common idiom that means being in a difficult or dangerous situation in which you have to make a tough choice. The phrase originates from sailors who used to say: "Between Scylla and Charybdis," which refers to two sea monsters in Greek mythology representing dangerous whirlpools among rocks.
The first verse highlights the singer's internal conflict, as they cannot let go of their lover. Even though they do not want to be with them, they are still afraid to lose them. The second verse shows how the singer tries to justify their actions by forgiving their lover, but they cannot forget them. The repetition of the chorus emphasizes the singer's state of being caught in a constant emotional tug-of-war.
The bridge of the song shows that the singer is aware of the rational decision to cut their partner off, but their heart overrides their mind. They acknowledge that they should despise their lover, but love overrides their thoughts. It's like they're aware of the situation they're in, but they cannot help but be caught in the devil and the deep blue sea.
Overall, the song is a representation of love's complex nature, how a person can feel two opposite emotions and still be unable to let go. They are caught between two challenging abstract scenarios: the devil represents the challenging and dangerous option, whereas the deep blue sea is the uncertain but safe option.
Line by Line Meaning
I don't want you, but I'd hate to lose you
I do not have any romantic feelings for you, but the thought of completely losing you pains me
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
You have put me in a difficult predicament where the only choices available are two equally unpleasant options
I forgive you, 'cause I can't forget you
Even though you have done something wrong, I am willing to pardon you because I cannot move past my feelings for you
I ought to cross you off my list
I should remove you from my life
But when you come a-knocking at my door
However, when you come back into my life
Fate seems to give my heart a twist
Destiny intervenes and stirs up my emotions
And I come running back for more
And I find myself returning to you for another chance
I should hate you, but I guess I love you
I should despise you for hurting me, but I suppose my feelings for you outweigh my anger
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
Again, you have left me with two undesirable options
The devil and the deep blue sea
A metaphorical phrase meaning being stuck between two dangerous or problematic situations
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, S.A. MUSIC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@joehallen4510
PERFECTION UTTERLY MAGNIFICENT I LOVE PEGGY LEE REST IN PEACE DEAR ONE
@Onoma314
A seamless transition from the guitar to the piano, so nice :)
@dggd
Salute to you Peggy! Much admiration!
@sapnaanderson7685
Love love love this version of this song.
@elainetrof2001
Love hearing her when she was young
@epipick
Nice to hear this version although I love the George Harrison rendition on his Brainwashed album.
@DrewK.
This is an incredibly ahead of it's time arrangement! It's hard to believe it's from 1945!
@joehallen4510
MAGNIFICENT
@majorsnodgrassthethird5699
She's a natural swinger.
@manolemihaela8298
Wonderful !