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."
Is That All There Is?
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'll never forget the look on my father's face as he gathered me up
In his arms and raced through the burning building out to the pavement
And I stood there shivering in my pajamas and watched the whole world go up in flames
And when it was all over I said to myself, is that all there is to a fire?
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
If that's all there is
And when I was twelve years old, my father took me to a circus, the greatest show on earth
There were clowns and elephants and dancing bears
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads
And as I sat there watching
I had the feeling that something was missing
I don't know what, but when it was over
I said to myself, "is that all there is to the circus?
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is
And then I fell in love with the most wonderful boy in the world
We'd take take long walks down by the river or just sit for hours gazing into each other's eyes
We were so very much in love
And then one day he went away and I thought I'd die, but I didn't
And when I didn't I said to myself, is that all there is to love?
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep
I know what you must be saying to yourselves
If that's the way she feels about it why doesn't she just end it all?
Oh, no, not me I'm not ready for that final disappointment
'Cause I know just as well as I'm standing here talking to you
When that final moment comes and I'm breathing my last breath, I'll be saying to myself
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is
Peggy Lee's song "Is That All There Is" is a melancholy reflection on the transience and emptiness of life. The verses recount three experiences from the singer's past that she believed would be momentous, but ultimately left her feeling unfulfilled and questioning the purpose of it all.
In the first verse, she remembers a traumatic event from her childhood when her house caught on fire. She vividly recalls the fear and confusion she felt, but also the sense of disappointment that came afterward when she realized that the fire didn't signify anything beyond itself. The second verse relates a similar feeling of letdown after attending a circus with her father as a young girl. Despite being entertained by the spectacle, she was left with a hollow sensation that there had to be something more to life than merely experiencing moments of fleeting pleasure. In the final verse, the singer reflects on a lost love, and how even the intensity of deep romantic love ultimately amounts to nothing at all.
Line by Line Meaning
I remember when I was a very little girl, our house caught on fire
I recall a moment in my childhood when our house was engulfed in flames
I'll never forget the look on my father's face as he gathered me up
The expression on my father's face as he rescued me from the fire is etched in my memory
And when it was all over I said to myself, is that all there is to a fire?
After the traumatic experience, I questioned whether there was more to a fire than what I witnessed
There were clowns and elephants and dancing bears
At the circus, there were various captivating performers and animals, including clowns, elephants, and bears that danced
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads
An attractive woman wearing pink tights soared above us, showcasing her expertise
And as I sat there watching, I had the feeling that something was missing
Although the show was spectacular, I had an unexplained feeling that an essential aspect was absent
And when I didn't I said to myself, is that all there is to love?
After the disheartening departure of the person I was deeply in love with, I wondered whether that was all there is to the experience of love
Oh, no, not me I'm not ready for that final disappointment
I am not prepared to confront the ultimate disillusionment
When that final moment comes and I'm breathing my last breath, I'll be saying to myself
At the end of my life, I anticipate questioning whether that is all there is to existence
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@GarrettWatts
Man this is so it
@adamfreedman6672
Hello
@ImNotOdd
Glad to know we're obsessed with the same things at the same time
@clemany8250
it’s garrett!!!!
@jl3322
Known world wide with talent beyond compare. RIP PL
@flaviod344
oh word a man of taste
@bubaby7867
My partner was a big fan of Ms. Lee that he sent her flowers when she was performing in San Francisco at the Fairmount. She was so gracious for the flowers and gave him tickets to see her show and he got to meet her after the performance. My partner passed away from AIDS and I was so grateful to Ms. Lee to give him opportunity to me her. Every time I hear Ms. Lee brings me back to that time to a happy and sad time in my life.
@piustwelfth
It must have been the wonderful Venetian Room. My Dad worked at the Fairmont Hotel for Mr. Swig who owned the hotel.
@janicesmalling5264
That’s beautiful
@MyTimeOutt
Thank you for your loving & thoughtful sharing of your beautiful memory of meeting Peggy Lee & her total empathy for you both. Such sharings are so much needed in this world, in this life. You got to live out a dream & expressed your gratitude with much kindness.