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."
Why Don't You Do Right
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
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 down wondering what it's all about
Why don't you do right
Like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
If you had prepared twenty years ago
You wouldn't be a-wanderin' now from door to door
Why don't you do right
Like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
I fell for you jiving and I took you in
Now all you've got to offer me is a drink of gin
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?
Like some other men do?
The song "Why Don't You Do Right" by Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman is a scorching rebuke of a man who lacks ambition and self-control. The lyrics speak to a woman who has had enough of her partner's inability to provide for her, as it is suggested that he has squandered his fortune on other women. The woman accuses him of being a fool for letting these women take advantage of him, and demands that he step up and start making money like other men do. The lyrics highlight the woman's frustrations with her partner's lack of effort and serve as a call to action for him to start making positive changes in his life.
In the song's second verse, the woman emphasizes the importance of preparation and long-term planning, suggesting that if her partner had thought ahead and made wise choices, he would not be in his current predicament, "wandering from door to door." The song ends with the woman lamenting that she fell for his smooth-talking ways, only to be left with nothing but a drink of gin in return. The final repetition of the chorus reinforces her dissatisfaction with his behavior and her call for him to change.
Line by Line Meaning
You had a plenty money 1922
You had a lot of money back in 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
You allowed other women to deceive and manipulate you
Why don't you do right
Why don't you straighten up and act right?
Like some other men do?
Like other men who have their life in order?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
Leave and come back with money for me as well
You're sitting down wondering what it's all about
You're confused about your situation
You ain't got no money they will put you out
You have no money and will be forced to leave
If you had prepared twenty years ago
If you had planned ahead twenty years ago
You wouldn't be a-wanderin' now from door to door
You wouldn't have to go from place to place looking for help
I fell for you jiving and I took you in
I was fooled by your smooth talk and welcomed you into my life
Now all you've got to offer me is a drink of gin
Now you can only give me a drink of gin in return
Why don't you do right
Why don't you change your ways and be responsible?
Like some other men do?
Like other men who take care of their responsibilities?
Like some other men do?
Like other men who do things the right way?
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: LILLIAN GREEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@williamswindler105
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 down, wondering what it's all about
You ain't got no money, they will put you out
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too?
If you had prepared 20 years ago
You wouldn't be a-wanderin' out from door to door
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too
I fell for your jivin' and I took you in
Now all you got to offer me's a drink of gin
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?
Like some other men do
@jeongeric6793
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 sittin' down and wonderin' what it's all about
You ain't got no money, they will put you out
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too
If you had prepared twenty years ago
You wouldn't be a-wanderin' now from door to door
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too
I fell for your jivin' and I took you in
Now all you got to offer me's a drink of gin
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
Like some other men do
@KrazyX777
"You had plenty money in 1922"
The Great Depression hit him hard I guess.
@eugenehomeier597
Sorry. The Great Depression wasn't until 1929......
@shirleyroseyflynn7433
😂😂😂
@cleverhardy5230
@Eugene Homeier "If you had prepared 20 years ago..."
That line implied he spent too much, and now he can't get it back unless he gets a job. He might have been reliant on stocks or something...
@bilguunsuvargakhairkhan5533
@Eugene Homeier That's the point...
@LuzMaria95
😂😂😂😂😂
@thamnosma
Smoky nightclub, hot date, mixed drinks, all dressed up....what an era.
@Lynxthejonin
Stephen Dreher Yeah, if you like milkshakes and racism
@sunflowersoldier4915
Don’t worry. We still have those
@jeffmunoz6192
Ikr looks like the best time to be in.