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."
Tain't Nobody's Bizness
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Or nothing I can say
That folks don't criticize me
But I'm going to do
Just as I want to anyway
And don't care just what people say
If I should take a notion
To jump into the ocean
Ain't nobody's business if I do
If I go to church on Sunday
Then cabaret all day Monday
Ain't nobody's business if I do
If my man ain't got no money
And I say "Take all of mine, honey"
Ain't nobody's business if I do
If I give him my last nickel
And it leaves me in a pickle
Ain't nobody's business if I do
Well, I'd rather my man would hit me
Than follow him to jump up and quit me
Ain't nobody's business if I do
I swear, I won't call no copper
If I'm beat up by my papa
Ain't nobody's business if I do
Nobody's business
Ain't nobody's business
Nobody's business if I do
In Peggy Lee's song Tain't Nobody's Bizness, the lyrics tell the story of a person living their life as they want to, despite the constant criticism and judgement of others. The first stanza sets the tone for the rest of the song, revealing the pervasive scrutiny the singer faces at all times. However, the singer stands firm in their resolve to live life on their own terms, stating that they will do as they please regardless of what others may think.
The rest of the song gives examples of the actions the singer might take that would draw criticism, such as going to church on Sunday and then spending the next day at a cabaret, or giving all of their money to a man who has none. In each example, the singer asserts that it is nobody's business but their own, and that they will not be swayed by the opinions of others.
Overall, the song is a powerful statement about personal autonomy, and the right to live life without judgement or interference from others. It is a reminder to be true to oneself and to live with the courage to stand up for one's own choices.
Line by Line Meaning
There ain't nothing I can do
I am powerless to stop others from criticizing me
Or nothing I can say
My words will also be picked apart by others
But I'm going to do
Despite the criticism, I will act according to my own will
Just as I want to anyway
I refuse to be held down by societal norms or expectations
And don't care just what people say
I am not bothered by the opinions of others
If I should take a notion
If I suddenly feel a strong desire
To jump into the ocean
To partake in a potentially dangerous action
Ain't nobody's business if I do
No one has the right to judge my actions or prevent me from doing them
If I go to church on Sunday
If I attend religious services on a day of worship
Then cabaret all day Monday
Then engage in activities typically seen as sinful or immoral
If my man ain't got no money
If my partner is struggling financially
And I say "Take all of mine, honey"
And I offer to share my resources with them
Ain't nobody's business if I do
My generosity is not for others to judge or interfere with
If I give him my last nickel
If I give away all of my remaining money
And it leaves me in a pickle
And it puts me in a difficult position financially
Ain't nobody's business if I do
My financial decisions are not up for public scrutiny
Well, I'd rather my man would hit me
I would prefer to suffer physical abuse from my partner
Than follow him to jump up and quit me
Than have him leave me entirely and abandon the relationship
Ain't nobody's business if I do
My choices regarding relationships are private and not to be judged by others
I swear, I won't call no copper
I promise not to contact the authorities
If I'm beat up by my papa
If I am victimized by my family member
Ain't nobody's business if I do
My decisions about coming forward or not are mine to make without outside influence or judgement
Nobody's business
My private affairs are not something anyone else is entitled to know about
Ain't nobody's business
No one has the right to interfere with or pass judgement on my personal life
Nobody's business if I do
My actions and choices are not up for public scrutiny or condemnation
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Everett Robbins, Porter Grainger
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?