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."
Riders In The Sky
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
An old cow polk went ridin' out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows he saw
A plowin' through the ragged sky and up the cloudy draw
Yippee-I-yay, yippee-I-yo
Their brands were still on fire and their hoofs were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
For he saw the riders comin' hard and he heard their mournful cry
(Yippee-I-yay) yippee-I-yay (yippee-I-yay, yippee-I-yo
The ghost riders in the sky
As the riders loped on by him, he heard one call his name
'If you want to save your soul from hell aridin' on our range
Then cowboy, change your ways today or with us you will ride
Ah tryin' to catch the devil's herd across this endless sky'
Yippee-I-yay, yippee-I-yay
The ghost herd in the sky
Ghost herd in the sky
The lyrics of Peggy Lee's song "Riders In The Sky" tell the story of an old cowhand who was out riding when he saw a group of red-eyed cows plowing through the ragged sky up a cloudy draw. The cows had brands that were still on fire, hoofs made of steel, black and shiny horns, and hot breath that the cowhand could feel. There was a bolt of fear that went through him as the riders came hard in his direction, and he heard their mournful cry. The riders called him by his name and warned him to change his ways so he would not end up riding with them across the endless sky.
The song is a powerful reflection of the legend of the ghost riders, who are cowboys doomed to ride forever in the sky. The cowhand represents everyone who has strayed from the righteous path in life and is being given one last chance to redeem themselves. The imagery of the red-eyed cows and the riders with their shiny black horns and steel hoofs is vivid and memorable, highlighting the ominous nature of the ghost riders and the power they hold over the living.
Line by Line Meaning
The ghost riders in the sky
A vision of ghostly cowboys riding across the sky.
An old cow polk went ridin' out one dark and windy day
One day, an old cowboy went for a ride in unfavorable weather conditions.
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
As he traveled, he briefly stopped on a ridge to take a break.
When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows he saw
Suddenly, he spotted a large group of menacing red-eyed cows.
A plowin' through the ragged sky and up the cloudy draw
The cows seemed to be charging through the sky, scattering clouds and leaving a trail behind them.
Yippee-I-yay, yippee-I-yo
A cowboy yell of excitement and joy.
Their brands were still on fire and their hoofs were made of steel
The cows were marked with burning brands, and they had impossibly strong hooves.
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
The cows' horns were dark and gleaming, and their breath was hot and intimidating.
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
The cowboy felt a sudden jolt of terror as the cows charged aggressively towards him.
For he saw the riders comin' hard and he heard their mournful cry
He realized that the cows were being ridden by ghostly cowboys, and he could hear them wailing in sadness.
(Yippee-I-yay) yippee-I-yay (yippee-I-yay, yippee-I-yo
The ghost cowboys continued to whoop and yell in a haunting manner.
As the riders loped on by him, he heard one call his name
One of the haunting cowboys called out to him as they rode past.
'If you want to save your soul from hell aridin' on our range
The cowboy warned him that riding with the ghost cowboys would lead him to eternal damnation.
Then cowboy, change your ways today or with us you will ride
The cowboy urged him to amend his ways before it was too late and join the ghostly riders forever.
Ah tryin' to catch the devil's herd across this endless sky'
The ghost cowboys explained that they were chasing after the devil's herd, and they would stop at nothing to catch them.
Ghost herd in the sky
The cowboy watched as the ghostly cowboys and their fiery cattle disappeared into the sky, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: Stanley Jones
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@lizdoyle7158
Outstanding version by Peggy 📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀
@purplealice
Peggy Lee had a rather low voice for a woman. That's probably why she recorded this song. Patsy Cline was a former big-band chanteuse who tried to rebrand herself as a 'Cowboy's Sweetheart'. But she had a rather high voice, and she couldn't have done it.