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 Get a Kick Out of Me
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But practically everything leaves me totally cold.
The exception I know is the case
When I'm out on a quiet spree,
Fighting vainly the old ennui,
And I suddenly turn and see your fabulous face.
I get no kick from champagne.
So tell me why should it be true
That I get a kick out of you?
Some, they may go for cocaine.
I'm sure that if I took even one sniff
It would bore me terrifically, too.
Yet I get a kick out of you.
I get a kick every time I see
You standing there before me.
I get a kick though it's clear to see
You obviously do not adore me.
I get no kick in a plane.
Flying too high with some gal in the sky
Is my idea of nothing to do.
Yet I get a kick, um you give me a boot
I get a kick out of you.
The lyrics of "I Get a Kick Out of You" by Peggy Lee are a playful and ironic commentary on the singer's emotional state. She begins by suggesting that her own story is too sad and depressing to tell, and that little can excite her in life. However, there is one exception to this rule: when she is out on a "quiet spree," she suddenly sees the face of the person who thrills her most.
The verses that follow add more layers to this ironic contrast: Lee claims to get no pleasure from drinking champagne or drugs like cocaine, but she still finds herself exhilarated by the person she is singing to (even though it is evident he does not share her feelings). Even flying on a plane or being with someone else in the sky leaves her cold, but simply seeing her love interest fills her with excitement. The chorus's reference to getting a literal "kick" is a nod to drug use, but in this case, the thrill comes from a purely emotional source.
Overall, "I Get a Kick Out of You" is an insouciant tribute to the thrill of romantic infatuation, even in situations where other pleasures might fall flat. Its clever wordplay and breezy melody have made it a timeless standard in the Great American Songbook, with interpretations by countless artists over the years.
Line by Line Meaning
My story is much too sad to be told,
My past is filled with sorrowful experiences that I'd rather not speak about.
But practically everything leaves me totally cold.
Not much excites or interests me in life.
The exception I know is the case
The only thing I've found that sparks joy in me is...
When I'm out on a quiet spree,
During those moments when I'm alone and calm,
Fighting vainly the old ennui,
Struggling to keep boredom and monotony at bay,
And I suddenly turn and see your fabulous face.
At the exact moment when I catch a glimpse of your stunning face.
I get no kick from champagne.
Bubbly champagne does not excite me at all.
Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all.
Drinking alcohol doesn't do much to captivate me.
So tell me why should it be true
I'm curious as to why it is the case
That I get a kick out of you?
That I find tremendous joy and delight in your presence?
Some, they may go for cocaine.
Others may turn to the use of cocaine for a thrill.
I'm sure that if I took even one sniff
I'm positive that even a single sniff of it...
It would bore me terrifically, too.
...would leave me incredibly uninterested as well.
Yet I get a kick out of you.
Nevertheless, being with you is enough to light up my world.
I get a kick every time I see
I feel exhilarated every single time I lay my eyes upon
You standing there before me.
Your beautiful presence standing right in front of me.
I get a kick though it's clear to see
It's evident to all that my feelings are not reciprocated,
You obviously do not adore me.
And that you do not feel the same way about me.
I get no kick in a plane.
I don't find any thrill or excitement when flying high in the sky.
Flying too high with some gal in the sky
Being thousands of feet up in the air doesn't do anything for me, not even with a charming companion
Is my idea of nothing to do.
It's my idea of boredom and uneventfulness.
Yet I get a kick, um you give me a boot
But being with you gives me a sense of excitement, a sudden rush of adrenaline that I can't quite explain.
I get a kick out of you.
I get an immense, unparalleled joy from being around you.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Paul Ostroff
Lovely singing.TY classicvinylbiz for posting.
francis elliott
there should be a law to protect unsuspecting men from the likes of peggy lee. the spell can be devastating but what the heck i'll go along with it. if that's all there is!!!!!
davidhertzberg
@paulostroff99 My pleasure! (Hi Paul, its me, david. :))
Miglior Store
When the war is over and brains like to be washed a bit.