What qualities does one typically look for in a singer? A melodious voice, exceptional pitch or range, and a resonating tone are all examples, and it depends on the music genre as well. In today’s blog I want to tell you about someone who who has given us all that and more, in the style of both jazz and popular music, throughout her 60 year career. In addition to a remarkable career in the music industry, she became an Oscar-nominated actress, and of course she gave both her acting and music talents to one of the most beloved Disney films produced in the 1950s.
Peggy Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom on May 26th, 1920 in Jamestown, North Dakota. As a child, she worked as a milkmaid, and started getting paid for singing as a teenager. She landed her first professional singing job performing on KOVC Radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She later performed on WDAY in Fargo, where Radio Personality Ken Kennedy gave her a new stage name, Peggy Lee. As a result, she left North Dakota to try her luck as a singer in Los Angeles at age 17. However, it was while working at the Doll House in Palm Springs that she received an offer to perform regularly at a nightclub in Chicago called “The Buttery Room,” and while performing there she was noticed by Benny Goodman, who at the time was looking to replace his band’s lead singer, Helen Forrest. He gave her an offer to perform in his band in 1941, which she did for two years.
Lee’s first two number-one hit songs were “Somebody Else Is Taking My Place,” in 1942 and “Why Don’t You Do Right?” in 1943, performing with Goodman’s orchestra. She also appeared as her herself with the orchestra in both the movies Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl in ’43. She was fired by Goodman when she married the orchestra’s guitarist, Dave Barbour. Together, Lee and Barbour had a daughter, Nicki Lee Foster, and they wrote several songs together, including “I Don’t Know Enough About You,” “Golden Earings,” and “It’s a Good Day.” Sadly, Lee and Barbour’s marriage ended in divorce after eight years, though she later reconciled with Goodman and made record with him, Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee, released by Columbia records in 1949.
In 1948, Lee teamed up with Perry Como and Jo Stafford for the NBC Radio Program The Chesterfield Supper Club (1944-1950). She made her debut as an actress, co-starring with Danny Thomas in The Jazz Singer (1952) a remake of the Al Jolson 1927 film of the same name. That same year, she recorded the album Road to Bali: Selections From the Paramount Picture, released by Decca Records. It was in this film that she sang the song “Lover,” which was another hit single for Capitol Records. 1955 was one of the busiest years of her entire career, because in addition to receiving a Best Supporting Actress Oscar Nomination for playing an alcoholic Blues singer in Pete Kelly’s Blues , she was hired by the Walt Disney Studios as a primary contributor to the animated classic Lady and the Tramp.
Hiring Lee to work on “Lady and the Tramp,” was a groundbreaking decision. It was the very first time throughout in the studio’s history that a well-known celebrity was hired to be in one of their movies. Even more importantly, Lee wrote the lyrics to the majority of the film’s soundtrack, including the lullaby “La La Lu,” and classics “Bella Notte,” and “He’s a Tramp.” In addition to writing the lyrics, she provided the voices of Lady’s human owner, Darling, and Peg the pekingese as well as Aunt Sarah’s mischievous cats, Si and Am. The film wasn’t very well-reviewed in its initial release, but it is considered a classic today. (“Lady and the Tramp” film was remade for Disney+ in 2019.)
Lee released her very first solo Christmas album in 1960, entitled Christmas Carousel, which featured “Winter Wonderland,” “The Christmas Song,” “I Like a Sleighride,” and other classics. She was nominated for 12 Grammys throughout her career and finally won for the song “Is That All There Is?” which was released by Capitol in 1969 and also featured arrangements by Randy Newman. Lee’s final album for Capitol Records, “Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota,” was released in 1972. And in 1983 she made her Broadway debut at the age of 62 in autobiographical play that she wrote entitled “Peg,” which sadly was not a success.
Due to an unfortunate heart attack, as well as complications from diabetes, Peggy Lee died in Los Angeles on January 21st, 2002 at the age of 81. In 2003 there was a concert tribute to her at Carnegie Hall in New York called “There’ll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee,” which featured performances by Petula Clark, Rita Moreno, Nancy Sinatra, and many others. She undoubtedly was a performer of many talents and will forever be remembered for having a smooth yet sophisticated singing voice and bringing it to “Lady and the Tramp.” (It’s hard to imagine the iconic “spaghetti-dining sequence” from “Lady and the Tramp” without Lee’s beautiful lyrics.)
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