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."
Black Coffee
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Haven't slept a wink
I walk the floor and watch the door
And in between I drink
Black coffee
Love's a hand-me-down brew
I'll never know a Sunday
In this weekday room
I'm talkin' to the shadows
One o'clock 'til four
And Lord, how slow the moments go
When all I do is pour
Black coffee
Since the blues caught my eye
I'm hangin' out on Monday
My Sunday dreams to dry
Now man was born to go a lovin'
But was a woman born to weep and fret
To stay at home and tend her oven
And down her past regrets
In coffee and cigarettes
I'm moonin' all the mornin'
Moanin' all the night
And in between it's nicotine
And not much heart to fight
Black coffee
Feelin' low as the ground
It's drivin' me crazy
This waitin' for my baby
To maybe come around
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's song "Black Coffee" depict the emotions of a woman who is feeling lonely and is dealing with heartbreak. She is unable to sleep and spends her time pacing and drinking black coffee. The lyrics suggest that she suffers from a case of the blues and feels that she is stuck in a weekday room unable to experience the joys of a Sunday.
The woman talks to shadows and spends her time pouring black coffee which symbolizes her sadness and inability to move on from her past trauma. She is caught up in the blues and her Sunday dreams regularly get shattered by the reality that is life. The lyrics also highlight the difference between men and women's experiences of love. While men are born to go out there and love, women are born to weep and fret. They are expected to stay at home and tend to their ovens and deal with their past regrets through coffee and cigarettes.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm feelin' mighty lonesome
I am experiencing intense loneliness.
Haven't slept a wink
I haven't slept at all.
I walk the floor and watch the door
I am pacing and keeping an eye on the door.
And in between I drink
To pass the time, I drink something.
Black coffee
The drink I am consuming is black coffee.
Love's a hand-me-down brew
Love is something I inherited from others.
I'll never know a Sunday
I will never experience a relaxing, carefree Sunday.
In this weekday room
I am trapped in this room on an ordinary day.
I'm talkin' to the shadows
I am having conversations with the shadows on the wall.
One o'clock 'til four
I am talking to the shadows from 1am until 4am.
And Lord, how slow the moments go
I feel like time is passing slowly.
When all I do is pour
I am only pouring myself more coffee.
Since the blues caught my eye
Ever since I became sad, I have been doing this.
I'm hangin' out on Monday
I am spending my boring weekday doing this.
My Sunday dreams to dry
I am waiting for my unfulfilled weekend desires to wither away.
Now man was born to go a lovin'
Men were made to experience love.
But was a woman born to weep and fret
Is it a woman's destiny to cry and worry?
To stay at home and tend her oven
Is it necessary for a woman to be a homemaker?
And down her past regrets
And to continue to dwell on her mistakes from the past.
In coffee and cigarettes
All while consuming coffee and cigarettes.
I'm moonin' all the mornin'
I'm spending my mornings brooding.
Moanin' all the night
And my nights are filled with groaning.
And in between it's nicotine
During the in-between times, I am smoking cigarettes.
And not much heart to fight
I lack the motivation to put up a fight.
Feelin' low as the ground
I am feeling extremely down.
It's drivin' me crazy
This feeling is causing me to lose my sanity.
This waitin' for my baby
I am waiting for my loved one to arrive.
To maybe come around
To possibly return to me.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: J Francis Burke, Paul Francis Webster
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@schmumu
@@greeneyedsoutherngirl6468 Bruh it's even in the lyrics.
But was a woman born to weep and fret
And stay at home and tend her oven
And down her past regrets
In coffee and cigarettes
You would've liked to live during that era?
@MrDarkMagnus
I was just actually skipping around Peggy's greatest hits last night - and now I come upon this masterpiece. I was going to state that Ms. Lee should be considered a national treasure. I think we would be shorting the rest of the globe. national
@o-vg1fs
Fabulous song.
I have been singing this Black Coffee for 20years hence this has a very special meaning in my life.
@ojshilinski8358
This lady knew how to deliver - I just had to hear this particular song right now -- thanks for keeping it available - YouTube is GREAT!
@a.a.a.8365
The beautiful vocals of the legendary Miss Peggy Lee...🎼🎤🎶❤💋
@linzieloo1
And the great horn and other musicians
@johnkirk5312
Love this 1953 blue-eyed soul music. Peggy at her very best.
@Richard-me2pq
I love her brass ensemble in the background. That trumpet is fat and sassy!
@royfeduniw9328
I love this rendition so much that it is my alarm to wake up in the morning, this way my day always starts off right. Fantastic !👏👍
@liamdavis4835
a great lady with a heavy passionate voice ... thank you Ms. Lee
@jessicagregg6584
This song is absolutely amazing. Its so full of soul and it really has the full jazz flavour imbedded in the lyrics. Peggy is such a talented women, one of the greats in the jazz world. Right up there with Ella Fitzgerald.