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!
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's "Caramba It's the Samba" tell a story of a woman's love for dancing, particularly her desire to impress a man she is fond of by dancing the rumba. She expresses her frustration at the music being played, wishing they could play something other than the samba, which she cannot dance. She eagerly waits for the music to start, hoping to finally show off her skills in the rumba to capture her love interest's heart. The lyrics also mention her penchant for other dance styles, such as the waltz and tango, which she seems to be more comfortable with.
The song is a playful and lively tune that captures the energy and excitement of Latin dance culture in the mid-20th century. It displays the fusion of different musical styles, including swing, jazz, and Afro-Latin rhythms. Peggy Lee’s sultry vocal delivery combined with the infectious beats of the samba make for an irresistible combination.
Interestingly, the song was written by Peggy Lee herself along with her then-husband Dave Barbour, who was also her guitarist and collaborator on many of her songs. As a songwriter, Lee had a distinctive style that drew from various influences, including pop, jazz, and Latin music.
Line by Line Meaning
Tonight is my night out for dancing,
I am excited to go dancing tonight,
There's a guy that I'm romancing,
I am interested in a particular guy tonight,
I hope he falls for me before the night is through.
I hope to win his affection by the end of the night,
I can't wait till we start swaying,
I am excited to start dancing with him,
What the heck is that they're playing?
I am unfamiliar with the music being played,
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do.
I am intimidated by the samba dance and cannot do it,
You better play a rumba for me,
I would prefer to dance the rumba instead of the samba,
'Cause I know he will adore me
I am confident that dancing the rumba will impress him,
When I begin to do a rumba shake or two.
I plan to dance the rumba with confidence and skill,
I am waiting on the floor now,
I am eagerly waiting for the music and dancing to start,
Just another minute more now,
I am getting anxious and can't wait any longer,
When they play something dreamy,
If they play a slow and romantic song,
You will see me waltz away from everyone,
I will gracefully waltz with my partner away from the crowd,
And when I tango,
If they play a tango,
All the gang go
The other dancers will clear the floor
Off the floor to watch the fun!
And watch our skilled tango moves
Aye! There must be a million
There are countless
Of the tunes that aren't Brazilian,
Non-Brazilian songs
So I can't understand why they don't play a few!
So I can't understand why they only play Brazilian music
Ah! The band's about to start now,
I am excited for the band to start playing,
There'll be music in my heart now,
I will feel happy and alive when the music starts,
Caramba! It's the samba, it's the one dance I can't do.
The samba is the one dance I am afraid to dance,
Ho-ba! Ho-ba!
exclamation of excitement and enthusiasm
Lyrics © KISS MUSIC CO , Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: EDWARD EDDIE POLA, GEORGE WYLE, IRVING TAYLOR
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?