Lee, Peggy (1920—) | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The adage that "less is more" sums up Peggy Lee's style as a singer and performer of the American popular song. With her assured stage presence and vocal perfectionism, Lee has captured a devoted audience over a career that spans more than 50 years. Songs like "Fever" and "Is That All There Is?" are instantly identifiable with Lee, even by those who are unfamiliar with the rest of her repertoire.

Born Norma Delores Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, Lee's childhood and adolescence were marked by family hardships, including the death of her mother when Lee was four, an alcoholic father, and a stepmother who was cruel and physically abusive. But throughout this desolate period, as Lee reported to writer Gene Lees, "I'd sing in the fields and I'd talk to the trees." This aura of self-sufficiency has remained Lee's hallmark throughout her career.

Lee received her first break as a singer on a radio station in Fargo, North Dakota. She later moved with a friend to try her luck in California but, after a period of illness, low-paying jobs, and a near abduction into white slavery, she returned to the Midwest. In 1941, Benny Goodman heard Lee sing at the Ambassador West Hotel in Chicago. As luck would have it, singer Helen Forrest was about to leave Goodman's band, so he hired Lee as her replacement. Singing with Goodman's band, Lee began a successful career as a recording artist. Among her hits with Goodman during the 1940s were "How Deep Is the Ocean?," "My Old Flame," and "Why Don't You Do Right?"

In 1942, Lee married Goodman's guitarist Dave Barbour, with whom she co-wrote three songs—"It's a Good Day," "Don't Know Enough About You," and "Mañana." Although they were later divorced and Lee married two more times, Barbour remained the loveof her life and an important musical influence. Other collaborations with Barbour as arranger and conductor included "Fever" and the albums Black Coffee and Beauty and the Beat, which were among Lee's most celebrated work.

During the 1950s, Lee was active in films, both performing songs and taking on acting roles. She appeared in The Jazz Singer (1953), with Danny Thomas, and Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. In Walt Disney's animated Lady and the Tramp, Lee provided the voice for several feline characters and wrote the song "He's a Tramp."

Lee performed extensively in concert halls, clubs, and on television in the years that followed, appearing with such major entertainers as Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra. Lee also claimed as friends numerous musicians of a later era, including Paul McCartney. Her live appearances slowed down in the 1980s after complications from diabetes, lung ailments, and double bypass surgery. Lee's long-awaited, autobiographical Broadway musical, Peg, proved a disappointment, opening and closing in one night in 1983. Soon thereafter, Lee's fall on a Las Vegas stage resulted in a broken pelvis, confining her to a wheelchair in performances to come.

Nevertheless, Lee continued to perform, albeit on a somewhat limited scale. A younger audience was becoming aware of her gifts for gesture, nuance, and subtle sexual appeal. Writer Stephen Holden described Lee's "pastel shadings," her "air of perpetual dreaminess," and her "heart-tugging fragility and mystical resilience." Village Voice columnist Michael Musto referred to "those 'fever allthrough the night' tones that could turn a gay man straight." In her autobiography, Miss Peggy Lee (1989), Lee wrote, "You can bet on it! I plan to do another turn or two … and if the body is a little bit reluctant, I know the spirit is willing."

Hemming, Roy, and David Hajdu. Discovering Great Singers of Classic Pop. New York, Newmarket, 1991.

Holden, Stephen. "Peggy Lee at 67: Still in the Swingtime of Her Career." New York Times, January 31, 1988.

Lee, Peggy. Miss Peggy Lee. New York, Donald I. Fine, 1989.

Lees, Gene. Singers and the Song II. New York, Oxford, 1998.

Musto, Michael. "La Dolce Musto." Village Voice, February 9, 1988.

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