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."
Speak Low
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Love is pure gold and time a thief
Speak low when you speak love
Our summer's day withers away too soon, too soon
Speak low when you speak love
Our moment is swift like ships adrift
We sail apart too soon
Speak low when you speak love
Love is a spark, lost in the dark too soon, too soon
I feel that wherever I go that tomorrow is near
Tomorrow is here and always too soon
Time is so old and love so brief
Love is pure gold and time a thief
We're late, darling, we're late
The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon
I wait, darling, I wait
Will you speak low to me, speak love to me?
Speak low to me and soon
Speak low, speak low
Speak love
In Peggy Lee's song Speak Low, the lyrics are filled with a sense of urgency and fleetingness that comes with love. The song describes the contrast between the ephemeral nature of love and the longevity of time. According to the lyrics, love is pure gold, but time is a thief, and time is so old while love is so brief. The singer implores the listener to speak low when they speak love and warns that their moment is swift, like ships adrift that will sail apart too soon. Love is compared to a spark that can be easily lost in the dark, and the singer feels that every time they go somewhere, tomorrow is near and always too soon.
The song's sense of urgency reaches its climax in the chorus when the singer begs the lover to speak low to them, to speak love to them, and to do it soon. The urgency reflects that they feel like they're late and that everything will end too soon. They end the song by pleading with the lover to "speak low, speak love" as a last-ditch effort to prolong the moment a little while longer. Speak Low is a song about cherishing and living in the present moment, and making the most of our short-lived encounters with love.
Line by Line Meaning
Time is so old and love so brief
Love is a fleeting moment in the ancient timeline of life itself
Love is pure gold and time a thief
Love is the most valuable treasure, but time strips it away
Speak low when you speak love
Talk softly when expressing love
Our summer's day withers away too soon, too soon
Love fades away quickly like a summer day that ends too soon
Speak low when you speak love
Talk softly when expressing love
Our moment is swift like ships adrift
Our time together passes quickly like ships that float away
We sail apart too soon
We are separated too quickly
Speak low when you speak love
Talk softly when expressing love
Love is a spark, lost in the dark too soon, too soon
Love is fragile, lost in the darkness of time too quickly
I feel that wherever I go that tomorrow is near
Tomorrow always seems close, no matter where I am
Tomorrow is here and always too soon
Time moves quickly and tomorrow always arrives too soon
We're late, darling, we're late
We're running out of time together
The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon
Life is short and everything ends too quickly
I wait, darling, I wait
I wait for you
Will you speak low to me, speak love to me?
Will you talk softly and express love to me?
Speak low to me and soon
Talk softly to me and let's enjoy our time together before it's too late
Speak low, speak low
Keep your voice soft and low
Speak love
Express your love
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: KURT WEILL, OGDEN NASH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Luis Rodríguez Imaz
Habla bajo cuando hables, amor
Speak low when you speak, love
Nuestro día de verano se marchita demasiado pronto, demasiado pronto
Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon
Habla bajo cuando hables, amor
Speak low when you speak, love
Nuestro momento es rápido, como barcos a la deriva, somos barridos demasiado pronto
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift, we´re swept apart, too soon
Habla bajo, cariño, habla bajo
Speak low, darling, speak low
El amor es una chispa, perdido en la oscuridad demasiado pronto, demasiado pronto
Love is a spark, lost in the dark too soon, too soon
Siento donde quiera que vaya que mañana es
I feel wherever I go that tomorrow is
Cerca, el mañana está aquí y siempre es demasiado pronto
Near, tomorrow is here and always too soon
El tiempo es tan viejo y el amor tan breve
Time is so old and love so brief
El amor es oro puro y el tiempo un ladrón
Love is pure gold and time a thief
Llegamos tarde, cariño, llegamos tarde
We´re late, darling, we´re late
El telón desciende, todo termina demasiado pronto, demasiado pronto
The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon
Espero, cariño, espero
I wait, darling, I wait
Me hablarás en voz baja, me hablarás de amor y pronto
Will you speak low to me, speak love to me and soon.
Fuente: LyricFind
Autores de la canción: Kurt Weill / Ogden Nash
Letra de Speak Low © Warner Chappell Music, Inc
Star Strudel
I've always loved Peggy Lee, but this one somehow evaded me for the better part of 15 years. So glad to find this gem at last; easily the best interpretation of this classic.
eoselan7
Why compare? such a waste! The best, when it comes to the interpretation of a song, what does that mean?...Nothing. But truly a marvelous performance of a great song by a magnificent artist, Ms. Peggy Lee.
Celestial Ambience
Soooo beautiful! I've always loved this song since hearing it in a Columbo episode. Now I love it more when Peggy sings it.
MJ Lejer
Me too! I just found Peggy Lee's rendition, I will NOT lose it again!
Mick Lockey
Gorgeous vocals....really captures the emotion of this song.
Jean-Claude Poitras
La magie envoûtante d' une icône jamais remplacée.
Dear Peggy Lee, speak low for ever...
chbdmelisss
LOVEd it......She talked ( sang) in the past tense of love and she delivered the message. Wonderful
pinkpantsu
Phoenix was a great film and this song could not get out of my head. Beautiful.
Luis Rodríguez Imaz
Habla bajo cuando hables, amor
Speak low when you speak, love
Nuestro día de verano se marchita demasiado pronto, demasiado pronto
Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon
Habla bajo cuando hables, amor
Speak low when you speak, love
Nuestro momento es rápido, como barcos a la deriva, somos barridos demasiado pronto
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift, we´re swept apart, too soon
Habla bajo, cariño, habla bajo
Speak low, darling, speak low
El amor es una chispa, perdido en la oscuridad demasiado pronto, demasiado pronto
Love is a spark, lost in the dark too soon, too soon
Siento donde quiera que vaya que mañana es
I feel wherever I go that tomorrow is
Cerca, el mañana está aquí y siempre es demasiado pronto
Near, tomorrow is here and always too soon
El tiempo es tan viejo y el amor tan breve
Time is so old and love so brief
El amor es oro puro y el tiempo un ladrón
Love is pure gold and time a thief
Llegamos tarde, cariño, llegamos tarde
We´re late, darling, we´re late
El telón desciende, todo termina demasiado pronto, demasiado pronto
The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon
Espero, cariño, espero
I wait, darling, I wait
Me hablarás en voz baja, me hablarás de amor y pronto
Will you speak low to me, speak love to me and soon.
Fuente: LyricFind
Autores de la canción: Kurt Weill / Ogden Nash
Letra de Speak Low © Warner Chappell Music, Inc
johnny.w
THIS is the voice for this song. Heard other arrangements, but this is it for me, and, of course, Kurt Weill performing his own music, as from the movie Phoenix.