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."
They Can't Take That Away from Me
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Though by tomorrow you're gone;
The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote,
The melody lingers on.
They may take you from me, I'll miss your fond caress.
But though they take you from me, I'll still possess.
The way you wear your hat
The memory of all that
No, no, they can't take that away from me
The way your smile just beams
The way you sing off key
The way you haunt my dreams
No, no, they can't take that away from me
We may never, never meet again
On the bumpy road to love
Still, I'll always, always keep the memory of
The way you hold your knife
The way we danced till three
The way you changed my life
No, no, they can't take that away from me
No, they can't take that away from me
We may never, never meet again
On the bumpy road to love
Still, I'll always, always keep the memory of
The way you hold your knife
The way we danced till three
The way you changed my life
No, no, they can't take that away from me
No, they can't take that away
Can't take that away
Can't take that away from me
The song 'They Can't Take That Away From Me' by Peggy Lee is a love song with an underlying theme of memory and the remembrance of little things about a person that makes them unique and unforgettable. The lyrics assure the listener that though their love may come to an end or they may be separated, the memories of the person they loved and cherished will continue to linger on. The opening lines of "Our romance won't end on a sorrowful note, Though by tomorrow you're gone," show that the singer and their lover are aware that their time is limited but are determined to cherish the time they have left.
The song's repeated phrase "they can't take that away from me" emphasizes the idea that memories can be owned and kept, and no one can take them away. Throughout the song, the lyrics talk about specific memories that the singer will keep forever, even if they never see their lover again. For instance, the way they wear their hat or sip their tea, the way they hold their knife or sing off-key, and the way they dance together. These are all small but significant things that the singer will carry with them forever.
The song ultimately conveys the idea that even though relationships may come to an end, memories of love can stay with us forever. The melody lingers on, and the little memories that the singer remembers of their loved one will remain unforgettable, even in the midst of separation or heartbreak.
Line by Line Meaning
Our romance won't end on a sorrowful note,
Even if we have to part tomorrow, our love story won't have a sad ending.
Though by tomorrow you're gone;
Even if you leave tomorrow,
The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote,
Although our relationship has ended, as the songwriter said,
The melody lingers on.
The memories of our love will endure and persist.
They may take you from me, I'll miss your fond caress.
Even if you're taken away from me, I'll miss how you used to touch me lovingly.
But though they take you from me, I'll still possess.
Although you might be taken away from me, I'll still have your memory.
The way you wear your hat
I'll always think of the way you used to wear your hat.
The way you sip your tea
I'll always remember the way you used to drink tea.
The memory of all that
The memory of all the things we used to do.
No, no, they can't take that away from me
No one can take away my memories of you.
The way your smile just beams
The way your smile radiates happiness.
The way you sing off key
The way you used to sing off-key and make me laugh.
The way you haunt my dreams
I'll never forget how you used to come to me in my dreams.
We may never, never meet again
We may never see each other again.
On the bumpy road to love
On the difficult journey to finding love.
Still, I'll always, always keep the memory of
But I'll always remember
The way you hold your knife
How you used to hold your knife when eating.
The way we danced till three
The way we used to dance until the early hours of the morning.
The way you changed my life
How you had a profound impact on my life.
No, no, they can't take that away from me
Nobody can take away the memories I have of you.
No, they can't take that away from me
No one can take my memories of you.
Can't take that away
My memories of us can't be taken away.
Can't take that away from me
No one can take away my memories of you.
Lyrics © RALEIGH MUSIC PUBLISHING, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Becky Davis
so mature and sophisticated love this version Ms. Peggy Lee.
Jim Wahrburg
Wow, what a great voice !!
gino light
Favolosa Peggy Lee, your fan for ever !
spicey66
The One & Only!
Cynthia Feagin
What a singer
blue heaven
wow,so nice
Mike
I watched a movie called B Monkey and I fell in love with this song
Orett Williamn
wow
ArtStrong
Star Trek Deep Space 9 brought me here