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 fan the flame
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't fan the flame of love
I must admit you've got a way about you
But something here keeps warning me to doubt you
So don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Don't fan the flame of love
But I've a hunch you're nothing but a rover
So don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Don't fan the flame of love
It seems I never play upon the side that's winning
'Cause Lady Luck never was my friend
Each time I think it's gonna be the sweet beginning
It turns out to be the bitter end
I should forget how much I seem to need you
Because I know where love like this can lead you
So don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Don't fan the flame of love
There's not another one who can hold a candle
You're dynamite, anyone can see
But dynamite at times gets mighty hard to handle
And that's not the kind of game for me
I should forget how much I seem to need you
Because I know where love like this can lead you
So don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Don't fan the flame of love
Don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Don't fan the flame of love
So don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Don't fan the flame of love
The song "Don't Fan the Flame" by Peggy Lee is a cautionary tale about the danger of falling in love with someone who may not be worth the risk. The lyrics speak to the experience of being drawn to someone who has qualities that make them attractive, but at the same time feeling a sense of unease or intuition that they may not be trustworthy. The singer acknowledges the allure of this person and their ability to make her feel alive, but also recognizes that pursuing a relationship with them could lead to heartbreak and disappointment.
Throughout the song, Lee references the fear of taking risks and the knowledge that past experiences have taught her to be wary. She talks about not wanting to play on the side that's winning and the way that each new romantic encounter seems to end badly. The chorus, "don't fan the flame of love," is repeated several times as a warning to herself to step back and not let her emotions get the best of her.
Overall, the song is a testament to the complexity of love and the way that desire and caution often go hand in hand. It's a reminder that sometimes the things that attract us to someone can also be the very things that put us in danger, and that learning to listen to our instincts is an important part of navigating romantic relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Do not fuel the fire of love
Don't fan the flame of love
Do not excite romantic feelings
I must admit you've got a way about you
I confess that you have a certain charm
But something here keeps warning me to doubt you
However, some feeling inside me cautions me to mistrust you
You've got a kiss that makes me thrill all over
Your kiss sends shivers down my spine
But I've a hunch you're nothing but a rover
Though I have a feeling that you are just a player
It seems I never play upon the side that's winning
It feels like I am always on the losing side
'Cause Lady Luck never was my friend
Because fortune has never favored me
Each time I think it's gonna be the sweet beginning
Every time I believe it will be a happy start
It turns out to be the bitter end
It ends up being a sour conclusion
There's not another one who can hold a candle
No one else can compare
You're dynamite, anyone can see
You are impressive and outstanding
But dynamite at times gets mighty hard to handle
However, dynamite can be difficult to manage
And that's not the kind of game for me
And I am not willing to play that game
So don't fan the flame, don't fan the flame
Therefore, do not encourage or fuel romantic feelings
Don't fan the flame of love
Do not stimulate or intensify romantic emotions
Contributed by Lucy V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@erikabydavinci7086
Y'all are wrong for this. Ain't no way Cher will age looking like SpongeBob dehydrating.
@meldawizard
😂😂😂😂😂lmaoooo
@melindakamakea1335
🤣🤣🤣
@NC-do7fv
Lmaoo
@Connie67
LMAO😂🤣😂
@kaebella2259
Bikini bottom might be a different story tho.
@luke_07
Cher wouldn’t look like that even if she did live to be 500 years old
@jojojersey8190
@Luke......ABSOLUTELY agree!!!
@mlcdori
TRUE
@Dani-qr2by
True