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."
L-O-V-E
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
O is for the only one I see.
V is very, very extraordinary.
E is even more than anyone that you adore can.
Love is all that I can give to you,
Love is more than just a game for two.
Two in love can make it.
Love was made for me and you.
L is for the way you look at me.
O is for the only one I see.
V is very, very extraordinary.
E is even more than anyone that you adore can.
Love is all that I can give to you,
Love is more than just a game for two.
Two in love can make it.
Take my heart and please don't break it,
Love was made for me and you.
(That's almost true)
For me and you.
The song "L-O-V-E" by Peggy Lee is a classic love song that celebrates the emotions and feelings that come with being in love. The song is structured in a way that each letter in the word "love" is used to represent a particular aspect of the emotion. The lyrics begin with "L is for the way you look at me," which highlights the physical attraction and gaze shared between two people in love. "O is for the only one I see" emphasizes the exclusivity of one's love for someone special, while "V is very, very extraordinary" emphasizes the extraordinary nature of love that goes beyond the ordinary. Finally, "E is even more than anyone that you adore can" serves to reinforce the previous three elements and indicates how love can be more than just adoration.
The song goes on to say that love is not just a game for two, and that two people in love have the ability to make it work. The lyrics suggest that one's heart should be given to the beloved, but with a plea not to break it. The song ends with a statement that "love was made for me and you," reminding the listeners of the universality of love.
Overall, the song is a sweet and simple expression of love that celebrates the joys and beauty of the emotion. Its upbeat and catchy tune has made it a perennial favorite of couples and has been covered by many famous artists over the years.
Line by Line Meaning
L is for the way you look at me.
The first letter of the word love signifies the captivating way you gaze at me.
O is for the only one I see.
The letter O symbolizes how there's nobody else in the world for me other than you.
V is very, very extraordinary.
The letter V represents how our love is beyond ordinary, it's exceptional in every way.
E is even more than anyone that you adore can.
The letter E represents how my deep love for you surpasses anyone else's admiration for you.
Love is all that I can give to you,
The essence of my being and everything that I have to offer is love.
Love is more than just a game for two.
Love is not merely a game, but an emotion that holds immense value and depth, regardless of the number of people involved.
Two in love can make it.
When two people are in love, they can conquer any obstacle and thrive together.
Take my heart and please don't break it,
I entrust you with my heart and implore that you handle it with care, as it is fragile and delicate.
Love was made for me and you.
Our love was meant to be, a fate that was intended for only me and you.
(That's almost true)
The only exception to our perfect fate is that almost true is good enough, as long as our love is authentic and pure.
For me and you.
Our love is a bond that is unique to only us, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Bert Kaempfert, Milt Gabler
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Consvming Impvlse
I wonder why she isn't very popular in the YouTube community? Her singing is lovely 😳
Richard Branam
This culture has lost its class when it comes' to goof music.
Liam Vautier
Ésta canción es hermosa y su canto encantador, no entiendo porqué casi no tiene vistas. Una joyita difícil de encontrar, evidentemente.
ᴍᴏᴍᴏ
this really is a jewel of a song :) peggy lee is so lovely!! couldn't find this song anywhere else D:
Adriana España
Amo su musica :3
Ralph Ewell
Swings better than any vocalist!
Corinne Hidrobo
I love this song so much! 💕 she sings better than Marylyn Monroe in my opinion!
TheJazzStreet
thanks! :D peggy is my favourite singer of all time!
Damian Alejandro
Desde argentina, mi favorita también
Hanako San
Can we have the exact same instrumental without the vocals? This is my favourite version of the song and I would absolutely l-o-v-e to do a karaoke on it