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."
Bless You
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every day
There's some good in everybody, we're just made that way
Good Morning, oh miserable, you're not as bad as you make out
That frown don't set right get right up and shout
Bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every night
If you shine like a love light beamin' you'll make out all right
Now if any old evil comes around today,
Bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every day
You know that life is like an old steam engine,
you can either go ahead, or in reverse
Now the road ahead may look pretty rocky,
but the road behind is bound to be worse
If you close your eyes you won't see the sunshine
if you plug your ears you won't hear a thing
And if you shut your heart you'll shut out
the feeling and there'll never be any reason to sing
Bless you, yeah bless you, yes Bless you, yes bless you
That frown don't set right get right up and shout
Oh bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every night
If you shine like a love light beamin', you'll make out all right
If any old evil comes around today, turn it right around and chase it away
Bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every day
Bless you, hmmm bless you, yes bless you
Bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every day
The lyrics of Peggy Lee’s Bless You are a message of hope and positivity. The song encourages listeners to focus on the good in themselves and others, and to chase away negativity. The opening lines, “Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day” serve as a reminder that even though life may seem difficult at times, there is always something positive to be found. The lyrics go on to say that “There’s some good in everybody, we’re just made that way” which is telling us that every person has something good within them, it just takes effort to see it.
In the second verse, Lee uses a metaphor to discuss life choices. She likens life to an old steam engine that can either move forward or backward. The message here is that we can choose to move forward with positivity and hope or we can slide backward into despair. The lyrics encourage us to keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open to the good in the world, and to actively chase away negativity.
Overall, Peggy Lee’s Bless You is a song that inspires hope and positivity. It reminds us to focus on the good in ourselves and others, and to actively work to create a better world.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh oh oh
The singer starts the song with an exclamation to set the tone of the whole song
Bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every day
The singer is appreciating the good traits in each person and wishing them well every day
There's some good in everybody, we're just made that way
The singer believes that every individual has some good qualities, and it is their true nature that they possess goodness in them
Good Morning, oh miserable, you're not as bad as you make out
Addressing someone who is feeling low, the singer is telling them that they aren't as bad as they think they are
That frown don't set right get right up and shout
The singer is encouraging someone to shake off their sadness and start shouting with joy
If you shine like a love light beamin' you'll make out all right
The singer is saying that if someone projects positive energy and acts with love, they will be successful in life
Now if any old evil comes around today, just turn it right around and chase it away
The singer advises that when someone is faced with negativity, they should face it and remove it from their lives
You know that life is like an old steam engine, you can either go ahead, or in reverse
The singer is telling that life is like an old steam engine; you can either move forward or backward, based on the actions you make
Now the road ahead may look pretty rocky, but the road behind is bound to be worse
The singer is warning that moving forward in life, may seem tough at times, but if someone looks back, they can see that their past struggles were even harder
If you close your eyes, you won't see the sunshine. If you plug your ears, you won't hear a thing. And if you shut your heart, you'll shut out the feeling and there'll never be any reason to sing
The singer is advising that if someone closes their mind, heart, and ears, they would be missing out on the joys of life, and would not be able to appreciate the beauty of the world around them
Bless you, yeah bless you, yes Bless you, yes bless you
The singer shows their appreciation by repeating the phrase 'Bless you' time and again
Bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every night
The singer reiterates the message of the song, to appreciate the goodness in oneself and in others, and wishing them well every night
Bless you, hmmm bless you, yes bless you
The singer once again repeats the phrase 'Bless you' to emphasize the importance of being good and spreading kindness
Bless you for the good that's in you, bless you every day
The singer concludes the song with the same message, to bless every individual for the good that is present in them, and to do it every day
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: MEL TORME, PEGGY LEE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@DaRealRoachDoggJr
Lyrics:
Oh oh oh
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day
There’s some good in everybody, we’re just made that way
Good Morning, oh miserable, you’re not as bad as you make out
That frown don’t set right get right up and shout
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every night
If you shine like a love light beamin’ you’ll make out all right
Now if any old evil comes around today,
just turn it right around and chase it away
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day
You know that life is like an old steam engine,
you can either go ahead, or in reverse
Now the road ahead may look pretty rocky,
but the road behind is bound to be worse
If you close your eyes you won’t see the sunshine
if you plug your ears you won’t hear a thing
And if you shut your heart you’ll shut out
the feeling and there’ll never be any reason to sing
Bless you, yeah bless you, yes Bless you, yes bless you
That frown don’t set right get right up and shout
Oh bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every night
If you shine like a love light beamin’, you’ll make out all right
If any old evil comes around today, turn it right around and chase it away
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day
Bless you, hmmm bless you, yes bless you
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day
@ReelzChannelable
''This is my city. It may not be paradise, but it IS the City of Angels.''
@arete7884
Beautiful song thanks Gangster squad for showing me this
@Ethan6000894
Thank you gangster squad for leading me to this song
@TheStewie117
first listened to this at the end of gangster squad. I remember making sure to remember the chorus of the song so i could later look up the song 😂 was still in middle school then 😭😅 cant believe its been 10 years already. Jesus.
@DaRealRoachDoggJr
Lyrics:
Oh oh oh
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day
There’s some good in everybody, we’re just made that way
Good Morning, oh miserable, you’re not as bad as you make out
That frown don’t set right get right up and shout
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every night
If you shine like a love light beamin’ you’ll make out all right
Now if any old evil comes around today,
just turn it right around and chase it away
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day
You know that life is like an old steam engine,
you can either go ahead, or in reverse
Now the road ahead may look pretty rocky,
but the road behind is bound to be worse
If you close your eyes you won’t see the sunshine
if you plug your ears you won’t hear a thing
And if you shut your heart you’ll shut out
the feeling and there’ll never be any reason to sing
Bless you, yeah bless you, yes Bless you, yes bless you
That frown don’t set right get right up and shout
Oh bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every night
If you shine like a love light beamin’, you’ll make out all right
If any old evil comes around today, turn it right around and chase it away
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day
Bless you, hmmm bless you, yes bless you
Bless you for the good that’s in you, bless you every day
@jiclaus3907
2020 and I was brought here by gangster squad. Amazing theme song to end a great movie, with some awesome town slides.
@motoe948
This song makes me wish I was living in 40's and 50's
@anonimuldduckx274
I could not have said it better
@Maks-ol7iz
The storyteller has good taste, ill give him that.
@sleepingbeautyblue
They don't call Mel Torme "The Velvet Fog" for nothing! He's one of my favorite 40s big bang singer. I'm a professional swing dancer and I've danced to it a few times. It's perfect for lindy hop.