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 Am in Love
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Yet resurrected and sailing the crest
Why this elation mixed with deflation?
What explanation? I am in love
Such conflicting questions ride around in my brain
Should I order cyanide or order champagne?
Oh, what is this sudden jolt? I feel like a frightened coltJust hit by a thunderbolt, I am in love
I knew the odds were against me before
I had no flair for flaming desire
But since the Gods gave me you to adore
I may lose but I refuse to fight the fire
So come and enlighten my days and never depart
You only can brighten the blaze that burns in my heart
For I am wildly in love with you
And so in need of a stampede of love
I knew the odds were against me before
I had no flair for flaming desire
But since the Gods gave me you to adore
I may lose but I refuse to fight the fire
So come and enlighten my days and never depart
You only can brighten the blaze that burns in my heart
For I am wildly in love with you
And so in need of a stampede of love
And so in need of a stampede of love
The lyrics to Peggy Lee's song "I Am in Love" are a reflection of the intense emotions that come with falling deeply in love. The first two lines of the verses appear to express conflicting emotions of sadness and happiness or defeat and triumph. The lines "I am dejected, I am depressed, yet resurrected and sailing the crest" suggest the singer's feelings of elation, though she's also dealing with a sense of loss or deflation. She then asks herself why she's struggling with this mix of emotions and wonders what the explanation for it is.
The second verse is more playful with its wording as Lee compare sthe idea of feeling like ordering cyanide or champagne. She then goes on to say that she feels like a frightened horse hit by a lightning bolt. These analogies are meant to evoke the same sense of confusion and disorientation expressed in the first verse. The bridge then talks about how Lee doesn't have a history of having a fiery love life, but that all changed when she met the person she loves.
Lee's feelings come across as pure and sincere, regardless of whether or not she will win or lose the love she's found. She then calls on her love to brighten up her life and bring excitement to her days. The line "For I am wildly in love with you" drives home the message that the emotions she's experiencing are completely out of her control.
Overall, the song is a tribute to the intensity of love and how it can take a person by surprise. The lyrics paint a picture of someone who's completely swept up in her feelings, despite not quite understanding them.
Line by Line Meaning
I am dejected, I am depressed
I am feeling sad and gloomy
Yet resurrected and sailing the crest
But I suddenly feel rejuvenated and happy
Why this elation mixed with deflation?
I'm confused as to why I'm feeling both happy and sad
What explanation? I am in love
The reason for my mixed emotions is that I have fallen in love
Such conflicting questions ride around in my brain
I'm struggling with conflicting thoughts and emotions in my mind
Should I order cyanide or order champagne?
Should I choose despair or celebration?
Oh, what is this sudden jolt? I feel like a frightened colt
I feel a sudden surge of emotions that is overwhelming me
Just hit by a thunderbolt, I am in love
I feel like I've been struck by lightning because of my love for you
I knew the odds were against me before
I was aware that my chances of finding love were slim
I had no flair for flaming desire
I never thought I had a passionate side
But since the Gods gave me you to adore
But now that I've found you, I feel like a different person
I may lose but I refuse to fight the fire
Even though I may not win your heart, I won't stop loving you
So come and enlighten my days and never depart
Please stay with me and make my life brighter
You only can brighten the blaze that burns in my heart
Only you can make the fire of love burn brighter in my heart
For I am wildly in love with you
I am deeply and passionately in love with you
And so in need of a stampede of love
And I need your love to be overpowering and all-consuming
And so in need of a stampede of love
And I need your love to be overpowering and all-consuming
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: COLE PORTER
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?