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."
He's a Tramp
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What a dog
He's a tramp, but I love him
Breaks a new heart every day
He's a tramp, they adore him
And I only hope he'll stay that way
He's a tramp, he's a scoundrel
He's a rounder, he's a cad
He's a tramp, but I love him
Yes, even I have got it pretty bad
You can never tell when he'll show up
He gives you plenty of trouble
I guess he's just a no 'count pup
But I wish that he were double
He's a tramp, he's a rover
And there's nothing more to say
If he's a tramp, he's a good one
And I wish that I could travel his way
Wish that I could travel his way
Wish that I could travel his way
Peggy Lee's song "He's a Tramp" is a love song for a man who is a bit of a rogue. The lyrics paint a picture of a man who is constantly wandering, breaking hearts left and right, and causing trouble wherever he goes. Despite all of this, the singer confesses that she loves him anyway, and hopes that he never changes.
The lyrics of the song are filled with contradictions. The singer describes the man as a tramp, a scoundrel, a rounder, and a cad, all negative terms that suggest he is not someone to be admired. However, in the next breath, she says that she loves him and that others adore him. It's clear that the man has a certain charisma and allure that makes it difficult for others to resist him, even if he is causing them pain.
The final lines of the song suggest that the singer is jealous of the man's freedom and independence. She wishes that she could "travel his way," which implies that she is tired of her own mundane existence and longs for the excitement and adventure that the man seems to have. Overall, "He's a Tramp" is a song about the complexities of love and the attraction we sometimes feel to those who are not the best for us.
Line by Line Meaning
What a dog
What a rascal
What a dog
What a rascal
He's a tramp, but I love him
He's a lovable rogue, and I love him despite his flaws
Breaks a new heart every day
He breaks someone's heart each day, never sticking around for long
He's a tramp, they adore him
People love the idea of a carefree, wild spirit like him
And I only hope he'll stay that way
I hope he never changes, never settles down
He's a tramp, he's a scoundrel
He's a rogue, a cheat, a womanizer
He's a rounder, he's a cad
He's a smooth-talking, charming man who uses his charm to get what he wants
He's a tramp, but I love him
I can't help but love him, despite all of the bad things he does
Yes, even I have got it pretty bad
I am also under his spell, despite knowing that he's no good for me
You can never tell when he'll show up
He's unpredictable and comes and goes as he pleases
He gives you plenty of trouble
He causes a lot of problems and drama
I guess he's just a no 'count pup
I suppose he's just a worthless dog
But I wish that he were double
But I wish I could have more of him, even though he's not good for me
He's a tramp, he's a rover
He's a wanderer, never staying in one place for too long
And there's nothing more to say
There's nothing else to add, he is who he is
If he's a tramp, he's a good one
If he's going to be a rogue, he might as well be a good one
And I wish that I could travel his way
I wish I could be carefree and independent like him
Wish that I could travel his way
I wish I could experience the same freedom he has
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Sonny Burke, Peggy Lee
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@BeruBeruIce
You know a character is special when she's named after the person who voices her in both talking and singing version.
@Princess_Cheese
She also wrote most of the songs in this movie. She came up with this one when the movie was almost finished. Everyone liked it so much they created a new character specifically to sing it
@missvidabom
You know the person is special when they name a character after her and she is her voice.
@somethingwithbungalows
Same with José Carioca being named after his own voice actor José “Carioca” lol
@maritapinkstaff3199
Whoa, thanks for this. I have loved Peggy Lee for years and Lady and the Tramp was a favorite when I was little. Your comment makes me so happy and I can't wait to revisit both@@Princess_Cheese
@buggywuggy69
8@@missvidabom
@Sweet_Dee
As a little kid, I ADORED Peg and this song. I understood the general message but I didn't know what some words like "rounder" and "cad" meant. I remember thinking she says "he's a cat," which to me, seemed like a pretty good diss coming from a dog, especially because of how cats are portrayed in the movie 😹
@rebeccamiller9558
I remember being about 5 and my mom saying that the tramp dates all the ladies but never marries them. Thats why they call him a cad.
@Narakmakmak83
me too hahaha
@ShazanFoxBox
Omigosh it wasn't just me!!