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."
Bill
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I wants to tell ya, he sure was tough tough, and he certainly did
strut his stuff
He had folks all scared to death, when he walked by they all held
their breath
He was a fighting man, sure enough
Now Bill got himself a wife, and he leads a different life
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now
Married life done changed him some how
He's the man the town used to fear
Now they all call him sweet pappa Willie dear
Stronger than Samson I declare
'Til the brown skinned woman
Bobbed his hair
Big Bad Bill don't fight any more (No, he don't)
Doing the dishes
Mopping up that floor (Yes, he is)
Well he used to go out drinking
Looking for a fight
Now he gotta see that woman
Everynight
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now
Ah, play it boys
I likes that jazz
Big Bad Bill don't fight any more (No, he don't)
Doing the dishes
Mopping up that floor (Yes, he is)
Well he used to go out drinking
Looking for a fight
Now he gotta see that woman
Everynight
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now (Doing the dishes)
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now (Mop up the floor)
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now
Peggy Lee's song "Big Bad Bill" is the story of a man who was once feared by the town of Louisville. In the first verse, Lee sings of how people used to be scared to even breathe around him, as he was a tough fighter who had everyone on edge. But then in the second verse, we learn that Bill has since gotten married and has become a changed man. He goes by Sweet William now and no longer goes out looking for fights. Instead, he does the dishes and mops the floors just like anyone else would.
The song, while seemingly lighthearted, can be seen as a commentary on the idea of settling down and the changes that come with it. Bill's character is one that was once wild and dangerous, but then chose to leave that life behind and start anew with his wife. It's a common theme in life where people are forced to choose between their former selves and their current circumstances.
Interestingly, the song was a cover of a 1924 hit by singer and jazz pianist Jack Yellen. Lee's version of the song was released in 1957 and became a hit in its own right. Among other things, Peggy Lee's "Big Bad Bill" showcased her impressive vocal range, which was coupled with the swinging, upbeat jazz style that defined much of her career.
Line by Line Meaning
In the town of Louisville they got a man they call Big Bad Bill
There's a man in Louisville who goes by the name Big Bad Bill
I wants to tell ya, he sure was tough tough, and he certainly did strut his stuff
Let me tell you, he was really tough and liked to show off
He had folks all scared to death, when he walked by they all held their breath
People were terrified of him, holding their breath as he passed by
He was a fighting man, sure enough
He was known to be a fighter, without a doubt
Now Bill got himself a wife, and he leads a different life
Now Bill is married and his life has changed
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now
Bill's nickname has changed to Sweet William
Married life done changed him some how
Being married has changed him in some way
He's the man the town used to fear
Bill used to be feared by the town
Now they all call him sweet pappa Willie dear
Now they all call him Sweet Papa Willie, with affection
Stronger than Samson I declare
He was as strong as Samson, I declare
'Til the brown skinned woman bobbed his hair
Until a brown-skinned woman cut his hair short
Big Bad Bill don't fight any more (No, he don't)
Bill doesn't fight anymore
Doing the dishes, Mopping up that floor (Yes, he is)
Now he's doing chores like washing dishes and mopping the floor
Well he used to go out drinking, Looking for a fight
He used to go out drinking and looking for a fight
Now he gotta see that woman, Everynight
Now he has to spend every night with his wife
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now (Doing the dishes)
Sweet William has taken over the household chores
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now (Mop up the floor)
He's even mopping the floors now, Sweet William is here to stay
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now
The new and improved Sweet William
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jack Yellen, Milton Ager
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Anonymous
on Why Don't You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too)
Why Don't You Do Right - Casey Abrams - Lyrics
You had plenty money 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
You're sitting there wondering what it's all about
You ain't got no money, they will throw you out
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Musical Interlude
You had plenty money 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?