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."
Where Can I Go Without You?
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Then on to Paris for the fun I could find
I found I couldn't leave my memories behind
Where can I go without you?
Tried seeing Germany but that wouldn't do
Went to Vienna but I found you there too
Even in Switzerland, your memory came through Where can I go without you?
I wanted travel, I wanted romance
I chased that rainbow across the sea
I'm tired of faces and quaint old places
If you can't be there with me
Back on the boat again, farewell to France
Farewell to London town, they haven't a chance
I'll trade the sights I've seen for one loving glance
Where can I go, where can I go?
Where can I go without you?
The song tells the story of a person who travels across Europe seeking to clear their mind and have fun but is constantly reminded of their lost love. The song is a mix of melancholic and romantic tones accompanied by Peggy Lee's unparalleled vocals. Even though the singer travels to different cities, they can't escape their memories of their former lover, which has a big impact on their plans. Ultimately, the person comes to the realization that they can't find happiness or peace anywhere without their former partner.
The use of imagery and metaphors in the song is quite powerful. The traveling to different cities represents the search for escape and new experiences, while the memories of the lover represent the baggage one carries wherever they go. The lyrics also suggest that sometimes, even though we want to move on, the people we've loved before can still haunt us, and we might not find solace till we find a way to make peace with them.
Line by Line Meaning
I went to London town to clear up my mind
I went to London to try to forget about you and move on
Then on to Paris for the fun I could find
I traveled to Paris to try to enjoy myself without you
I found I couldn't leave my memories behind
Unfortunately, my memories of you came with me everywhere I went
Where can I go without you?
I cannot escape my memories of you, no matter where I go
Tried seeing Germany but that wouldn't do
I tried traveling to Germany to escape my feelings for you, but it didn't work
Went to Vienna but I found you there too
Even in Vienna, my memories of you haunted me
Even in Switzerland, your memory came through
Not even Switzerland was far enough away from you to forget
I wanted travel, I wanted romance
I wanted to explore new places and have new experiences
I chased that rainbow across the sea
I sought adventure and new beginnings across the ocean
I'm tired of faces and quaint old places
I'm weary of new people and places, as they cannot replace you
If you can't be there with me
Without you, nothing else seems to matter in my travels
Back on the boat again, farewell to France
Leaving France behind on a boat, I still cannot shake my memories of you
Farewell to London town, they haven't a chance
Even the places where I tried to forget you cannot release me from your memory
I'll trade the sights I've seen for one loving glance
All the places I have seen and things I have done cannot replace the love I once had with you
Where can I go, where can I go?
I am lost without you and don't know where to turn next
Where can I go without you?
No matter where I go or what I do, I cannot escape my feelings and memories of you
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: VICTOR YOUNG, PEGGY LEE
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?