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."
Somethin' Stupid
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You have the time to spend an evening with me
And if we go someplace to dance
I know that there's a chance you won't be leaving with me
And afterwards we drop into a quiet little place
And have a drink or two...
And then I go and spoil it all by saying
Something stupid like I love you
I can see it in your eyes that you despise
The same old lines you heard the night before...
And though it's just a line to you for me it's true...
And never seemed so right before
I practice everyday to find some clever lines
To say to make the meaning come true...
But then I think I'll wait until the evening gets late
And I'm alone with you
The time is right your perfume fills my head...
The stars get red and on the nights so blue...
And then I go and spoil it all by saying
Something stupid like I love you
Peggy Lee’s “Somethin’ Stupid” is a ballad about two people, who are mutually interested in each other, but the man is too shy to confess his love for the woman. The lyrics describe the different scenarios that might unfold between the couple, such as going out to dance, having a few drinks, and spending time together. The man is hesitant to confess his feelings and worries about saying something stupid that might ruin the moment. The song narrates the man's thoughts as he tries to navigate his feelings and muster the courage to convey his love to the woman.
The lyrics reveal the fear and anxiety that comes with expressing one's emotions to a potential lover. The man feels vulnerable and is unsure if his feelings will be reciprocated, which is why he hesitates. He genuinely wants to express his love but worries about saying the wrong thing or coming across as insincere. The woman, on the other hand, seems to be aware of the man's reservations and finds him endearing even with his awkwardness. The songwriter highlights the importance of seizing the moment and ignoring the fear of rejection or failure that might come with expressing one's emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
I know I stand in line until you think
I understand that I have to wait for the moment when you have time to spend with me
You have the time to spend an evening with me
I want to spend time with you and I am willing to be patient until you are ready
And if we go someplace to dance
If we decide to go somewhere to have fun
I know that there's a chance you won't be leaving with me
I am aware that there is a possibility that I might not end up leaving with you
And afterwards we drop into a quiet little place
If we do end up together, I want to go to a cozy and peaceful spot
And have a drink or two...
I want to spend some quality time with you over a couple of drinks
And then I go and spoil it all by saying
Unfortunately, I often ruin the moment
Something stupid like I love you
By telling you that I love you, which might not be the right thing to say at that moment
I can see it in your eyes that you despise
I can sense from your expression that you don't like hearing these clichéd lines
The same old lines you heard the night before...
You have probably heard these words before from someone else
And though it's just a line to you for me it's true...
Even though it might seem like a line to you, it is a genuine feeling for me
And never seemed so right before
I have never felt this way about someone before
I practice everyday to find some clever lines
I try to prepare myself by thinking of creative things to say
To say to make the meaning come true...
To express my feelings in a way that makes sense and feels authentic
But then I think I'll wait until the evening gets late
I prefer to wait until later in the evening when we are alone
And I'm alone with you
So we can have an intimate moment together
The time is right your perfume fills my head...
I feel that the moment is perfect, and your scent is intoxicating
The stars get red and on the nights so blue...
Everything around us feels magical and romantic
And then I go and spoil it all by saying
Unfortunately, I often ruin the moment
Something stupid like I love you
By telling you that I love you, which might not be the right thing to say at that moment
Lyrics © GREENWOOD MUSIC COMPANY, BMG Rights Management
Written by: Carson Parks
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?