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."
Don't Explain
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I know you raise Cain
I'm glad you're back
Don't explain
Quiet, don't explain
You mixed with some dame
Skip that lipstick
You know that I love you and what love endures
All my thoughts are of you
For I'm so completely yours
Cry to hear folks chatter, and I know you cheat
But right and wrong don't matter when you're with me sleep
Hush now, don't explain
You're my joy and pain
My life's yours love
Don't explain
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's "Don't Explain" are a plea to a lover to spare her the details of his recent escapades. The singer expresses an understanding of his infidelity - "I know you raise Cain" - and gratitude for his return despite the temptation he found elsewhere - "I'm glad you're back." The repeated request to "hush" and "quiet" is an admonition to avoid any explanation of his absence or dalliances. In the second verse, the singer implies that the lover was with another woman - "You mixed with some dame" - but again requests that he spare her any further information about his indiscretions - "Skip that lipstick, don't explain." The singer's resolve to overlook his flaws stems from her unwavering love for him - "You know that I love you and what love endures" - and a sense of ownership over the lover's life - "My life's yours love, don't explain."
Line by Line Meaning
Hush now don't explain
Please be quiet and do not try to justify or explain your actions.
I know you raise Cain
I am aware that you cause trouble and behave recklessly.
I'm glad you're back
I am happy to have you by my side once again.
Don't explain
I do not need to hear your excuses or reasons for your actions.
Quiet, don't explain
Please remain quiet and do not try to explain your behavior.
You mixed with some dame
You have been seen with another woman.
Skip that lipstick
Please do not try to cover up your actions with lies or excuses.
Don't explain
I do not want or need to hear your explanation or justification.
You know that I love you and what love endures
I love you despite your faults and I am willing to endure any hardships that come with it.
All my thoughts are of you
I constantly think about you and only you.
For I'm so completely yours
I belong to you completely and only you.
Cry to hear folks chatter, and I know you cheat
It pains me to hear others talk about your infidelity.
But right and wrong don't matter when you're with me sleep
When we are together, nothing else matters, not even societal standards of right and wrong.
Hush now, don't explain
Please remain quiet and do not try to justify your actions.
You're my joy and pain
You bring me both happiness and pain, but I love you nonetheless.
My life's yours love
My life belongs to you, my love for you is all-consuming.
Don't explain
I do not need or want to hear your justifications or excuses for your actions.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Arthur Jr. Herzog, Billie Holiday
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
MusicLoverBrian1
"Don't Explain" was originally written and sung by Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday's songs, especially her originally written compositions in my opinion are very hard to top or equal to and once another singer gets his/her vocals on it they are not able to convey the emotion as well as Billie did because she was able to go into the inner core of the song and dig the inner depths of it . . . . what more could you ask for? Well I have to say Peggy Lee's rendition of "Don't Explain" is EXCELLENT!
RONNSWIRL
Saw her do this song at the Music Center in Los Angeles, you could hear a pin drop, this was her encore, it tore the roof off, instant standing ovation!!!
147 296
listening to this song makes me sad that we have mostly lost this awesome era of music. i would bet if you played this fabulous song to a room full of high-schoolers, they would probably say it was amy winehouse. :( Peggy is a goddess.
Robert H
Peggy Lee. No need to explain. Every song she touches, she makes her own. From the Mink Jazz album, love it.
Robert H
You are correct!
Tom Adair
I thought it was on A Natural Woman
Ralph Ewell
And that, my friends, is how it's done. The early 70 's was a good era for Miss Peggy.
Nathan Maaka
Surely one of the greatest renditions of this standard
Frank39
Wow! I love all of the videos you have uploaded and this one is fantastic. I love the jazzy sound.
Gareth Miller
It's from a TV special she made in 1970 with Anthony Quinn . Actually , Peg does raise her voice on other occassions ...just sparingly!! Glad you enjoyed this song . Gareth.