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."
Dock Of The Bay
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time
I left my home in Georgia
Cause I've had nothing to live for
And look like nothin's gonna come my way
So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time
Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes
Sittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's two thousand miles I roamed
Just to make this dock my home
Now, I'm just gonna sit at the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time
Peggy Lee's rendition of "Dock of the Bay" is a melancholic song about a man who has left his home in Georgia and headed for the San Francisco Bay, where he sits on the dock and watches the tide roll in and roll away again. The man seems to have lost all hope and expectation for the future, and all he can do is sit and wait for something to happen. He is experiencing intense loneliness, and the repetition of the line "wastin' time" emphasizes his sense of purposelessness.
The first verse of the song presents a contrasting image of the man sitting in the morning sun and watching the ships roll in, with the same scene later being described as taking place in the evening. This highlights the man's state of stagnation and the painful monotony of his life.
The second verse suggests that the man has given up on making anything of his life, and that he feels powerless to change his circumstances. He states that it seems like nothing is going to come his way, and that everything still remains the same. He emphasizes his sense of individuality and resistance to conformity in the line "I can't do what ten people tell me to do."
Overall, "Dock of the Bay" is a poignant commentary on the struggles of human existence, particularly when one has lost hope and a sense of purpose.
Line by Line Meaning
Sittin' in the mornin' sun
Starting my day early, enjoy the warmth of the morning sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
No matter how long the day is, I will continue to sit here until evening comes
Watching the ships roll in
Observing the arrival of ships at the dock
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
After ships have unloaded their cargo, I see them depart and return to where they came from
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
I am currently positioned on the dock facing the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Observing the movement of the tide as it ebbs away from the shore
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time
I'm sitting idly, not doing anything productive, just passing the time
I left my home in Georgia
Left my previous residence in Georgia
Headed for the 'Frisco bay
I set my sights towards the San Francisco Bay
Cause I've had nothing to live for
My prior experiences in Georgia led me to believe there was no more purpose to remain there
And look like nothin's gonna come my way
I cannot foresee any opportunities coming my way anytime soon
So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay
I will continue sitting on the dock, despite being idle without any real purpose
Watching the tide roll away
Looking out at the water steadily moving away from the shore
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time
I'm still here, doing nothing and passing the time
Look like nothing's gonna change
There doesn't seem to be any significant shifts or progress happening
Everything still remains the same
Everything appears to be stagnant, with no visible signs of positive change
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
I cannot be told what to do by multiple people without reaching a state of frustration or exhaustion
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes
Assuming I don't change or adapt, I will continue to stay as I am
Sittin' here resting my bones
Relaxing and allowing my body to recover after a significant amount of movement
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
Despite the solitude, the feeling of loneliness is persistent and not abating
It's two thousand miles I roamed
I have traveled a considerable distance of two thousand miles
Just to make this dock my home
My decision to stay on this dock has made it feel like a place of residence for me
Now, I'm just gonna sit at the dock of the bay
At present, my plan is and always will be to sit on this dock, gazing out into the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I will continue to closely observe the water gradually recede from my vantage point
Sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time
I admit to doing nothing with my time beyond occupying this spot on the dock
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: STEVE CROPPER, OTIS REDDING
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?