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 Do I Go From Here
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The countryside has changed so much, I'd surely end up lost
Half-remembered names and faces so far in the past
On the other side of the bridges
That were burned once they were crossed
Tell me where, where does a fool go
When there's no one left to listen
Tell me where, where does a fool go
When he knows there's something missing
Tell me where, where will I go from here
Where will I go from here
Get back home where my childhood dreams and wishes
Still are none of my regrets
Go back to a place where I can figure all the odds
Have a fighting chance to lose the blues
And win my share of bets
Tell me where, where does a fool go
When there's no one left to listen
To a story without meaning that nobody wants to hear
Tell me where, where does a fool go
When he knows there's something missing
Tell me where, where will I go from here
Where will I go from here
Tell me where, where does a fool go
When there's no one left to listen
To a story without meaning that nobody wants to hear
Tell me where, where does a fool go
When he knows there's something missing
Tell me where, where will I go from here
Where will I go from here
Tell me where, where does a fool go
When there's no one left to listen
To a story without meaning that nobody wants to hear
Tell me where, where does a fool go
When he knows there's something missing
Tell me where, where will I go from here
Where will I go from here
The lyrics to Peggy Lee's song "Where Do I Go From Here" reflect a sense of confusion and longing for a place to belong. The first stanza begins with the singer stating that they would go back home if they knew how, but the countryside has changed so much that they fear they would be lost. The singer then reflects on their past, remembering names and faces from a time long gone, on the other side of bridges that were burned down after being crossed. This could represent the idea that the singer has burned bridges in their past and cannot go back to the way things were.
The chorus repeats the phrase "tell me where" four times, asking where a fool goes when there's no one left to listen to them. The singer feels as though they are telling a story without meaning that nobody wants to hear. They know that there's something missing in their life, but they don't know where to turn to find it. The last stanza brings up the idea of going back to a place where the singer's childhood dreams and wishes are still alive, a place where they can figure things out and maybe even win a few bets.
Overall, the song is about the search for belonging and purpose. The singer feels lost and disconnected from their past and is unsure where to turn to find meaning in their life. Through the repetition of the chorus and the haunting melody, Peggy Lee conveys a sense of longing and uncertainty that many listeners can relate to.
Line by Line Meaning
If I knew the way I'd go back home
I wish I could return to a place where I feel comforted and familiar, but everything has changed and I'm not sure of the way anymore.
The countryside has changed so much, I'd surely end up lost
The place I once knew has undergone so many changes that it's unrecognizable to me now, and I fear I wouldn't be able to find my way around anymore.
Half-remembered names and faces so far in the past
Remnants of my memories remain, but they're hazy and distant, making it difficult to recall the people and places that have shaped my life.
On the other side of the bridges that were burned once they were crossed
The decisions I've made in the past have led me down pathways that I can no longer return from, because those connections have been severed and destroyed.
Tell me where, where does a fool go when there's no one left to listen
When I am alone and no one seems to care about my plight, where can I turn to for comfort or support?
To a story without meaning that nobody wants to hear
Even when I try to express myself, what I have to say may fall on deaf ears because it lacks relevance or interest to others.
Tell me where, where does a fool go when he knows there's something missing
Deep down, I sense that there is a piece of my life puzzle that is absent, and I need to find a way to fill that void.
Where will I go from here
What direction should I take in my life, now that I feel lost and uncertain about my future?
Get back home where my childhood dreams and wishes still are none of my regrets
I long to go back to a time when my hopes and aspirations were simple and pure, and I hadn't yet experienced the disappointment and disillusionment that come with adulthood.
Go back to a place where I can figure all the odds
I want to return to a setting where I feel capable of controlling and understanding what happens to me, instead of being at the mercy of circumstances.
Have a fighting chance to lose the blues and win my share of bets
I wish I could feel optimistic and inspired again, rather than defeated and weary, and maybe even attain some measure of success or happiness.
Lyrics © BOCK IP LLC, BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JERROLD LEWIS BOCK, LEWIS BOCK JERROLD, SHELDON HARNICK, SHELDON M. HARNICK
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?