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."
You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me
Peggy Lee Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Every hug
Seems to act
Just like a drug
You're getting to be
A habit with me
Let me stay
I'm addicted
To your charms
You're getting to be
A habit with me
I used
To think your love
Was something
I could take
Or leave alone
But now I couldn't do
Without my supply
I need you for my own
Oh
I can't break away
I must
Have you everyday
As regularly
As coffee or tea
You've got me
In your clutches
And I cant break free
You're getting to be
A habit with me
The lyrics to Peggy Lee's "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me" speak of the effect someone has on the singer; they have become a habit that the singer cannot break away from. The lyrics use metaphors to describe the addictiveness of the other person's love. Each kiss and hug feels like a drug, and the singer is now addicted to the other person's charms. They need them every day, just as regularly as they need coffee or tea. The other person has the singer in their clutches and they can't break free.
The lyrics express the idea that love and addiction can be one and the same. The metaphor of drugs is often used to describe love in popular music, and these lyrics are no exception. The urgency and dependency expressed in the lyrics indicate how the other person has become a necessity for the singer. The use of "habit" suggests a sense of familiarity and comfort, but also addiction and dependence.
Line by Line Meaning
Every kiss
Each time we kiss, I feel a strong rush of pleasure and excitement.
Every hug
Whenever you hold me close, it brings me such warmth and comfort.
Seems to act
I'm beginning to feel that each of these moments is taking over my entire being, controlling my emotions and desires.
Just like a drug
This sensation is so powerful, it's comparable to the effects of a mind-altering substance.
You're getting to be
I'm realizing that you're becoming more than just a casual fling or acquaintance, but an essential part of my life.
Let me stay
I want to remain in your embrace and feel your presence constantly.
In your arms
I feel safe and secure when I am wrapped up in your love.
I'm addicted
I am now reliant on you for my own happiness and well-being.
To your charms
Your endearing qualities and alluring personality have captured my heart and soul.
I used
Previously, I thought that I could take or leave your love, that it wasn't essential to my happiness.
To think your love
I believed that your affection was just one aspect of my life, not the central focus.
Was something
I didn't understand how powerful your love truly was.
I could take
Before, I felt that I had a choice in whether or not to pursue a relationship with you.
Or leave alone
I believed that I could walk away from you without feeling any loss or regret.
But now I couldn't do
I now realize that being without you is no longer an option for me.
Without my supply
I need your love and affection to feel fulfilled and alive.
I need you for my own
I can no longer imagine my life without you by my side.
Oh
My emotions are so intense, and my feelings so profound, that I need to express them with an exclamation.
I can't break away
I feel trapped by my own desires and am unable to leave you behind, even if I wanted to.
I must
I have no choice but to keep coming back to you, even if it means sacrificing my own freedom.
Have you everyday
I need to feel your love and presence every day, as often as possible.
As regularly
Your love has become as essential to me as my daily cup of coffee or tea.
As coffee or tea
I crave your love in the same way that I crave my daily dose of caffeine.
You've got me
You have captured not only my heart, but my mind and soul as well.
In your clutches
I feel like I am under your spell and am unable to escape your influence.
And I can't break free
Despite my desire to break away from you, I am unable to do so.
You're getting to be
You are becoming such an important part of my life that I cannot imagine living without you.
Lyrics © Roba Music Verlag GMBH, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: HARRY WARREN, AL DUBIN
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?