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."
This Little Piggie
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Rhapsodies and symphonies galore
But a melody my mother sang to me still haunts me
How I always will adore
This little piggy went to market
This little piggy stayed home
This little piggy had roast beef
How I recall my dear old Mother
Putting me to bed
She tucked me in and said
To her cute little sleepy head
This little piggy was a bad little piggy
Who cried all the way home
Years have passed
But it's still my favourite poem
I dream and pray someday I'll say
To a cute little baby of my own
This little piggy went to market
And this little piggy stayed home
The lyrics to Peggy Lee's song "This Little Piggie" may seem like a simple nursery rhyme at first glance, but there's a deeper meaning to the tune, one that's rooted in nostalgia and memories of childhood. Peggy Lee reminisces about her mother singing the song to her as a child, and how it still haunts her to this day, evoking memories of her mother tucking her into bed.
The lyrics mention different piggies going to different places or doing different things, with some having roast beef and others having none, but the most interesting part of the song is the last verse. Peggy Lee talks about how one of the piggies was a "bad little piggy" who cried all the way home. This could be interpreted in different ways - maybe the piggy was punished for doing something wrong at the market, or maybe it represents a child being upset about leaving a fun activity. The ambiguity of this verse adds to the overall nostalgic feel of the song - it's a reminder that childhood memories aren't always clear-cut or easy to understand.
Overall, "This Little Piggie" is a charming song that captures the sweetness and warmth of childhood memories. It's a reminder that sometimes the simplest things can be the most meaningful, and that even a nursery rhyme can hold a special place in our hearts.
Line by Line Meaning
I remember many dear old love songs
I have heard many romantic songs in the past
Rhapsodies and symphonies galore
There were many beautiful orchestral works
But a melody my mother sang to me still haunts me
However, a song my mother sang to me still has emotional significance
How I always will adore
I will continue to love it forever
This little piggy went to market
One pig went shopping
This little piggy stayed home
Another pig stayed home
This little piggy had roast beef
A third pig had a meal of roast beef
This little piggy had none
The fourth pig did not have any food
How I recall my dear old Mother
I remember my beloved mother
Putting me to bed
Tucking me in for the night
She tucked me in and said
Before wishing me goodnight, she would say
To her cute little sleepy head
To me, her adorable sleepy child
This little piggy was a bad little piggy
One of the pigs was misbehaving
Who cried all the way home
And was upset during its trip home
Years have passed
Time has gone by
But it's still my favourite poem
But this nursery rhyme is still my favorite
I dream and pray someday I'll say
I hope and wish to one day say
To a cute little baby of my own
To my own adorable baby
This little piggy went to market
One pig went shopping
And this little piggy stayed home
Another pig stayed at home
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: C. HAROLD LEWIS, SAM COSLOW
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?