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."
My Old Flame
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I can't even think of his name
But it's funny now and then
How my thoughts go flashing back again
To my old flame
My old flame
My new lovers all seem so tame
For I haven't met a gent
So innocent or elegant
As my old flame
I've met so many men
With fascinating ways
A fascinating gaze in their eyes
Some who sent me up to the skies
But their attempts at love
Were only imitations of
My old flame
I can't even think of his name
But I'll never be the same
Until I discover what became
Of my old flame
I've met so many men
With fascinating ways
A fascinating gaze in their eyes
Some who sent me up to the skies
But their attempts at love
Were only imitations of
My old flame
I can't even think of his name
But I'll never be the same
Until I discover what became
Of my old flame
In Peggy Lee's "My Old Flame", she muses about an old love interest whom she cannot even remember by name. However, she still finds herself thinking about him every now and then, and how all her new lovers seem unexciting in comparison to him. Peggy Lee suggests that although she has met many men with their unique charms and captivating gazes, none of them have matched the innocence and elegance of her old flame.
Through this song, Peggy Lee captures the memory of a lost love and the lingering feelings that come with it. The lyrics convey a sense of wistfulness and nostalgia, as she reflects on what could have been and what has become of her old flame. Peggy Lee's vocals and the melancholic jazz melody complement the sentimental lyrics to create an emotional and captivating piece.
Line by Line Meaning
My old flame
The person I used to love
I can't even think of his name
I don't remember his name
But it's funny now and then
It's amusing sometimes
How my thoughts go flashing back again
How memories come back suddenly
To my old flame
To the person I used to love
My new lovers all seem so tame
My current partners seem boring
For I haven't met a gent
I haven't met a gentleman
So innocent or elegant
As kind and sophisticated as my old flame
I've met so many men
I have met many men
With fascinating ways
Who are interesting in various ways
A fascinating gaze in their eyes
Who have captivating eyes
Some who sent me up to the skies
Some who made me feel incredibly happy
But their attempts at love
But their efforts to love me
Were only imitations of
Were only copies of
My old flame
The person I used to love
But I'll never be the same
But I will never be unchanged
Until I discover what became
Until I find out what happened
Of my old flame
To the person I used to love
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@katherinesage
doesn't get better.... my Mother's generation.... 1924 NYC
@CarlHalling
It was the late 1960s. I was a Pop/Rock kid, weaned on the Beat since Beatlemania and the Stones. But being driven back as a dreamer of a teenager to nautical college by my parents of a Sunday night after a solitary day's leave, I'd listen on a cassette player to Peggy singing this song and others with Benny Goodman, and I loved what I heard. I still love it, and I'm 53 now.
@golson33
I'm 77 now and NEVER get tired of listening to this lovely lady. What a lesson or two she could give these younger generation(s).......
@davidalen2590
Fabulous
@newellgirl
Totally awesome..reminds one of the "golden generation" the folks from WW2 who protected us from tyranny and left a world to enjoy in relative peace for Christmas..i wont forgot those who sleep eternally in the Pacific for our freedom.
@pinkieldred
Peggy Lee... Oh Peggy how you could sing! Wouldn't it be wonderful to have you around to give these so called rock singers of today...a few lessons!
@0001943
Great! I love these big band girl singers!
@ENACODNOM
Delightful! It really deserves the two takes.
@FelixPheonix
I tried singing this song , before listening to it , by looking at the lyrics. I've never heard it before and I got it pretty close. Woohoo! :D
@jerry-skids
I was just watching a biography on Mae West. They showed a brief clip of her singing this song. It was extremely haunting and sort of daunting. I never heard that song before, but I love it.