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."
San Francisco Blues
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The ocean liner's gone so far away.
Didn't mean to treat her so bad, she was the best girl I ever have had,
She said goodbye, I can take a cry, I want to lay down and die.
I ain't got a nickel and I ain't got a lousy dime.
She don't come back, think I'm going to lose my mind.
If she ever gets back to stay, it's going to be another brand new day,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay.
Sitting down looking from my back door,
Wondering which way to go,
The woman I'm so crazy about, she don't love me no more.
Think I'll catch me a freight train, 'cause I'm feeling blue,
And ride all the way to the end of the line, thinking only of you.
Meanwhile, in another city,
Just about to go insane,
Thought I heard my baby, Lord, the way she used to call my name.
If I ever get her back to stay, it's going to be another brand new day,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay.
The lyrics to Peggy Lee and Quincy Jones's song San Francisco Blues tell the story of a man who is heartbroken after his lover leaves him by the San Francisco Bay. He expresses remorse for the way he treated her, recognizing that she was the best he ever had. He is distraught, with no money and feeling like he will lose his mind if she doesn't return. The desperation in his voice is palpable as he considers hopping a freight train to escape his pain. Meanwhile, in another city, he hears his lover's voice calling his name and he is filled with hope that they may be reunited one day.
The song captures the essence of the blues, with its raw emotion and soulful melody. It also speaks to the universal experience of heartbreak, which has been a source of inspiration for countless musicians over the years. The San Francisco Bay serves as a metaphor for both the hope of reconciliation and the despair of separation, as the singer longs to return to the place where he was happiest with his lover.
Overall, San Francisco Blues is a powerful expression of the pain of lost love, and the human desire to reconnect with those we care about. It is a timeless classic that continues to resonate with audiences today.
Line by Line Meaning
I got the blues for my baby left me by the San Francisco Bay,
I am feeling sad and lonely because my lover left me near San Francisco Bay.
The ocean liner's gone so far away.
My lover has gone away on a ship and is very far from me.
Didn't mean to treat her so bad, she was the best girl I ever have had,
I feel guilty for mistreating my lover because she was the best girl I've ever been with.
She said goodbye, I can take a cry, I want to lay down and die.
My lover said goodbye and now I feel like crying and giving up on life.
I ain't got a nickel and I ain't got a lousy dime.
I am broke and have no money to my name.
She don't come back, think I'm going to lose my mind.
If my lover doesn't come back, I fear I will go crazy.
If she ever gets back to stay, it's going to be another brand new day,
If my lover comes back and stays with me, it will be a new beginning for us.
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay.
I envision myself happily strolling with my lover by the bay.
Sitting down looking from my back door,
I am sitting and contemplating my life from my back door.
Wondering which way to go,
I am unsure about what path to take in life.
The woman I'm so crazy about, she don't love me no more.
The woman I adore no longer has feelings for me.
Think I'll catch me a freight train, 'cause I'm feeling blue,
I am considering hopping on a train to escape my sadness.
And ride all the way to the end of the line, thinking only of you.
During this train ride, I will only think about my lost lover.
Meanwhile, in another city,
In a different place, away from San Francisco,
Just about to go insane,
I am on the brink of going crazy.
Thought I heard my baby, Lord, the way she used to call my name.
I think I heard my former lover's voice calling out my name.
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay,
I long to be with my lover and walk with her by the bay.
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay,
Again, I imagine the two of us walking by the bay, happy and in love.
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay.
The song ends with this repetition of my desire to be with my lover by the bay.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BILL SCHLUGER, MILTON RASKIN, PEGGY LEE
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?