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."
Caramba! It’s The Samba
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There's a guy that I'm romancing
I hope he falls for me before the night is through
I can't wait till we start swaying
What the heck is that they're playing
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do
You better play a rumba for me
When I begin to do a rumba shake or two
I am waiting on the floor now
Just another minute more now
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do
When they play something dreamy
You will see me waltz away from everyone
And when I tango
All the gang go
Off the floor to watch the fun
Aye! There must be a million
Of the tunes that aren't Brazilian
So I can't understand why they don't play a few
Ah! The band's about to start now
There'll be music in my heart now
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do
When they play something dreamy
You will see me waltz away from everyone
And when I tango
All the gang go
Off the floor to watch the fun
Aye! There must be a million
Of the tunes that aren't Brazilian
So I can't understand why they don't play a few
Ah! The band's about to start now
There'll be music in my heart now
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do
Ho-ba! Ho-ba!
In Peggy Lee's “Caramba! It's the Samba”, the singer is out for a night of dancing with her romantic interest, but is troubled by the fact that the dance playing is not one she knows how to do. She expresses her anxiety about not being able to samba, urging the band to play a rumba for her to show off her moves, implying that her partner will be impressed. Throughout the song, she comments on various dances, like the waltz and tango, highlighting her versatility, but expresses frustration that there aren't more options available. She ultimately comes to terms with her inability to samba, and simply looks forward to enjoying the music with her partner.
The song reflects a larger cultural narrative about the popularity of samba in American music during the mid-20th century. While other Latin dances like the rumba and tango were also popular, samba was seen as the quintessential Brazilian dance, with infectious rhythms and playful melodies. However, as Lee's lyrics suggest, many Americans didn't actually know how to dance the samba, which led to frustration and anxiety for many partygoers. Thus, the song speaks to a larger phenomenon of cultural exchange and appropriation, where cultural symbols can be commodified and mass-produced, but not necessarily understood or appreciated on a deeper level.
Overall, “Caramba! It's the Samba” is a classic example of the mid-century American fascination with Brazilian music and culture, while also pointing out the limitations of cultural exchange and understanding.
Line by Line Meaning
Tonight is my night out for dancing
I am ready to go dancing tonight
There's a guy that I'm romancing
I am interested in a man and hope to dance with him
I hope he falls for me before the night is through
I hope to impress this man with my dancing and win his affection
I can't wait till we start swaying
I am eager to start dancing with this man
What the heck is that they're playing
I do not recognize the music they are playing
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do
I am disappointed because I cannot dance the samba
You better play a rumba for me
I am requesting they play a rumba because I can dance it well
'Cause I know he will adore me
I believe that if they play a rumba, the man I am interested in will be impressed with my dancing
When I begin to do a rumba shake or two
If they play a rumba, I will start dancing and showing off my skills
I am waiting on the floor now
I am ready and eager to dance
Just another minute more now
I am impatient and cannot wait much longer to dance
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do
I am disappointed because I cannot dance the samba
When they play something dreamy
If they play a slow, romantic song
You will see me waltz away from everyone
I will dance the waltz with someone, perhaps the man I am interested in
And when I tango
If they play a tango
All the gang go off the floor to watch the fun
Others will stop dancing to watch me and my dance partner perform the tango
Aye! There must be a million
There are so many songs they could play
Of the tunes that aren't Brazilian
There are many non-Brazilian songs they could play
So I can't understand why they don't play a few
I do not understand why they are only playing samba
Ah! The band's about to start now
The band is getting ready to play
There'll be music in my heart now
I am excited to dance to the music
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do
I am disappointed because I cannot dance the samba
Ho-ba! Ho-ba!
Exclamation of excitement or encouragement
Writer(s): Irving Taylor, George Wyle, Eddie Pola
Contributed by Josiah F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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?