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."
I've Grown Accustomed To His Face
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He almost makes the day begin
I've grown accustomed
To the tune that he whistles night and noon
His smiles, his frowns
His ups, his downs
Are second nature to me now Like breathing out and breathing in
I was serenely independent
And content before we met
Surely I could always be that way again
And yet, I've grown accustomed to his look
Accustomed to his voice
Accustomed to his face
I'm so used to hearing him say
"Good morning," every day
His joys, his woes
His highs, his lows
Are second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in
I'm very grateful he's a man and so easy to forget
Rather like a habit one can always break
And yet, I've grown accustomed
To the trace of something in the air
Accustomed to his face
The song "I've Grown Accustomed To His Face" by Peggy Lee is about how the singer has grown to love and appreciate the presence of another person in their life. Despite being content and independent before they met this person, the singer has now become accustomed to their daily routine and presence. The singer seems to be conflicted by their newfound dependency and acknowledges that they could go back to living independently but that they do not want to. The lyrics “Rather like a habit one can always break / And yet, I've grown accustomed / To the trace of something in the air / Accustomed to his face” articulate this conflict perfectly. The song describes how the singer has grown to appreciate even the little things in life, like the tune that the person whistles and the sound of their voice saying “Good morning” every day.
The song is full of metaphors that describe how the singer has grown to feel about this person. The metaphor “breathing out and breathing in” represents how much this person has become an integral part of the singer's life. The lyrics “His joys, his woes / His highs, his lows / Are second nature to me now” show how the singer has become so used to this person's presence that they know all of their moods and emotions. The song also acknowledges the fact that this person can be forgotten and that the singer could return to their independent life, but they won't because they have grown accustomed to having them around.
Line by Line Meaning
I've grown accustomed to his face
I have become accustomed to seeing his face every day.
He almost makes the day begin
He has become such an important part of my day that I cannot begin without him.
I've grown accustomed to the tune that he whistles night and noon
I have grown used to hearing the tune that he whistles day and night.
His smiles, his frowns
His expressions of happiness and sadness,
His ups, his downs
His good and bad times,
Are second nature to me now
I am so accustomed to them that they are a part of me.
Like breathing out and breathing in
They have become as natural to me as breathing in and out.
I was serenely independent
I used to be self-sufficient and content on my own.
And content before we met
I was happy before I met him.
Surely I could always be that way again
I thought I could be happy on my own again.
And yet, I've grown accustomed to his look
Despite my independence, I have grown to love his appearance.
Accustomed to his voice
I have become used to his voice.
I'm so used to hearing him say
I have become so accustomed to his voice that I am used to him saying,
"Good morning," every day
"Good morning" to me every day.
His joys, his woes
His happiness, his sadness,
His highs, his lows
His good and bad times,
Are second nature to me now
I am so used to them that they are a part of me now.
Like breathing out and breathing in
Just like breathing in and out, they have become a part of my life.
I'm very grateful he's a man and so easy to forget
I am thankful he is a human being and thus can be forgotten if needed.
Rather like a habit one can always break
Similar to a habit, I can always break this attachment.
And yet, I've grown accustomed
Though I know I can break the attachment, I have grown to depend on him.
To the trace of something in the air
I have become accustomed to the faint scent he leaves behind.
Accustomed to his face
Above all, I have grown to love his appearance.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Anonymous
on Why Don't You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too)
Why Don't You Do Right - Casey Abrams - Lyrics
You had plenty money 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
You're sitting there wondering what it's all about
You ain't got no money, they will throw you out
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Musical Interlude
You had plenty money 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?