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 Could Have Danced All Night
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My head's too light to try to set it down!
Sleep! Sleep! I couldn't sleep tonight.
Not for all the jewels in the crown!
I could have danced all night!
I could have danced all night!
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings
I've never done before.
I'll never know
What made it so exciting;
Why all at once
My heart took flight.
I only know when he
Began to dance with me
I could have danced, danced, danced all night!
It's after three now.
Don't you agree now,
She ought to be in bed.
I could have danced all night!
I could have danced all night!
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings
And done a thousand things
I've never done before.
I'll never know
What made it so exciting.
Why all at once my heart took flight.
I only know when he
Began to dance with me.
I could have danced, danced danced all night!
I understand, dear.
It's all been grand, dear.
But now it's time to sleep.
I could have danced all night,
I could have danced all night.
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings,
And done a thousand things
I've never done before.
I'll never know
What made it so exciting.
Why all at once my heart took flight.
I only know when he
Began to dance with me
I could have danced, danced, danced
All night!
The song "I Could Have Danced All Night" by Peggy Lee is a classic musical number that speaks about the excitement and joy of being in love, particularly during a dance. In the first verse of the song, the singer expresses a sense of restlessness and excitement that keeps them from going to bed. Their head feels too light to lay down, and they cannot sleep, even for all the jewels in the crown. The singer's eagerness is evident in their desire to continue dancing all night and exploring new experiences with their partner.
The chorus expresses the singer's excitement over the dance and how they could have continued to dance even after the night was over. The line, "I could have spread my wings and done a thousand things I've never done before," shows the singer's willingness to open up and take risks while dancing with their partner. They do not know what made the moment so exciting, but they know that it was magical and exhilarating, causing their heart to take flight.
In the final verse, the singer acknowledges that it is time to sleep, but they cannot help reliving the memories of the dance in their head. They look back on the experience with fondness, recognizing that it was "all been grand, dear." They finish by expressing their desire to keep dancing all night, becoming almost a refrain, "I could have danced, danced, danced all night!"
Overall, the song is an ode to love, romance, and the euphoria that comes with sharing a dance. The lyrics convey a sense of joy, wonder, and freedom that one can experience with a partner, feeling uninhibited and alive in their presence.
Line by Line Meaning
Bed! Bed! I couldn't go to bed!
I feel too exhilarated to sleep right now!
My head's too light to try to set it down!
My mind is buzzing with happiness and I can't relax.
Sleep! Sleep! I couldn't sleep tonight.
No matter how hard I try to calm down, I just can't sleep.
Not for all the jewels in the crown!
I am so excited that even the most valuable things in the world could not convince me to sleep.
I could have danced all night!
I am feeling fantastic, like I could dance forever.
And still have begged for more.
I could continue dancing for hours and still want more.
I could have spread my wings
I feel liberated and could do anything.
And done a thousand things
I feel capable of anything and eager to try out new experiences.
I've never done before.
There are so many exciting activities ahead of me that I have yet to try.
I'll never know
I'm not sure what caused this amazing feeling.
What made it so exciting;
I don't know what triggered this intense joy I'm experiencing
Why all at once
All of a sudden,
My heart took flight.
I felt wonderful emotions that lifted me up and made me feel exhilarated.
I only know when he
The only thing I am sure of is that when he
Began to dance with me
Danced with me,
I could have danced, danced, danced all night!
I felt so joyful that I just wanted to dance forever!
It's after three now.
It's already very late in the night.
Don't you agree now,
Wouldn't you say now,
She ought to be in bed.
It's time to get some rest.
I understand, dear.
I know how you feel, my love.
It's all been grand, dear.
We've had a great time, my sweet.
But now it's time to sleep.
However, we need to rest now.
Lyrics © TuneCore Inc., Kanjian Music, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Iricom US Ltd, ACUM Ltd., Downtown Music Publishing, Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., 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?