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."
Do I Hear A Waltz
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Very odd but I hear a waltz
There isn't a band and I don't understand it at all
I can't hear a waltz
Oh my lord, there it goes again
Why is nobody dancing in the street?
Can't they hear the beat?
Magical, mystical, miracle
Things are impossibly lyrical
Is it me, no it's you
I do hear a waltz
I see you and I hear a waltz
It's what I've been waiting for all my life
To hear a waltz
Do I hear a waltz?
La-da-de-da-da
Such lovely Blue Danubey music
How can you be still?
I do hear a waltz
There it goes again
There's no dancing in the street
Can't they hear the beat?
Roses are dancing with peonies
Yes it's true, don't you see
Everything's suddenly Viennese
Can't be you, must be me
Do I hear a waltz?
I want more than to hear a waltz
I want you to share it, but oh my
Do I hear a waltz?
The song "Do I Hear A Waltz?" by Peggy Lee is a song that expresses the desire for something more in life. The song starts with the singer being confused as to why she can hear a waltz, but there isn't a band playing. She is wondering why people are not dancing in the streets to the waltz since it is such a magical and mystical thing. She realizes that she is the only one who can hear the waltz and that it is not just in her head but is real. As the song progresses, she starts to see everything in a Viennese way, and every object she sees starts to dance along with the waltz.
The song is not just about hearing a waltz, but it's more about the desires that we have in life. It's about wanting something more and being able to see the beauty and magic in things that others cannot see. The waltz becomes a symbol of hope and the possibility of something more, and the singer desires to share this feeling with someone else.
Line by Line Meaning
Do I hear a waltz?
The singer is questioning if she can hear a waltz music.
Very odd but I hear a waltz
The singer finds it unusual to hear waltz music but still hears it.
There isn't a band and I don't understand it at all
The singer is unable to understand from where the waltz music is coming as there isn't any band playing it.
I can't hear a waltz
The singer is not able to hear the waltz music momentarily.
Oh my lord, there it goes again
The singer hears the waltz music again and is surprised to hear it again.
Why is nobody dancing in the street?
The singer is surprised to see that nobody is dancing on the waltz music in the street.
Can't they hear the beat?
The singer is wondering why people are not dancing as they should be able to hear the beat of the waltz music.
Magical, mystical, miracle
The singer is using these words to describe the sudden appearance of waltz music in the street.
Can it be, is it true?
The singer is wondering if the waltz music she hears is for real or her imagination.
Things are impossibly lyrical
The singer finds everything around her very poetic since she heard the waltz music.
Is it me, no it's you
The singer thinks that the other person is also hearing the waltz music.
I do hear a waltz
The singer is sure that what she is hearing is waltz music.
I see you and I hear a waltz
The singer associates the waltz music with the person she sees.
It's what I've been waiting for all my life
The singer finds the waltz music to be something she has been waiting for since long.
To hear a waltz
The singer just wants to hear the waltz music.
Such lovely Blue Danubey music
The singer is referring to the Blue Danube waltz composed by Johann Strauss II, which is a very famous waltz.
How can you be still?
The singer is surprised that the other person is not moving on the waltz music.
Roses are dancing with peonies
The singer is using this as a metaphor to describe the surrounding environment where everything seems to be in sync with the waltz music.
Yes it's true, don't you see
The singer is urging the other person to believe that what she is hearing is true.
Everything's suddenly Viennese
The singer finds everything to be like it is in Vienna, Austria where waltzes were invented and popularized.
Can't be you, must be me
The singer realizes that only she is able to experience the waltz music and not the other person.
I want more than to hear a waltz
The singer wants to share the experience of the waltz music with the other person.
I want you to share it, but oh my
The singer is hesitant to ask the other person to share her experience of the waltz music.
Do I hear a waltz?
The singer repeats her initial question about hearing the waltz music to end the song.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: RICHARD RODGERS, STEPHEN SONDHEIM
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?