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."
Call Me
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When we are all alone
"Baby" is what he calls me
'Cause he's mine, my own
"Baby" is what he calls me
When he is feelin' gay
"Baby", what he'll call me
"Darling", "Dear" and "Honey"
May be alright with you
But to me this sounds so funny
Funny through and through!
"Baby" is what he calls me
When all the lights are low
"Baby", he will whisper
"I love you so!"
"Baby" is what he calls me
When all the lights are low
"Baby", he will whisper
"I love you so!"
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's song "Call Me" are a testament to the power of endearment names and how they can be some of the sweetest sounds we hear from the ones we love. The singer is addressed by her lover as "baby" and she revels in it, having affectionately internalized the moniker as a sign of exclusivity and ownership over her love interest. When they are alone and he's feeling happy, "baby" is what he calls her and she hopes it will be so forever. She contrasts this with the more clichéd expressions of love, such as "darling", "dear" and "honey", which she humorously dismisses as sounding "funny through and through".
The chorus of the song drives home how special it is to be called "baby" by someone we care about. In the dim light of intimacy, the singer's lover whispers "I love you so!" and what could be more perfect than that? The song is a beautiful ode to the bliss of love, particularly its early stages when every gesture and term of endearment is exciting and poetic. The use of the name "baby" is all the more poignant because babies are often seen as symbols of innocence and purity, and it suggests a desire to keep the love simple and unspoiled by pretense or convention.
Line by Line Meaning
"Baby" is what he calls me
He affectionately calls me "baby" as a term of endearment.
When we are all alone
He only calls me "baby" when we are alone and intimate.
'Cause he's mine, my own
He calls me "baby" because I belong to him and he loves me.
When he is feelin' gay
He calls me "baby" when he is happy and in a good mood.
Now and forever, I pray!
I hope he always calls me "baby" as a symbol of his love for me.
May be alright with you
Other pet names like "darling", "dear" and "honey" might be acceptable to you.
But to me this sounds so funny
But to me, those terms of endearment sound strange and not appropriate for our relationship.
When all the lights are low
He only calls me "baby" when the atmosphere is romantic and the lights are dim.
"Baby", he will whisper
He will whisper my nickname "baby" to show his love and affection for me.
"I love you so!"
He expresses his love for me while calling me "baby" in a tender, heartfelt way.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JOSHUA TODD GRUBER, JONATHAN BRIGHTMAN, KEITH NELSON, DEVON GLENN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Azman Hamid
Such a class act. A most wonderful rendition.
PAUL PETERSON
I COULD LISTEN TO THIS 500 TIMES IN A ROW. AND THEN LISTEN TO IT ONE MORE TIME!!!
Luis Garcia
Bellos recuerdos de mi niñes bellas melodías qué tiempos
Phillip Payne
This is the classic 60s cocktail/ jazz sound.
PEGGY LEE= STYLISH CHIC!!!!
Joe hallen
MAGNIFICENT RENDITION!! I LOVE MISS PEGGY LEE MORE THAN SHE WILL EVER KNOW RIP DEAR PEGGY💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
Don Ramón
Versión favorita
Orett Williamn
Nancy Wilson also do a good rendition and also frank Sinatra
Joe hallen
DON*T LAUGH JUDY CALLS ME SON. I AM BLESSED AS SHE IS AND MY MOM AND DAD WHO ARE IN HEAVEN.
Joe hallen
PS LISTENING TO CALL ME @ 12:40 AM. NOTHING LIKE PEGGY LEE IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS IN THE MORNING!! DO I LOVE YOU? BY PEGGY LEE I GAVE MY. FRIEND WHO TOLD ME "I💝AM THE SON SHE NEVER HAD ONE DOZEN ROSES AND LET HER💝💝💝NAME IS JUDY READ THE LYRICS TO DO I LOVE YOU BY PEGGY LEE.!! YOU SEE MY MOTHER AND FATHER DIED 13 YEARS AGO AND I TOLD HER I AM HAVING A LITTLE CRISIS. AND SHE IS MY 2ND 💝💝💝MOTHER. I GAVE JUDY. A DOZEN ROSES ON MOTHERS DAY ALSO.