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."
Lonesome Road
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Before you travel on
Look up, look up and seek your maker
Before Gabriel blows his horn
Weary toting such a load
Trudging down the lonesome road
Look down, look down that lonesome roadBefore, before you travel on
True love, true love what have I done
That you should treat me so
You caused me to walk and talk
Like I never did before
Weary toting such a load
Trudging down that lonesome road
Look down, look down that lonesome road
Before you travel on
Look down, look down that lonesome road
Before you travel on
Look up, look up and seek your maker
Before Mr. Gabriel blows his horn
I'm weary of toting such a heavy load
Trudging down that lonesome road
Look down, look down that lonesome road
Before, before you travel on
Look down, look down that lonesome road
Before you travel on
Look down, look down that lonesome road
Before you decide to travel on
Look down, look down, look down, look down
That lonesome road
Before you travel on
In Peggy Lee's song "Lonesome Road," the singer advises her listeners to take a moment to reflect on their journey before they travel on. She encourages them to look down the lonesome road they are about to take and to weigh the heaviness of this road before moving forward. The singer also advises them to look up and seek their maker before it's too late. The line "Before Gabriel blows his horn" refers to the belief that when the archangel Gabriel blows his horn, it will signal the end of the world and the judgment day.
The song's theme is about the heaviness of life's journey and the weariness that it can bring. The singer is feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders and is in need of a change. She is tired of carrying the burden of her past mistakes and longs for a time when she didn't have to walk alone. The lyrics also touch on the theme of lost love and the feeling of betrayal. The singer is questioning what she did wrong to deserve such treatment from the one she loved deeply.
Overall, Peggy Lee's rendition of "Lonesome Road" is a poignant and soulful blend of introspection and encouragement. It is a reflection of the human experience and reminds us that, at some point, we all find ourselves walking down a lonesome road.
Line by Line Meaning
Look down, look down that lonesome road
Take a moment to introspect and understand the path you have chosen for yourself.
Before you travel on
Take caution before moving ahead in life to avoid any unwanted mishaps.
Look up, look up and seek your maker
Search for spiritual guidance and connect with a higher power.
Before Gabriel blows his horn
Before it is too late, take action and do the right thing before fate catches up with you.
Weary toting such a load
Feeling burdened and tired carrying emotional baggage or physical weight.
Trudging down the lonesome road
Struggling through life's journey alone, feeling isolated and desolate.
True love, true love what have I done
Feeling regret and sorrow for causing pain to someone you love deeply.
That you should treat me so
Feeling hurt and betrayed by the one you love.
You caused me to walk and talk
The pain of heartbreak has caused you to act and speak in ways you never have before.
Like I never did before
The pain has taken over your whole being, causing you to act like a different person.
Before Mr. Gabriel blows his horn
Urgently take action before it is too late and you miss your chance to correct your behavior and actions.
Before, before you travel on
Before making any life-altering decisions, take a moment to think about the consequences.
Before you decide to travel on
Before embarking on a new journey in life, make sure you are mentally and physically prepared for what is to come.
Look down, look down, look down, look down
The repetition emphasizes the importance of taking a moment to reflect on your path before moving forward.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, NATHANIEL SHILKRET MUSIC CO.
Written by: Jimmy Carroll
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Anonymous
on Why Don't You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too)
Why Don't You Do Right - Casey Abrams - Lyrics
You had plenty money 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
You're sitting there wondering what it's all about
You ain't got no money, they will throw you out
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Musical Interlude
You had plenty money 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?