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."
Love Story
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I like you and you like me too
We'll get a preacher, I'll buy a ring
We'll hire a band with an accordion, violin
And a tenor who can sing
You and me, you and me, baby
You and me, you and me, you and me, baby
You and me, you and me, you and me, baby
We'll have a kid or maybe we'll rent one
He's got to be straight, we don't want a bent one
He'll drink his baby brew from a big brass cup
Someday he may be President if things loosen up
You and me, you and me, baby
You and me, you and me, you and me, baby
You and me, you and me, you and me, baby
You and me, you and me, you and me, baby
I'll take the train into the city ev'ry mornin'
You may be plain, I think you're pretty in the mornin'
And some nights we'll go out dancin' if I'm not too tired
Some nights we'll sit romancin'
Watchin' the late show by the fire
When our kids are grown with kids of their own
They'll send us away to a little home in Florida
We'll play checkers all day 'til we pass away
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's Love Story portray a story of a couple planning their future together. It starts with the singer expressing their affection for their lover's family, including their mother and brother. The couple plans to get married with a preacher, a ring and a band that includes an accordion, violin, and tenor singer. They also plan on having a child or possibly renting one, but only if it’s straight, with the hope that one day, the child will become president.
The singer talks about their daily routine; they will take the train to work while the lover stays at home. The singer also talks about romantic nights where they might go out dancing, or they could choose to spend the night indoors, watching the late show by the fire. The song concludes with the couple's future in a little home in Florida, playing checkers until they pass away.
The lyrics of Love Story depict the romantic ideal of a happy life, from a man's perspective during the 60s era. During this era, the social norm for couples was to get married, have children and retire to a life in Florida. The lyrics may seem outdated and not relevant to modern ideas around marriage and family, nevertheless, it is a beautiful love story with a happy ending.
Line by Line Meaning
I like your bother, I like your mother
I appreciate your family and the role they have played in shaping you
I like you and you like me too
We are both attracted to each other and share mutual feelings
We'll get a preacher, I'll buy a ring
We will commit to each other through marriage and exchange symbols of our love
We'll hire a band with an accordion, violin, And a tenor who can sing
Our joy and happiness will be celebrated with music and entertainment
You and me, you and me, baby
We will continue to be in love and devoted to each other
We'll have a kid or maybe we'll rent one
We will start a family and raise a child, either through adoption or natural birth
He's got to be straight, we don't want a bent one
We will love and accept our child no matter what, but we hope they will lead a life that aligns with our values
He'll drink his baby brew from a big brass cup
We will provide for our child's basic needs and watch them grow
Someday he may be President if things loosen up
We have high hopes for our child's future and believe they can achieve great things
I'll take the train into the city ev'ry mornin'
I will work hard to provide for our family
You may be plain, I think you're pretty in the mornin'
I find beauty in you even during the everyday moments
And some nights we'll go out dancin' if I'm not too tired
We will continue to have fun together and enjoy each other's company
Some nights we'll sit romancin' Watchin' the late show by the fire
We will also appreciate the quieter moments of our relationship, where we can just be together and enjoy each other's company
When our kids are grown with kids of their own
As our children grow up and start families of their own
They'll send us away to a little home in Florida
Our children will take care of us in our old age and provide us with a comfortable place to live
We'll play checkers all day 'til we pass away
We will spend our retired years together, enjoying each other's company and the simple pleasures in life
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: RANDY NEWMAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Keith McMahon
This is a great piece by Randy Newman about a nostalgic look back combining a "biting" satirical message and a humorous and hopeful take on the marriage state from- extremely hopeful and confidence to an "acceptance of the eventual end. The theme however is totally accepted when Ms Lee's Coda "we;ll play checkers in the sun,playing checkers can be fun"!
Mitch Grube
This Broad Coujd SING. Oh how we have lost all the true talent----miss Ms Lee and countless others not replaced.