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."
Fools Rush in
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I used to say
A game I thought I'd never play
"Romance is a game for fools"
I said and grinned
Then you passed by
And here am I
Throwing caution to the wind
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
And so I come to you, my love, my heart above my head.
Though I see the danger there
If there's a chance for me, then I don't care
Mm-mm-mm-mm
Fools rush in where wise men never go
But wise men never fall in love, so how are they to know?
When we met, I felt my life begin
So open up your heart and let this fool rush in
Fools rush in where wise men never, never, never go
Eh, but wise men never fall in love, so how are they to know?
Ah, when we met, girl, I felt my life begin
So open up your heart and let this fool rush in
Just open up your heart and let this fool rush on in
Just open up your heart because I-I-I-I-I-I-I am coming in
Open up your heart and let this fool rush in!!
The lyrics to Peggy Lee's "Fools Rush In" tell a story of a person who once believed that romance was foolish but ends up falling in love and rushing into the relationship despite potential dangers. The lyrics begin by stating that the singer used to believe that romance was a game reserved for fools and openly admitted to never playing it. However, after meeting someone special, the singer has thrown caution to the wind and taken a chance on love by rushing in without hesitation.
The chorus of the song repeats the idiom, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread," which means that foolish people often take unnecessary risks. Despite this, the singer declares their love and willingness to take the plunge into the relationship, not caring about the dangers they may face. In the second verse, the lyrics suggest that wise men may never fall in love because they fear the risks involved. However, the singer believes that they have found love and wants the other person to do the same by letting their heart open up to the possibility of a relationship. The song ends with an impassioned plea for the other person to let the singer into their heart despite the potential foolishness of their decision.
Overall, "Fools Rush In" celebrates the impulsive and sometimes foolish nature of falling in love. It acknowledges the risks involved but ultimately encourages people to take a leap of faith and open their hearts to the possibility of love. The lyrics suggest that falling in love is not a decision made by wise men but by those willing to take a chance on something that might just change their lives forever.
Line by Line Meaning
Romance is a game for fools
I used to say. A game I thought I'd never play
"Romance is a game for fools"
I said and grinned. Then you passed by. And here am I. Throwing caution to the wind
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
And so I come to you, my love, my heart above my head. Though I see the danger there. If there's a chance for me, then I don't care
Mm-mm-mm-mm
Fools rush in where wise men never go
But wise men never fall in love, so how are they to know? When we met, I felt my life begin
So open up your heart and let this fool rush in
Just open up your heart and let this fool rush on in. Just open up your heart because I-I-I-I-I-I-I am coming in
Open up your heart and let this fool rush in!!
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JOHNNY MERCER, RUBE BLOOM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@voxmedica3357
Fools rush in where angels fear to thread
And so I come to you my love my heart above my head
Though I see the danger there
If there's a chance for me then I don't care.
Fools rush in where wise men never go
But wise men never fall in love so how are they to know
When we met I felt my life began
So open up your heart and let this fool rush in.
--- Instrumental ---
Fools rush in where wise men never go
But wise men never fall in love so how are they to know
When we met I felt my life began
So open up your heart and let this fool rush in.
Just open up your heart and let this fool rush in.
Well, open up your heart and let this fool rush in...
@TheAdventuresofRangerDic-yx1hm
I've listened to just about all renditions of this classic. And, Peggy Lee, in this arrangement (she had two earlier) is by far the best. It is perfect.
@douglaspeters5857
just beautiful as only Peggy Lee can render it with her versatility and range.
@KeepDante2
She has been my icon for 15 years + ....many thanks for reminding me....she did so much that most don't even know....
@RideHanna
Peggy Lee didn't wow us with 5 octave runs or vocal gymnastics but with understatement total emotional honesty and a degree of cool and sophistication that has her in her own league.
@paulpeterson4320
Well said !!!!!
@51Dss
I'm 63 years old and never really listened very much to Peggy Lee. Maybe because of my current age I'm more receptive to her music than I would have been as a young man and she wows me with this song. Her voice is sweet yet strong and somehow it makes me think Peggy Lee had a fragile heart. Someone who loved deeply and to her own detriment. Don't know anything about her really but this is what her voice sounds like to me. I love it.
@basiabroches8136
She did indeed have a rocky marriage with a fellow musician who became an alcoholic while she went on to succeed. She never got over him. He was the love of her life.
@andycahill264
The same thing happened to me with Sarah Vaughn. Welcome to adulthood.
@Corrie121
This sounds like one of her 1950's recordings, but whenever it was recorded, it is a stupendous rendition. Thank you for sharing.
@bud21s
You know ... on listening to this and other equally beautiful versions of this song here I have decided that this is a major part in what is lacking in today's entertainment . Singers used to put their OWN personal stamp on those standerds ! Today everybody is trying to copy a PRODUCTION based "sound" that is banal and generic enough to satisfy most of the public . Thank you for this exquisite post of a most remarkable talent ! David