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."
Bouquet of Blues
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Looking for the man she can't forget?
Misery in high-heeled shoes,
Holding a bouquet of blues.
Have you seen her go her lonely way,
Dressed in tattered dreams of good-bye grey?
Lost, with nothing more to lose,
All she can hear is the echo of a voice saying "This will last".
All she can do is follow in the footsteps of the past.
Think about the girl of great regret,
Think about the man she can't forget.
Never let the man you choose,
Bring you a bouquet of blues.
The lyrics to Peggy Lee's song Bouquet of Blues tell the story of a woman who is consumed with regret and unable to move on from a past failed relationship. The opening lyrics describe her as actively seeking out the man she can't forget, despite the pain it causes her. She is depicted as a tragic figure, dressed in high-heeled shoes that only serve to compound her misery. The "bouquet of blues" that she carries with her serves as a metaphor for her feelings of sadness and despair. These lyrics paint a vivid picture of a woman whose heart has been broken and who is struggling to find a way to move on.
The second verse of the song describes the woman as being lost and alone, dressed in the remnants of her shattered dreams. The reference to "good-bye grey" suggests that she has resigned herself to a life of sadness and despair, unable to find a way out of her misery. The chorus of the song highlights the futility of the woman's situation, as she is unable to break free from the echo of the past or move beyond the pain that is holding her back. The final lyrics offer a warning to others to avoid the same fate, suggesting that they should never allow themselves to be brought a "bouquet of blues" by the men they choose.
Overall, the lyrics to Bouquet of Blues present a timeless tale of heartache and regret that will resonate with many listeners. They remind us of the power of lost love and the struggle to break free from its hold.
Line by Line Meaning
Have you seen the girl of great regret,
Have you come across the girl who is filled with sorrow and guilt,
Looking for the man she can't forget?
Searching for the man who is still ingrained in her mind,
Misery in high-heeled shoes,
The girl is full of despair and pain, despite the appearance of being put-together,
Holding a bouquet of blues.
Carrying the weight of melancholy emotions as represented by a bouquet of blue flowers,
Have you seen her go her lonely way,
Have you watched her walk alone on her way to nowhere in particular,
Dressed in tattered dreams of good-bye grey?
Wearing her broken dreams like a worn-out garment, colored by a sad farewell,
Lost, with nothing more to lose,
Feeling disoriented without any hopes, choice, or control over her life,
She carries a bouquet of blues.
The blues follow her everywhere, as a reminder of her heavy heart,
All she can hear is the echo of a voice saying "This will last".
Her mind is haunted by a voice claiming that this sadness will persist forever,
All she can do is follow in the footsteps of the past.
She is trapped in a cycle of repeating the same mistakes and feeling the same pain as before,
Think about the girl of great regret,
Reflect on the girl who is burdened by intense remorse,
Think about the man she can't forget.
Consider the man who occupies her thoughts and emotions despite being absent,
Never let the man you choose,
Don't allow the man you select to have the same damaging effect on you,
Bring you a bouquet of blues.
To not burden you with sorrow and regret, symbolized by a bouquet of blue flowers.
Lyrics © HARMONY GRACE PUBLISHING
Written by: ARTHUR HAMILTON
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?