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 Feel A Song Coming On
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I'm warning ya
It's a victorious
Happy and glorious new strain!
I feel a song comin' on
It's a melody!
Full of the laughter
Of children out after the rain!You'll hear a tuneful story
Ringin' thru ya!
Love and glory!
Hallelujah!
And now that my troubles are gone
Let those heavenly drums go on drummin'
Cause I feel a song comin' on!
I feel a song comin' on
And I'm warning ya
It's a victorious
Happy and glorious new strain!
I feel a song comin' on
It's a melody!
Full of the laughter
Of children out after the rain!
You'll hear a tuneful story
Ringin' thru ya!
Love and glory!
Hallelujah!
And now that my troubles are gone
Let those heavenly drums go on drummin'
Throughout “I Feel A Song Coming On”, Peggy Lee conveys a triumphant and promising tone as she anticipates the arrival of an inspiring and uplifting tune. The lyrics are structured in a way that indicates the oncoming of a song that is filled with joy and happiness, symbolized by “laughter of children out after the rain”. Furthermore, the song hints at the theme of love and glory, indicating that it is a melody that will uplift and inspire its listeners. Peggy Lee's desire to sing about these positive emotions and the promise of new beginnings shows the level of optimism and hopefulness she has.
The song's persistent beat and harmonized melody blend with Peggy Lee’s powerful delivery and all combine to build a sense of anticipation for what is to come. The lyrics of the song also feature a sense of lightness and rhythm, which creates a timeless quality to the tune. The line “And now that my troubles are gone, let those heavenly drums go on drummin” highlights the release of negative emotions and serves as a signal of the arrival of something positive. Overall, Peggy Lee's “I Feel A Song Coming On” is a celebration of joy, love, and new beginnings, which are conveyed through the positive imagery and encouraging lyrics.
Line by Line Meaning
I feel a song comin' on
I have the creative impulse to write a song
And I'm warning ya
Be prepared for the joy that this song will bring
It's a victorious
The song is a triumphant celebration
Happy and glorious new strain!
It is an uplifting and beautiful new tune
It's a melody!
The song is primarily focused on the music and its tune
Full of the laughter
The song is filled with sounds of joy
Of children out after the rain!
The song captures the sense of innocent and carefree childhood
You'll hear a tuneful story
The song has lyrics that tell a captivating tale
Ringin' thru ya!
The song will stay in your mind and keep playing
Love and glory!
The song celebrates the theme of love and achievement
Hallelujah!
It's a spiritual and soulful song
And now that my troubles are gone
I am in a happy state and can create music without any worries
Let those heavenly drums go on drummin'
May the rhythm of the music continue making me feel good and creative
Cause I feel a song comin' on!
I am sure that a beautiful piece of music is about to emerge
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: DOROTHY FIELDS, GEORGE OPPENHEIMER, JIMMY MC HUGH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@SanAntonioCrooner
I absolutely love this! Thank you for sharing it here on you Tube!!! Peggy Lee is just out of this world!
@puglet7
Great to see some new clips of Peggy on YT . Wonderful!! Thanks for posting.
@RaymondTVinyl
So sorry about that Maynard!! That's what I get for trying to comment on vids at 6:30 AM with my coffee!! The vid is working again!! YAY!! Peggy is just so amazing!! I would have loved to see her perform live!
@RaymondTVinyl
Oh Sal...YT is at it again!!! I want to see this so badly....this subcription bar pops up at the bottom of the screen. I can hear the sound and see the vid, but the vid isn't running!!! AAgghhh!! Boo-Hoo. U know how much I adore Peggy!
@fromthesidelines
This must have been from her stint on Perry Como's CBS summer replacement series, "TV's TOP TUNES".