Peggy Lee | |
|---|---|
 Lee in 1950 | |
| Born | Norma Deloris Egstrom (1920-05-26)May 26, 1920 Jamestown, North Dakota, U.S. |
| Died | January 21, 2002(2002-01-21) (aged 81) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Occupations |
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| Known for |
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| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
| Musical career | |
| Origin | Valley City,Jamestown,Wimbledon,Fargo, North Dakota |
| Genres | |
| Instrument | Vocals (Contralto) |
| Works | Peggy Lee discography |
| Years active | 1936–2000 |
| Labels | |
Musical artist | |
Norma Deloris Egstrom[a] (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally asPeggy Lee, was an Americanjazz andpopular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing withBenny Goodman'sbig band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music. Called the "Queen of American pop music",[10] Lee recorded more than 1,100masters and co-wrote over 270 songs. She is best known for her role in theWalt Disney classicLady and the Tramp, where she voiced Darling, Peg, theSiamese cats, among others. She received anAcademy Award nomination for her role in the 1955 filmPete Kelly's Blues.
Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom inJamestown, North Dakota, United States, on May 26, 1920, the seventh of the eight children of Selma Emele (née Anderson) Egstrom and Marvin Olaf Egstrom, a station agent for theMidland Continental Railroad. Her family wereLutherans.[11] Her father wasSwedish-American and her mother wasNorwegian-American.[12] After her mother died when Lee was four,[13] her father married Minnie Schaumberg Wiese.[14] His family's original name was Ekström.[15]
Lee and her family lived in several towns along theMidland Continental Railroad (Jamestown, Nortonville, and Wimbledon). She graduated from Wimbledon High School in 1937.[16]
Lee began singing at a young age. In Wimbledon, she was the female singer for a six-piece college dance band with leader Lyle "Doc" Haines. She traveled to various locations with Haines's quintet on Fridays after school and on weekends.[17]
Lee first sang professionally onKOVC radio inValley City, North Dakota, in 1936.[18] She later had her own 15-minute Saturday radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her salary in food. Both during and after her high-school years, Lee sang for small sums on local radio stations.
In October 1937, radio personality Ken Kennedy, of North Dakota's most widely heard station,WDAY inFargo, auditioned her and put her on the air that day, but not before he changed her name to Peggy Lee.[19]
In March 1938, at age 17, Lee left home forHollywood, California. Her first job was seasonal work onBalboa Island, Newport Beach, as a short-order cook and waitress at Harry's Cafe. When the job ended after Easter, she was hired as a carnival barker at the Balboa Fun Zone. She wrote about this experience in the song "The Nickel Ride", which she composed withDave Grusin for the 1974 film of the same name.[17]
Later in 1938, Lee returned to Hollywood to audition for theMC at The Jade. Her employment was cut short when she fainted onstage due to overwork and malnutrition. After she was taken to theHollywood Presbyterian Medical Center she was told she needed atonsillectomy. Lee returned to North Dakota for the operation.[20]
In 1939, Lee was hired to perform regularly atThe Powers Hotel in Fargo, and toured with both the Sev Olson and theWill Osborne Orchestras.[21] She was also again broadcasting at WDAY.[22]
When Lee returned to California in 1940, she took a job singing at The Doll House inPalm Springs. There, she developed her trademark sultry purr, having decided to compete with the noisy crowd with subtlety rather than volume.
I knew I couldn't sing over them, so I decided to sing under them. The more noise they made, the more softly I sang. When they discovered they couldn't hear me, they began to look at me. Then, they began to listen. As I sang, I kept thinking, "softly with feeling". The noise dropped to a hum; the hum gave way to silence. I had learned how to reach and hold my audience—softly, with feeling.[17]
While performing at The Doll House, Lee met Frank Bering, the owner of the Ambassador East and West in Chicago. He offered her a gig at the Buttery Room, a nightclub in theAmbassador Hotel West. There, she was noticed by bandleaderBenny Goodman. 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 a replacement forHelen 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 August 1941 and made her first recording, singing "Elmer's Tune". Lee stayed with the Benny Goodman Orchestra for two years.[23][24]
In 1942, Lee had her first top ten hit, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place",[25] followed in 1943 by "Why Don't You Do Right?", which sold more than one million copies and made her famous.[26] She sang with Goodman's orchestra in two 1943 films,Stage Door Canteen andThe Powers Girl.
In March 1943, Lee marriedDave Barbour, a guitarist in Goodman's band.[18] Lee 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.
Will Friedwald has written:[27]
when she left the band that spring [1943], her intention was to quit the footlights altogether and become Mrs. Barbour, fulltime housewife. It's to Mr. Barbour's credit that he refused to let his wife's singing and composing talent lie dormant for too long. "I fell in love with David Barbour," she recalled. "But 'Why Don't You Do Right' was such a giant hit that I kept getting offers and kept turning them down. And at that time it was a lot of money, but it really didn't matter to me at all. I was very happy. All I wanted was to have a family and cling to the children [daughter Nicki]. Well, they kept talking to me and finally David joined them and said 'You really have too much talent to stay at home and someday you might regret it.'"
In 1944, Lee drifted back to songwriting and occasional recording sessions forCapitol Records, for which she recorded 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". Her recording of "Golden Earrings", the title song of a 1947movie, was a hit throughout 1947–48. "Mañana", by Lee and Barbour, was her eleventh solo hit recording, and remained on the charts for 21 weeks, including nine at the top position. The song sold more than a million copies, and earned the Top Disc Jockey Record of the Year award fromBillboard magazine.[28] From 1946 to 1949, Lee also recorded for Capitol's library ofelectrical transcriptions for radio stations. An advertisement for Capitol Transcriptions in a trade magazine noted that the transcriptions included "special voice introductions by Peggy".[29]
In 1948, Lee joined vocalistsPerry Como andJo Stafford as a host of theNBC Radio musical programThe Chesterfield Supper Club.[30][31] She was a regular onThe Jimmy Durante Show and appeared frequently onBing Crosby's radio shows during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Her relationship with Capitol spanned almost three decades aside from a brief detour (1952–1956) at Decca.[32] For that label, she recordedBlack Coffee and had hit singles such as "Lover" and "Mister Wonderful".
In 1958, she recorded her own version of "Fever" byLittle Willie John, written byEddie Cooley andOtis Blackwell.[33] Lee created a new arrangement for the song, and added lyrics ("Romeo loved Juliet", "Captain Smith and Pocahontas"), which she neglected to copyright. Her version of "Fever" was a hit and was nominated in three categories at the1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959, includingRecord of the Year andSong of the Year.[34]
While Lee was in London for a 1970 engagement atRoyal Albert Hall, she invited Paul andLinda McCartney to dinner atThe Dorchester. At the dinner, the couple gave Lee a song they had written, "Let's Love". In July 1974, with Paul McCartney producing, Lee recorded the song at theRecord Plant in Los Angeles, and it became the title track of her 40th album, her only one onAtlantic Records.[20]
Lee starred oppositeDanny Thomas inThe Jazz Singer (1952), a remake of the Al Jolson film,The Jazz Singer (1927). She played an alcoholic blues singer inPete Kelly's Blues (1955), for which she was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[35]
Lee provided speaking and singing voices for several characters in theDisney movieLady and the Tramp (1955), playing the human Darling, the dog Peg, and the twoSiamese cats,Si and Am. She also co-wrote, withSonny Burke, all of the original songs for the film, including "He's A Tramp", "Bella Notte", "La La Lu", "The Siamese Cat Song", and "Peace on Earth". In 1987, whenLady and the Tramp was released onVHS, Lee sought performance and song royalties on the video sales. When the Disney company refused to pay, she filed a lawsuit in 1988. After a prolonged legal battle, in 1992, Lee was awarded $2.3 million for breach of contract, plus $500,000 for unjust enrichment, $600,000 for illegal use of Lee's voice and $400,000 for the use of her name.[36][37]
Peggy Lee also wrote the lyrics for "Johnny Guitar" (with music composerVictor Young), the title track of the 1954 film,Johnny Guitar, which she sings partially at the end of the movie.
During her career, Lee appeared in hundreds of variety shows, and several TV movies and specials.
Lee wrote or co-wrote more than 270 songs.[28] In addition to her own material to sing, she was hired to score and compose songs for movies. For the Disney movieLady and the Tramp, she co-composed all of the original songs with Burke, and supplied the singing and speaking voices of four characters.[38]
Over the years, her songwriting collaborators included David Barbour,Laurindo Almeida,Harold Arlen, Sonny Burke, Cy Coleman,Duke Ellington, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones,Francis Lai,Jack Marshall,Johnny Mandel,Marian McPartland,Willard Robison,Lalo Schifrin, and Victor Young.
Lee's first published song was in 1941, "Little Fool". "What More Can a Woman Do?" was recorded bySarah Vaughan withDizzy Gillespie andCharlie Parker. "Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" was number one on the Billboard singles chart for nine weeks in 1948, from the week of March 13 to May 8.
Lee was a mainstay of Capitol Records when rock and roll came onto the American music scene. She was among the first of the "old guard" to recognize this new genre, as seen by her recording music fromthe Beatles,Randy Newman,Carole King,James Taylor, and other up-and-coming songwriters. From 1957 until her final disc for the company in 1972, she produced a steady stream of two or three albums per year that usually included standards (often arranged quite differently from the original), her own compositions, and material from young artists.
Many of her compositions have become standards, performed by singers such asTony Bennett,Nat King Cole,Natalie Cole, Bing Crosby,Doris Day,Ella Fitzgerald,Judy Garland,Diana Krall,Queen Latifah,Barry Manilow,Bette Midler,Janelle Monae,Nina Simone,Regina Spektor,Sarah Vaughan and others.[39]
Lee was married four times: to guitarist and composer Dave Barbour (1943–1951),[40][41] actorBrad Dexter (1953), actorDewey Martin (1956–1958), and percussionist Jack Del Rio (1964).[20] All the marriages ended in divorce.
On November 11, 1943, Lee gave birth to her only child, daughter Nicki Lee Foster (who died in 2014), in her marriage to Barbour.[42]
Lee learnedTranscendental Meditation and said she was taught "by the Maharishi personally and that was a great honor."[43]
In 1987, Peggy Lee was asked to help promote the first VHS release ofLady and the Tramp, for which she was paid anhonorarium for $500. Lee contended Disney had breached the 1952 contract she had signed with the studio, which denied Disney the right to make "transcriptions for sale to the public" without her approval.[44] Disney CEOMichael Eisner refused to pay Lee her share of the royalties.[45] On November 16, 1988, Lee sued the Walt Disney Company for breach of contract, claiming that she retained the rights to transcriptions of the music, arguing that videotape editions were transcriptions.[46] Her lawyers demanded $50 million in damages for compensation. In March 1991, Lee was awarded $2.3 million for breach of contract, plus $500,000 for unjust enrichment, $600,000 for illegal use of Lee's voice and $400,000 for the use of her name.[37][47] From the $72 million Disney had earned in videocassette sales, by 1995, Lee's award was estimated to be four percent of the sales.[45]
In October 1992, theCalifornia Court of Appeals upheld the judgement that Disney had to pay Lee over $3 million in compensation. Though videocassettes did not exist when Lee signed her contract with Disney, she nevertheless had retained the rights tophonograph recordings and transcriptions of the film.Stephen Lachs, aLos Angeles County Superior Court judge, later ruled that videocassettes were considered under the category of transcriptions.[48][49] In December 1992, theCalifornia Supreme Court denied a hearing on Disney's appeal of lower-court rulings, which upheld the studio had committed breach of contract.[50]
Lee continued to perform into the 1990s, sometimes using a wheelchair.[51] After years of poor health, she died of complications fromdiabetes and aheart attack on January 21, 2002, at the age of 81.[52] She was cremated and her ashes were buried with a bench-style monument inWestwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.[53]
Lee is often cited as the inspiration for theMargarita cocktail. In 1948, after a trip to Mexico, she and her husband ventured into theBalinese Room inGalveston, Texas. She requested a drink similar to one she had had in Mexico, and the head bartender, Santos Cruz, created the Margarita, and named it after the Spanish version of Peggy's name.[54]
Lee was awarded a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame for Recording in 1960. The star is at 6319 Hollywood Boulevard.[55]
Baseball'sTug McGraw, whose career with both theNew York Mets andPhiladelphia Phillies ranged from 1965 to 1984, named one of his pitches the Peggy Lee. He explained toThe Philadelphia Inquirer: "That's the one where the hitter is out in front of it and says, 'Is that all there is?'"[56]
In 1971, Lee sang theLord's Prayer at the funeral ofLouis Armstrong.[57]
The designer of theMiss PiggyMuppet,Bonnie Erickson, who grew up in Lee's home state of North Dakota, was inspired by Lee for the Miss Piggy character in 1974. Originally called Miss Piggy Lee, her name was shortened to Miss Piggy when the Muppet gained fame.[58]
In 1975, Lee received an honorary doctorate in music from North Dakota State University,[20] and in 2000, she received another from Jamestown University.[59]
In 1983, Lee had a hybrid tea rose named in her honor that was pink with a touch of peach. The Peggy Lee Rose was the 1983 American Beauty Rose of the Year.[60][61]
In 2003, "There'll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee" was held at Carnegie Hall.[62] Produced by recording artistRichard Barone, the sold-out event included performances byCy Coleman,Debbie Harry,Nancy Sinatra,Rita Moreno,Marian McPartland,Chris Connor,Petula Clark,Maria Muldaur,Dee Dee Bridgewater,Quincy Jones,Shirley Horn, and others. In 2004, Barone brought the event to a sold-outHollywood Bowl,[63] and then to Chicago'sRavinia Festival, with expanded casts includingMaureen McGovern,Jack Jones, andBea Arthur.[64] The Carnegie Hall concert was broadcast onNPR'sJazzSet.
The Wimbledon depot building, where she and her family lived and worked, became the Midland Continental Depot Transportation Museum, featuring The Peggy Lee Exhibit, in 2012. The upper floor of the museum, where the Egstrom family once lived, features exhibits that trace Lee's career and her regional and state connection.[16]
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Lee's birth, May 26, 2020, The Grammy Museum hosted an online panel discussion featuring musiciansBillie Eilish,k.d. lang, Eric Burton (The Black Pumas), as well as Lee's granddaughter, Holly Foster Wells, and the author ofPeggy Lee: A Century of Song, Tish Oney.[65]
Lee has been noted as an influence on artists such asPaul McCartney,[66]Madonna,Beyoncé,[67] k.d. lang,[68]Elvis Costello,[69]Diana Krall,[70]Dusty Springfield,[71]Rita Coolidge,[72]Rita Moreno,[73] andBillie Eilish.[74]
In 2020, theASCAP Foundation, along with Lee's family, established the annual Peggy Lee Songwriter Award. The inaugural award went toMichael Blum and Jenna Lotti for their song "Fake ID".[75]
| Title | Notes | Peak Pop chart position | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" | With Benny Goodman | 25 | 11/15/41 |
| "Winter Weather" | Duet with Art Lund with Benny Goodman | 24 | 1/10/42 |
| "Blues in the Night" | With Benny Goodman | 20 | 2/14/42 |
| "Somebody Else is Taking My Place" | 1 | 3/7/42 | |
| "My Little Cousin" | 14 | 4/11/42 | |
| "We'll Meet Again | 16 | 5/23/42 | |
| "Full Moon (Noche de Luna)" | 22 | 6/13/42 | |
| "The Way You Look Tonight" | 21 | 6/27/42 | |
| Why Don't You Do Right?" | 4 | 1/2/43 | |
| "Waitin' for the Train to Come In" | 4 | 11/10/45 | |
| "I'm Glad I Waited for You" | 24 | 3/30/46 | |
| "I Don't Know Enough About You" | 7 | 5/25/46 | |
| "Linger in My Arms a Little Longer, Baby" | 16 | 9/28/46 | |
| "It's All Over Now" | 10 | 11/23/46 | |
| "It's a Good Day" | 16 | 1/18/47 | |
| "Everything's Moving Too Fast" | 21 | 2/8/47 | |
| "Chi-baba, Chi-baba (My Bambino, Go to Sleep)" | 10 | 6/28/47 | |
| "Golden Earrings" | 2 | 11/15/47 | |
| "I'll Dance at Your Wedding" | 11 | 12/20/47 | |
| "Mañana" | 1 | 1/24/48 | |
| "All Dressed Up With a Broken Heart" | 21 | 1/31/48 | |
| "For Every Man There's a Woman" | 25 | 2/28/48 | |
| "Laroo, Laroo, Lili Bolero" | 13 | 4/3/48 | |
| "Talking to Myself About You" | 23 | 4/17/48 | |
| "Don't Smoke in Bed" | 22 | 5/15/48 | |
| "Caramba! It's the Samba!" | 13 | 6/5/48 | |
| "Baby, Don't Be Mad at Me" | 21 | 6/5/48 | |
| "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" | Reissue of 1942 single | 30 | 6/19/48 |
| "Bubble Loo, Bubble Loo" | 23 | 7/3/48 | |
| "Blum Blum, I Wonder Who I Am" | 27 | 3/12/49 | |
| "Similau (See-Me-Lo)" | 17 | 4/23/49 | |
| "Bali Ha'i" | 13 | 5/14/49 | |
| "Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)" | 2 | 5/28/49 | |
| "The Old Master Painter" | Duet with Mel Tormé | 9 | 1/7/50 |
| "Show Me the Way to Get Out of This World" | 28 | 8/26/50 | |
| "(When I Dance with You) I Get Ideas" | 14 | 9/8/51 | |
| "Be Anything (But Be Mine)" | 21 | 5/24/52 | |
| "Lover" | 3 | 6/7/52 | |
| "Watermelon Weather" | Duet with Bing Crosby | 28 | 7/26/52 |
| "Just One of Those Things" | 14 | 8/2/52 | |
| "River, River" | 23 | 11/22/52 | |
| "Who's Gonna Pay the Check?" | 22 | 5/23/53 | |
| "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" | 30 | 12/5/53 | |
| "Where Can I Go Without You?" | 28 | 3/13/54 | |
| "Let Me Go, Lover" | 26 | 12/18/54 | |
| "Mr. Wonderful" | 14 | 3/3/56 | |
| "Joey, Joey, Joey" | 76 | 5/5/56 | |
| "Fever" | 8 | 7/14/58 | |
| "Light of Love" | 63 | 11/3/58 | |
| "Sweetheart" | 98 | 11/24/58 | |
| "Alright, Okay, You Win" | 68 | 1/26/59 | |
| "My Man" | 81 | 1/19/59 | |
| "Hallelujah, I Love Him So" | 77 | 8/18/59 | |
| "I'm a Woman" | 54 | 1/5/63 | |
| "Pass Me By" | Adult Contemporary chart | 20 | 3/13/65 |
| "Free Spirits" | 29 | 10/23/65 | |
| "Big Spender" | 9 | 1/29/66 | |
| "That Man" | 31 | 4/9/66 | |
| "You've Got Possibilities" | 6 | 6/18/66 | |
| "So What's New" | 20 | 10/15/66 | |
| "Walking Happy" | 14 | 10/22/66 | |
| "I Feel It" | 8 | 9/30/67 | |
| "Spinning Wheel" | 24 | 5/3/69 | |
| "Is That All There Is?" | 1 | 9/1/69 | |
| "Is That All There Is?" | 11 | 9/27/69 | |
| "Whistle for Happiness" | Adult Contemporary chart | 13 | 12/20/69 |
| "Love Story" | 26 | 2/7/70 | |
| "You'll Remember Me" | 16 | 5/9/70 | |
| "One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round" | 21 | 10/3/70 | |
| "Love Song" | 34 | 10/7/72 | |
| "Let's Love" | 22 | 11/2/74 |
| Title | Notes | Peak Pop chart position | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Songs from White Christmas | With Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye | 2 | 1/1/55 |
| Songs from Pete Kelly's Blues | With Ella Fitzgerald | 7 | 9/17/55 |
| The Man I Love | 20 | 9/23/57 | |
| Jump for Joy | 15 | 7/14/58 | |
| Things Are Swingin’ | 16 | 12/8/58 | |
| Beauty and the Beat | 19 | 9/12/59 | |
| Latin ala Lee | 11 | 4/11/60 | |
| Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee | 77 | 9/11/61 | |
| Bewitching-Lee! | 85 | 8/25/62 | |
| Sugar ‘n’ Spice | 40 | 11/17/62 | |
| I'm a Woman | 18 | 3/9/63 | |
| Mink Jazz | 42 | 7/27/63 | |
| In the Name of Love | 97 | 9/26/64 | |
| Pass Me By | 145 | 5/22/65 | |
| Big Spender | 130 | 7/30/66 | |
| Is That All There Is? | 55 | 12/13/69 | |
| Bridge Over Troubled Water | 142 | 6/6/70 | |
| Make It With You | 194 | 12/19/70 |
Lee was nominated for 13 Grammy Awards. In 1969, her hit "Is That All There Is?" won her the Grammy forBest Contemporary Vocal Performance. In 1995, she was given theGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[34]
She received theRough Rider Award from the state of North Dakota in 1975,[77] the Pied Piper Award from theAmerican Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1990,[78] the Ella Award for Lifetime Achievement from theSociety of Singers in 1994,[79] the Living Legacy Award from the Women's International Center in 1994,[80] and the Presidents Award from theSongwriters Guild of America in 1999.[81] Other honors include induction into the Big Band Jazz Hall of Fame in 1992,[82] theSongwriters Hall of Fame in 1999,[83] and the Songbook Hall of Fame from theGreat American Songbook Foundation in 2020.[84]
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