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."
Hold me
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When you're far away I'm always blue
If you want me to remain romantic
Here are all the things you'll have to do
Hold me honey won't you hold he
Hold me never let me go
Take me honey won't you take me
'Cause I love you so
Thrill me, let your kisses thrill me
Just like you alone can do
Hold me tenderly enfold me
Never try to hold me from you
I love every little thing about you
Every thing you say and all you do
I would be a total loss without you
What becomes of me is up to you
Hold me honey won't you hold me
Hold me never let me go
Take me honey won't you take me
Never to forsake me
'Cause I love you so
Thrill me Let your kisses thrill me
Just like you alone can do
Hold me tenderly, enfold me
Peggy Lee's "Hold Me" premiered in 1952, cementing her as one of the leading vocalists of jazz and pop. The song presents a romantic plea to a lover, asking them to hold and kiss the singer and never let them go. The opening lines, "When you're near me, I feel so romantic, When you're far away, I'm always blue," establish the song's central theme - the singer's need for the physical presence and affection of their lover.
In the chorus, Lee repeats the refrain, "Hold me honey won't you hold me, Hold me never let me go, Take me honey won't you take me, Never to forsake me, 'Cause I love you so." Through these lyrics, it becomes apparent that the singer is deeply attached to their lover and craves their attention, to the point that their very existence depends on it. The song's lyrics are rooted in the traditional themes of love and desire that have been explored in music since time immemorial.
The verses of the song expand on these themes, with the singer telling the lover what they must do to keep them feeling romantic. In the lines "Thrill me, let your kisses thrill me, Just like you alone can do," the singer reinforces the idea that their lover is the only one who can make them feel complete. Finally, the song's bridge is a brief statement of adoration, where the singer professes that they "love every little thing" about their lover and that they would be "a total loss" without them.
Line by Line Meaning
When you're near me I feel so romantic
Being close to you makes me feel passionate and loving.
When you're far away I'm always blue
When you're not around, I feel sad and lonely.
If you want me to remain romantic
In order for me to continue feeling passionate and loving, you would have to do the following things:
Here are all the things you'll have to do
These are the actions you have to take to keep me in love with you:
Hold me honey won't you hold me
Physically embrace me and make me feel safe and loved.
Hold me never let me go
Hold onto me tightly and never let me slip away.
Take me honey won't you take me
Accept me into your heart and keep me close always.
Never to forsake me
Promise not to abandon me or leave me behind.
'Cause I love you so
Because I have deep feelings of affection for you.
Thrill me, let your kisses thrill me
Make me feel incredibly excited and happy with your kisses.
Just like you alone can do
No one else can thrill me the way you do.
Hold me tenderly enfold me
Gently embrace me and make me feel safe in your arms.
Never try to hold me from you
Don't try to keep me away from you or distance yourself from me.
I love every little thing about you
I have affection for every aspect of who you are.
Every thing you say and all you do
Even your words and actions are endearing to me.
I would be a total loss without you
I would feel completely aimless and miserable without you.
What becomes of me is up to you
The state of my emotional well-being is in your hands.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Barry Gibb, Maurice Ernest Gibb, Robin Gibb
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Joe Carbery
Absolutely mind-blowing version! So heartfelt and emotional. Wow!!
Walter Gray
Beautiful version of a great song.
Thank you for sharing.
flatop47
Thanks For Looking
Joe Carbery
To cjlloyd53: I've listened to the PJ Proby version and I don't think they can be validly compared. It's apples and pears. I'd prefer Peggy's version but PJ's version is just as valid. I think he's approaching the song from a different angle, shining a different light on it.
Joe Carbery
flatop47
Thank you for posting. I'd never heard Peggy's version before, though I sing (and play) the song. I first heard it when I lived in Australia sung by an Aussie trumpet player.
flatop47
Thanks For Looking
bluijay
All I think of
E
hol up this aint peggy
cjlloyd53
Not quite the lustiness of the Proby version. Very tame.