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 Needs Me
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He doesn't know it
But he needs me
And so no matter
Where he goes
And though he doesn't care
He knows, I'm there
He needs me
I ought to leave him
But he needs me
I guess, it isn't very bright
Just to tag along
But right or wrong
I'm here, I'm his
And I'll be
A friend or a lover
Because my
One ambition is
To wake him
And make him discover
He needs me
I've got to follow
Where he leads me
Or else he'll never know
That I need him
Just as he needs me
The song He Needs Me, written by the famous composer Harry Nilsson and performed by Peggy Lee, has been widely regarded as one of the most insightful and emotional love songs ever written. The song is an ode to unrequited love, and its lyrics are deeply introspective and touching. Firstly, the song highlights how the singer's love interest does not know that he needs her. He is seemingly unaware of her love, but nevertheless, she is dedicated to being there for him. She is willing to follow him wherever he goes, regardless of whether he reciprocates her feelings.
The singer's attachment to her love interest is so strong that she finds it difficult to leave him, even if it is for her own good. She muses that it might not be wise to tag along with someone who doesn't care for her, but she still can't resist his pull. The entire song is a testament to the deep connection between the two protagonists, and it is clear that both of them need each other in their own unique ways.
Overall, Peggy Lee's rendition of this song is incredibly moving, and it strikes a chord with listeners who can relate to the experience of unrequited love. The song's lyrics are simple but profound, and they convey the depth of the singer's emotions in a way that is both raw and powerful.
Line by Line Meaning
He needs me
He is dependent on me and requires my presence and support.
He doesn't know it
He is unaware of his own need for me.
But he needs me
Despite his lack of awareness, he is incomplete without me.
And so no matter
Regardless of the circumstances,
Where he goes
Wherever he may travel,
And though he doesn't care
Even if he is indifferent to my presence,
He knows, I'm there
He subconsciously knows that I am always there for him.
I ought to leave him
I should detach myself from him,
But he needs me
However, his dependence on me holds me back.
I guess, it isn't very bright
Perhaps it is not intelligent
Just to tag along
To merely follow him around
But right or wrong
Regardless of whether it's sensible or not
I'm here, I'm his
I dedicate myself to him wholly and only belong to him.
And I'll be
I will remain
A friend or a lover
As either a platonic companion or a romantic partner
Because my
Due to my own personal reasons,
One ambition is
My sole drive is
To wake him
To help him realize what he needs
And make him discover
And assist him in recognizing
He needs me
That he is incomplete without me
I've got to follow
I must adhere to his direction
Where he leads me
And go where he goes
Or else he'll never know
Otherwise, he will never comprehend
That I need him
The fact that I am equally dependent on him
Just as he needs me
As much as he relies on me.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Harry Nilsson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@fran_1978
Peggy Lee, Miss Wonderful, the sweetest voice I've ever heard. I love her madly.
@xxmetioqurexx
nice :D