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."
Too Close for Comfort
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Be wise, be smart, behave, my heart
Don't upset your cart when she's so close
Be soft, be sweet, but be discreet
Don't go off your feet, she's to close for comfort
Too close, too close for comfort, no, not againToo close, too close to know just when to say "when"
Be firm, be fair, be sure, beware
On your guard, take care, while there's such temptation
One thing leads to another
Too late to run for cover
She's much too close for comfort
Be wise. Be fair. Be sure. Be there.
Put on your old thinking cap boy
Cause if you don't look out you
Will find out that you are much too
You're too close for comfort.
You're heading for a mishap boy
The first thing that you know she
Will have you up that old tree.
She's too close for comfort
Too close, so close
Too close
Be firm and be fair, be absolutely sure, beware
On your guard, take care, when there's such temptation
One thing leads to another
Too late to run for cover
Much too, too close for comfort now
One thing leads to another
Too late to run for cover
Much too, too close for comfort now
One thing
One thing leads to another
Much too, too close for comfort now
Be wise. Be fair. Be sure. Be there. Behave. Beware.
She's too close, too close for comfort now
The song Too Close for Comfort, performed by Peggy Lee, is a warning to a man about the dangers of getting too close to a woman. The first verse suggests that the man should be careful not to upset the delicate balance of their relationship by being too impulsive or reckless. He is advised to be wise, smart and behave himself, to avoid getting swept off his feet. The second verse reinforces this by warning him to resist temptation, to be on his guard and take care while he is in her presence. The third verse emphasizes the inevitability of one thing leading to another and how it is too late to back out once the temptation has taken hold.
The chorus, "Too close, too close for comfort," serves as a reminder that the man is playing a dangerous game by getting too close to this woman. The repetition of this line reinforces the message of the song and adds a sense of urgency. The final verse is a call to action, urging the man to put on his thinking cap and use caution. The song ends with a reiteration of the advice given earlier in the verses.
Line by Line Meaning
Be wise, be smart, behave, my heart
Be clever, be astute, control yourself, my heart
Don't upset your cart when she's so close
Don't be reckless when she's nearby
Be soft, be sweet, but be discreet
Be gentle, be kind, but keep it secret
Don't go off your feet, she's too close for comfort
Don't lose control of yourself, she's too near and it's uncomfortable
Too close, too close for comfort, no, not again
She's too near and it's not comfortable, not again
Too close, too close to know just when to say "when"
She's too close and it's hard to know when to stop
Be firm, be fair, be sure, beware
Be strong, be just, be confident, be cautious
On your guard, take care, while there's such temptation
Be careful and watchful, while the temptation is strong
One thing leads to another
Actions have consequences
Too late to run for cover
It's too late to escape the situation
She's much too close for comfort
She's uncomfortably close
Put on your old thinking cap boy
Use your brain, think hard
Cause if you don't look out you
Because if you're not careful
Will find out that you are much too
You'll discover that you're too
You're too close for comfort.
You're too near and it's uncomfortable
You're heading for a mishap boy
You're going to make a mistake
The first thing that you know she
Before you know it she
Will have you up that old tree.
Will trap you in a difficult or embarrassing situation
Too close, so close
So near and uncomfortable
Be firm and be fair, be absolutely sure, beware
Be strong and just, be completely confident, be cautious
One thing leads to another
Actions have consequences
Too late to run for cover
It's too late to escape the situation
Much too, too close for comfort now
Much too near and uncomfortable now
One thing
Actions have consequences
Be wise. Be fair. Be sure. Be there. Behave. Beware.
Be clever, be just, be confident, be present, control yourself, be cautious
She's too close, too close for comfort now
She's too near and it's uncomfortable now
Lyrics © BOCK IP LLC, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: George David Weiss, Jerry Bock, Larry Holofcener
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@kevintobin250
A Legend at her best!
@adreamamore2545
Love this type of jazz
@nancy9222
Love Love Peggy Lee!!!
@tonycampisi969
A great version of this song. It's a very. sexy version.
@Peter-Slash
Barry B Benson likes this song but not as much as Mel Torme