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."
Teach Me Tonight
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Well don't think I'm trying not to learn
Since this is the perfect spot to learn
Teach me tonight
Starting with the ABC of it
Getting right down to the XYZ of it
Help me solve the mystery of it Teach me tonight
The sky's a blackboard high above you
And if a shooting star goes by
I'll use that star to write "I love you"
A thousand times across the sky
One thing isn't very clear my love
Teachers shouldn't stand so near my love
Graduation's almost here my love
You'd better teach me tonight
I've played loves scenes in a flick or two
And I've also met a chick or two
But I still can learn a trick or two
Hey teach me tonight
I who thought I knew the score of it
Kind of think I should know much more of it
Off the wall, the bed, the floor of it
Hey teach me tonight
The midnight hours come slowly creeping
When there's no one there but you
There must be more to life than sleeping
Single in a bed for two
What I need most is post graduate
What I feel is hard to articulate
If you want me to matriculate
You'd better teach me tonight
What do you get for lessons
Teach me, come on and teach me, teach me tonight
The song "Teach Me Tonight" by Peggy Lee, written by Gene De Paul and Sammy Cahn, is an invitation to someone to be taught about love and intimacy. The lyrics are appealingly direct, suggesting the singer's vulnerability and willingness to learn.
The first verse of the song acknowledges that the singer has a lot to learn and that they are there to learn from the other person. The second verse continues this theme by stating that the singer needs help solving the mystery of it (love and intimacy). The third verse takes a more playful approach as the singer uses the stars in the sky as a blackboard to write "I love you" a thousand times. However, there is some confusion and ambiguity in the fourth verse, where the singer questions if the teacher should be so close as graduation is near.
The fifth verse reveals that the singer has had some experience in love but still believes that they can learn more. The sixth verse becomes more explicit as the singer asks to be taught about the off-the-wall, bed, and floor aspects of love and intimacy. The seventh verse describes the quiet and intimate moments, where the singer acknowledges that they want more of life than sleeping alone. The final verse implies that what the singer wants most is to be taught about love and that they are willing to pay any price for the lessons.
Overall, the song provides a good insight into the emotional and vulnerable state of the singer as they reach out for help to learn about love and intimacy.
Line by Line Meaning
Did you say that I've got a lot to learn
You implied that I lack knowledge
Well don't think I'm trying not to learn
I am willing to learn
Since this is the perfect spot to learn
This is the ideal place for learning
Teach me tonight
Teach me now
Starting with the ABC of it
Begin with the basics
Getting right down to the XYZ of it
Move on to the advanced concepts
Help me solve the mystery of it
Assist me in comprehending the puzzle of it
Teach me tonight
Teach me now
The sky's a blackboard high above you
The sky is like a blackboard in the sky
And if a shooting star goes by
In case a shooting star passes
I'll use that star to write "I love you"
I will use that star to express "I love you"
A thousand times across the sky
Numerous times across the sky
One thing isn't very clear my love
One aspect remains uncertain, dear
Teachers shouldn't stand so near my love
Teachers are not supposed to stand so close, my dear
Graduation's almost here my love
Graduation is nearly here, my dear
You'd better teach me tonight
You should teach me now
I've played loves scenes in a flick or two
I have performed romantic scenes in a movie or two
And I've also met a chick or two
I have also encountered a couple of women
But I still can learn a trick or two
However, there are still things I can learn
Hey teach me tonight
Hey, teach me now
I who thought I knew the score of it
I believed I understood everything about it
Kind of think I should know much more of it
But I feel like I should know a lot more
Off the wall, the bed, the floor of it
Both in and out of the bed, there is more to learn
Hey teach me tonight
Hey, teach me now
The midnight hours come slowly creeping
Midnight slowly approaches
When there's no one there but you
When you are the only one present
There must be more to life than sleeping
Life must have more to offer than just sleeping
Single in a bed for two
Sleeping alone in a bed for two
What I need most is post-graduate
I require further education beyond my current level
What I feel is hard to articulate
I find it difficult to express my emotions
If you want me to matriculate
If you want me to enroll
You'd better teach me tonight
You should teach me now
What do you get for lessons
What do you receive in exchange for lessons
Teach me, come on and teach me, teach me tonight
Teach me, come on and teach me, teach me now
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: Sammy Cahn, Gene De Paul
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?