Peggy Lee (26 May 1920 – 21 Jan 2002), was an American Grammy Award-winning… Read Full Bio ↴Peggy Lee (26 May 1920 – 21 Jan 2002), was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz/popular music singer-songwriter and Academy Award-nominated actress. She was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota. Lee has been cited as an influence by such diverse artists as Bobby Darin, Paul McCartney, Bette Midler, Madonna, Shirley Horn, k.d. lang, Elvis Costello, Dusty Springfield, Dr. John, and numerous others. As a songwriter, she collaborated with Sonny Burke, Victor Young, Francis Lai, Dave Grusin, John Chiodini, her husband Dave Barbour, and Duke Ellington, who stated, 'If I'm the Duke, then Peggy's the Queen.' As an actress, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Pete Kelly's Blues. She had a contralto singing range.

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 Mine You
Peggy Lee Lyrics

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Every time you're near a rose
Aren't you glad you've got a nose
And if the dawn is fresh with dew
Aren't you glad you're you

When a meadowlark appears
Aren't you glad you've got two ears
And if your heart is singin' too

Aren't you glad you're you

You can see a summer sky
Or touch a friendly hand
Or taste an apple pie
Pardon the grammar, but ain't life grand

And when you wake up each morn
Aren't you glad that you were born
Think what you've got the whole day through
Aren't you glad you're you

Every time you're near a rose
Aren't you glad you've got a nose
And if the dawn is fresh with dew
Aren't you glad you're you

When a meadowlark appears
Aren't you glad you've got two ears
And if your heart is singin' too
Aren't you glad you're you

You can see a summer sky
Or touch a friendly hand
Or taste an apple pie
Pardon the grammar, but ain't life grand

And when you wake up each morn
Aren't you glad that you were born
Think what you've got the whole day through
Aren't you glad you're you

Overall Meaning

The song "You're Mine You" by Peggy Lee has an upbeat and cheerful tone that celebrates the simple pleasures of life. The lyrics suggest that we should be grateful for our senses and for the everyday joys that come with being alive. The repetition of the phrase "aren't you glad you're you" emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance and encourages us to appreciate our own unique qualities.

The first verse uses the sense of smell as an example of something we should be grateful for, while the second verse references the sense of hearing. These are followed by a list of other experiences that can bring us joy, such as seeing a summer sky, touching a friendly hand, or tasting apple pie. The song acknowledges that life may not always be perfect, as shown by the line "pardon the grammar, but ain't life grand," but ultimately encourages a positive attitude towards the world around us.

Overall, "You're Mine You" is a song about finding happiness in the small things in life and appreciating the simple pleasures that come with being alive. The lyrics remind us that we all have something to be grateful for and that even the most mundane experiences can be reasons to feel blessed.

Line by Line Meaning

Every time you're near a rose
Appreciating the beauty of nature

Aren't you glad you've got a nose
Being grateful for the ability to smell

And if the dawn is fresh with dew
Feeling fortunate to experience a new day

Aren't you glad you're you
Recognizing one's own self-worth

When a meadowlark appears
Taking notice of the small things in life

Aren't you glad you've got two ears
Being thankful for the ability to hear the sweet sounds of nature

And if your heart is singin' too
Feeling joy and contentment within oneself

Aren't you glad you're you
Embracing one's own uniqueness

You can see a summer sky
Appreciating the beauty of the world around us

Or touch a friendly hand
Feeling the warmth of human connection

Or taste an apple pie
Enjoying the simple pleasures in life