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."
Waiting for the Train to Come In
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Waitin' for my man to come home
I've counted every minute of each livelong day
Been so melancholy since he went away
I've shed a million teardrops or more
Waitin' for the one I adore
I'm waitin' in the depot by the railroad track
I'm waitin' for my life to begin
Waitin' for the train to come in
I'm waitin' in the depot by the railroad track
Lookin' for the choo-choo train that brings him back
I'm waitin' for my life to begin
Waitin' for the train to come in
Waiting
Waiting
I'm waitin' for the train to come in
The song "Waiting for the Train to Come In" by Peggy Lee is a melancholic piece that revolves around a woman waiting for her man to come back home after a period of separation. The lyrics are simple yet powerful, conveying the sense of longing, hope, and melancholy that the woman feels as she counts every minute of the day hoping for her man's return. The repetition of "waitin'" in the lyrics reflects the woman's patience and determination to wait for her man, no matter how long it takes. The use of train imagery in the song adds to its nostalgic and melancholic tone, as the train symbolizes the passage of time and distance between the lovers.
The lyrics also suggest that the woman's life is put on hold as she waits for her man to come back. She is unable to move on or start anew, and her whole existence is defined by her love for her man. This is evident in the line "I'm waitin' for my life to begin," which suggests that the woman's life is incomplete without her man. Despite this, the woman remains optimistic and hopeful, believing that the train will bring back her man and give her life a new lease. Overall, the song captures the timeless theme of love and separation, and the longing that comes with it.
Line by Line Meaning
Waitin' for the train to come in
I am anxiously waiting for the train to arrive
Waitin' for my man to come home
I am waiting for my beloved partner to return from wherever he is
I've counted every minute of each livelong day
I have been keeping track of the time with great attention, every single day
Been so melancholy since he went away
I have been feeling extremely sorrowful ever since he left
I've shed a million teardrops or more
I have cried an immense number of tears, maybe even more than a million
Waitin' for the one I adore
I am yearning anxiously for the person I deeply love
I'm waitin' in the depot by the railroad track
I am currently standing in the station where the railway tracks converge
Lookin' for the choo-choo train that brings him back
I am searching attentively for the train which will bring my partner back
I'm waitin' for my life to begin
My life is currently on hold, and I am waiting for it to continue again
Waiting
I am still waiting
Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: SUNNY SKYLAR, MARTY BLOCK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@stephenkiefer137
To the fortunate ones who came home :to their wives loved ones who served this country valiantly. Thank you for your undying service!!!!
@Thomassonable
One of my favourites. The performance gives the listener a very special feeling ...listening to an old time radio.
@SG-ni9cv
I've always love Peggy Lee, I somehow missed this song over the years. I happened to hear a clip in the background while watching an old "Cold Case" episode, and had to hear the whole thing.
@scotnick59
Loved Peggy best during this period.
@edwardleblanc8452
One of her best songs, but not too well known. I love it. !!!
@dariowiter3078
Wrong! It's one of her better know songs!
@theresistance3818
I've been waiting on this god damn platform 🚂 ...where are y☘️u??? 😭😭😭
@WAL_DC-6B
Celeste Stewart made a recording of this song but at a faster tempo.
@mattmahoric
0:12
@0necloud-cv7kt
Early blues