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."
Just in Time
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Life was serene, I knew where I was at
"There's no hope for him," my dearest friends would mutter
I was something dragged in by the cat. Then
Just in time, I found you just in time
Before you came my time was running low
I was lost, the losing dice were tossed
Now you're here and now I know just where I'm going
No more doubt or fear, I found my way
For love came just in time, you found me just in time
And changed my lonely life that lovely day
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's song "Just in Time" evoke a feeling of being at the end of one's rope, a person who had given up and was in a dire position. The opening line, "I was resting comfortably, face down in the gutter," paints a picture of a person who had hit rock bottom. The next line shows acceptance of this state, with the words "life was serene, I knew where I was at." A person could be so lost that they don't even expect to find a way out anymore.
The lyrics suggest that the singer of the song is tired of being looked down upon by their "dearest friends who would mutter" darkly about the singer. In this state of hopelessness, love arrives "just in time." This is the moment when the singer realizes they were rescued from certain peril. The chorus reflects this, with the lyrics "Just in time, I found you just in time. Before you came my time was running low." The true power of love, its ability to lift the despairing out of the gutter, is emphasized in the concluding lines, "For love came just in time, you found me just in time, and changed my lonely life that lovely day."
Line by Line Meaning
I was resting comfortably, face down in the gutter
I was living a contented life with no hopes and ambitions
Life was serene, I knew where I was at
Even though I was in a bad situation, I had accepted it and had no worries
"There's no hope for him," my dearest friends would mutter
My closest friends had lost hope in me, and believed I was destined for a miserable life
I was something dragged in by the cat. Then
I was like an unwanted thing, left to live on the streets and fend for myself
Just in time, I found you just in time
Just when I had lost all hope, you came into my life
Before you came my time was running low
I was on the verge of giving up when you showed up
I was lost, the losing dice were tossed
I had reached a point where I felt stuck and didn't know what to do, and it seemed like everything I did was leading to failure
My bridges all were crossed, nowhere to go
I had exhausted all my options and was left with no other way out
Now you're here and now I know just where I'm going
Now that you're a part of my life, I have direction and purpose
No more doubt or fear, I found my way
You helped me find my confidence and courage, and now I have no more doubts or fears
For love came just in time, you found me just in time
Your love came at the right moment when I needed it the most
And changed my lonely life that lovely day
You transformed my life of solitude and despair, and made it better on that beautiful day
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jule Styne, Adolph Green, Betty Comden
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Howard Berk
My favorite singer ever. I had never heard this classic by her, so I thank you for posting it!
connie francis
Hi dear🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
Thanks for your love and support that has brought me this far, it has been a hard time for me going through this but your love and support keeps me going and standing strong in this difficult times. I do read your heartwarming comments and I truly appreciate all you’ve done for me throughout the years.
It’s a season of love😍❤️❤️ for me and so I decided to put a smile on the faces of my fans by going through my YouTube channel am checking out on my fans, so I can get to communicate with my fans better through discussion of depth and humor listening to o and criticism of my career.💞💞🙏💖.
Károlyné Szépvölgyi
Nagyon tetszett ez a videó film-
Csodálatos a dal, valamint a művésznő.
helios1912
Good one. Great vid of rarely seen photos of this timeless star. My favorite is 2:05--a workaday shot in the recording studio--with that spitfire grin. Bravo.
joe maguire
Peggy and Nelson Riddle arrangement.....superb.
connie francis
Hi dear🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
Thanks for your love and support that has brought me this far, it has been a hard time for me going through this but your love and support keeps me going and standing strong in this difficult times. I do read your heartwarming comments and I truly appreciate all you’ve done for me throughout the years.
It’s a season of love😍❤️❤️ for me and so I decided to put a smile on the faces of my fans by going through my YouTube channel am checking out on my fans, so I can get to communicate with my fans better through discussion of depth and humor listening to o and criticism of my career.💞💞🙏💖.
Lady Stardust
Ma grand mère a le 33 tours 😊
fredrighetti
Very good Peggy, bye da Fred Italy, Milano. ciao.
fredrighetti
CIAO PHILLIP, BYE DA FRED ,MUSIC JAZZ MILANO ITALY, SALUTI, WHERE ARE YOU FROM? BYE
Ernie Tong
Haven't seen most of these photos, thanks!