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OBIT: Peggy Lee (1920-2002)
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Subject: Peggy Lee From: GUEST,PaulM Date: 22 Jan 02 - 06:21 AM See report from CNN Paul |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Steve Parkes Date: 22 Jan 02 - 06:31 AM What a trouper! And a voice that just overwhelmed me even when I was five. Steve |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: catspaw49 Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:18 AM It was hard not to love her spirit and that voice. Very few of her breed left............Very sad. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: RangerSteve Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:27 AM I didn't care for pop music when I was a kid, it was only in the last 15 years that i realized how good the pop music of the 40's and 50's really was. Peggy Lee is definately one of the best from that era. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Liz the Squeak Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:45 AM And she never got a penny for 'Lady and the Tramp' thanks to Disney's pedantic arguments and his 'must have a good clean image' thing..... LTS |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Allan C. Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:46 AM One of my favorites of the things she did, was the voice track of the Siamese cats for "The Lady and the Tramp". I especially enjoyed the one-woman duet of "We Are Siamese, If You Please". |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Fiolar Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:53 AM So the great Peggy has gone to join the Heavenly Choir. Oh woeful day. One of my favourite all time singers. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Pene Azul Date: 22 Jan 02 - 09:49 AM Copied from duplicate thread:
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: SharonA Date: 22 Jan 02 - 10:44 AM Sad news. What a great voice, what a great singer. What a great, uncompromising lady. When I was a kid (late 1950s through the '60s), my parents filled the house with the music of the crooners, iincluding Peggy Lee. While all the other kids were singing "Yeah Yeah Yeah" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", I was singing "Is that all there is?" and "Fever". My gain, their loss! |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca Date: 22 Jan 02 - 11:09 AM This Morning's Shelagh Rogers talked about the passing of PEggy Lee, and at the end played "Is That All There Is". After the tune, she said "And we'll dedicate that to the Canadian Loonie." Sweet! |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: PaulM Date: 22 Jan 02 - 11:16 AM |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Cobble Date: 22 Jan 02 - 01:20 PM Her vice always gave me "Fever".. They don't make them like her any more. Mrs. C |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Mark Clark Date: 22 Jan 02 - 03:08 PM If, due to some serious oversight, I ever get to hear the Heavenly Choir, I know it'll sound a whole lot better with Peggy singing lead. The old records will come out tonight. - Mark |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: fat B****rd Date: 22 Jan 02 - 03:21 PM Sad indeed, when I'm finished here I'm off to play her version of "These Foolish Things". |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: DougR Date: 22 Jan 02 - 04:52 PM NPR just did a short tribute to her. They played her "Don't Blame Me," and I don't know any vocalist that did it better. One of the great women vocalists. I wonder if others in her age group are still around? Jo Stafford and Martha Tilton in particular. They are like our WWII veterans, we lose 'em every day. DougR |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Allan C. Date: 22 Jan 02 - 06:25 PM Doug, the last I heard, Jo Stafford was living in seclusion in southern California. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Desdemona Date: 22 Jan 02 - 06:44 PM He's a tramp But I love him Breaks a new heart Ev'ry day He's a tramp They adore him And I only hope He'll stay that way He's a tramp He's a scoundrel He's a rounder He's a cad He's a tramp But I love him Yes, and even I Have got it pretty bad You can never tell When he'll show up He gives you Plenty of trouble I guess he's just a No 'count pup But I wish that he Were double He's a tramp He's a rover And there's nothing More to say If he's a tramp He's a good one And I wish that I Could travel his way 'Nuff said! Line Breaks <br> added. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: rangeroger Date: 23 Jan 02 - 01:08 AM "Fever" was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the thread title. Watched a Walt Disney program once where they showed her recording the "We are Siamese" voice overs. She had a blast. rr |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Lonesome EJ Date: 23 Jan 02 - 01:46 AM When I heard Fever at age eight, I had my first inkling that there was more to girls than "sugar and spice and everything nice". Thanks for the wake-up call, Peggy. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: GUEST,BigDaddy Date: 23 Jan 02 - 02:47 AM Liz the Squeak, apparently Ms. Lee received a 2.3 million dollar settlement from Disney as a result of suing Disney over video sales. Not a bad fee for "We Are Siamese If You Please." Will come up with reference if you want it. Hope afterwards she didn't say, "Is That All There Is?" Great voice. Great reminder to appreciate those we have while they're still around...cards, letters, etc. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: SeanM Date: 23 Jan 02 - 04:26 AM You can see Peggy Lee in a section on the end of the last video release of "Lady and the Tramp", recording a version of the Siamese Cat song live with marimba (which she plays) and some percussion. Even gives a quick lesson on how you can doubletrack your own voice as she does for the song. Sad day indeed. M |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Joe Offer Date: 23 Jan 02 - 05:25 AM I've always been amazed that the intelligence and wit in Peggy Lee's interpretations of classic American "standards." Besides, her singing was always downright sexy. You may find http://www.peggylee.com/ interesting, although I gather that the site has been overloaded the last day or so. I think it's a good idea to post the actual text of an obituary if it's relevant. I couldn't access the link above to CNN, but here's an obituary from the Los Angeles Times. -Joe Offer- Peggy Lee, Sultry Jazz and Pop Singer, Dies at 81 Music: Her hits included "Fever" and "Is That All There Is?" She also wrote songs, acted. By JON THURBER Times Staff Writer January 23 2002 Peggy Lee, whose soft, rhythmic voice and purring sensuality made her a favorite of jazz and pop audiences for half a century, has died. She was 81. Lee, who had been in declining health since a stroke three years ago, died of a heart attack Monday night at her home in Bel-Air, said her daughter, Nicki Lee Foster. She was best known to a broad audience for songs that became her trademark, such as "Fever," and the Grammy-winning "Is That All There Is?" But Lee also was a gifted songwriter and arranger. She also was the well-known voice of Peg in the Disney film "Lady and the Tramp" and won a $2.3-million lawsuit against the Walt Disney Co. to recoup royalties from videocassette sales of that movie. A fine actress, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as an alcoholic blues singer in the 1955 film "Pete Kelly's Blues." But it was the voice that captivated generations of audiences. "If you don't feel a thrill when Peggy Lee sings, you're dead, Jack," jazz critic Leonard Feather said some years ago. Jazz singer Cleo Laine said Lee "came from a big-band era and knew how to swing. She knew how to sing on the beat when necessary. A lot of people don't know how to do that. Her simplicity had a lot of nuances that other people just couldn't grasp, that they just couldn't imitate to save their lives," Laine said Tuesday. Diana Krall, one of the leading singers in jazz today, offered similar praise. "I love everything about her: her elegance, her wit. And she is one of the greatest influences in what I do as an artist," Krall said in a statement released Tuesday. Lee's work seemed to transcend changing tastes. "She was never part of any kind of fashion," said jazz critic Nat Hentoff. "She never engaged in pyrotechnics. She was subtle and enticing in contrast with the belters who show off everything but their musicianship. "She had some of [Maurice] Chevalier's ability to connect with the audience to make them think she was singing just to them." Born Norma Dolores Egstrom in Jamestown, N.D., Lee was the seventh of eight children. Her mother died when she was 4, and her father, a railway agent, married a woman who by all accounts was physically and emotionally abusive to her stepchildren. Undaunted by the abuse at home and encouraged by the recognition she received in her school glee club and the church choir, Lee decided to pursue singing. Still a teenager, she found work on a radio station in Fargo, N.D., where the station manager changed Norma's name to Peggy Lee. At the age of 17, she left Fargo for Hollywood, arriving with $18 in her pocket. She got small singing gigs, but took jobs as a waitress and worked in a carnival midway. Discouraged, she returned to the radio job in Fargo and eventually made her way to Chicago, where she got her break. Lee was singing at the Ambassador West Hotel when Benny Goodman, on the advice of his wife, stopped in to hear her one night. "I couldn't believe he was sitting there listening to me," she recalled years later in an interview with Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune. "See, I was a big fan of his. . . . So here was Benny Goodman in the room . . . and Benny had a funny way of chewing on his tongue and staring at you at the same time. So when you were performing, you couldn't really think that he loved it. . . . "Of course at the time, I didn't realize that I was really auditioning, that Benny was looking for a replacement for Helen Forrest, who had left the band. . . . "When I was told that Benny was offering me a job, I thought it was some kind of joke." After some initial unpleasantness with Goodman fans who wanted to hear Forrest, the 21-year-old Lee settled into her new job. "It was like a beautiful dream," she told Reich. "I would sit there on the bandstand, night after night, just reveling in the music. I could hear the arrangements over and over and never got tired of them." Lee's work with the Goodman band yielded several hits, including "Blues in the Night," "The Way You Look Tonight," and "Why Don't You Do Right." Her time with the Goodman band also yielded another benefit: her first husband, Dave Barbour, a guitarist with the band. After leaving the Goodman band in 1943, she had hits with records such as "That Old Feeling," and with three songs she composed with Barbour: "It's a Good Day," "Don't Know Enough About You" and "Manana (Is Soon Enough For Me)." The 1950s were a particularly active time in Lee's career. She made several popular recordings for Capitol, wrote the title song for the 1954 film "Johnny Guitar," and wrote songs for other films, including "Tom Thumb." "Fever" with its spare jazz arrangement was released in 1958 and helped establish her as an artist who could cross into the pop field. She had film roles as well, appearing in the 1953 version of "The Jazz Singer" opposite Danny Thomas. She was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for "Pete Kelly's Blues." "I loved acting." she later said, "But my agents never brought me another script. I was worth a lot more to them on the road." Legal Battle Over Royalties Her most memorable role of that period came in her off-screen work on Walt Disney's "Lady and the Tramp." With Sonny Burke, Lee co-wrote the song "He's a Tramp" and provided the voice for "Peg" as well as three other characters: Darling, the woman who owns Lady, and Si and Am, the malicious Siamese cats. "Walt asked if I would mind if they named the character [Peg] after me, then explained the reason for the request," Lee told The Times some years ago. "Mamie Eisenhower was our first lady at the time, and she always wore bangs. . . . The little dog has bangs and her name in the script was Mamie, so Walt was afraid someone might think we were being a little less than polite about the first lady. That's why I have the honor of having the character named after me." It was her work in "Lady and the Tramp" that led decades later to one of the biggest fights in her life. In 1991, she won a legal judgment against Disney after she sued for a portion of the profits from the videocassette sale of the movie, citing a clause in her contract with the studio barring sale of "transcriptions" without her consent. And just last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge gave preliminary approval to a $4.75-million settlement between Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group and as many as 300 artists in a battle over royalties. Lee was the lead plaintiff in that suit, stemming from her years recording for Decca, which Universal now owns after a series of takeovers. "I wouldn't be surprised if she thought, 'I accomplished that. That was the last big thing. Now I can go,' " her attorney, Cyrus V. Godfrey, said Tuesday. Lee had told him, Godfrey said, that "the case was important to resolve the issues not only for herself but for other artists." Though Lee will be remembered for her sultry, sophisticated stage presence, she was still a North Dakota farm girl. "There was a lot of down-to-earth that was part of her too," said Foster, her daughter. Until her health began to decline, she was an excellent cook and an avid gardener. "She had a terrific sense of humor, an absolutely fabulous one," Foster said. Her mother even expressed that sense of humor in a song about her childhood abuse in her song, "One Beating a Day." "I think it took her a long time to get over and deal with that part of her life," Foster said. "But once she was able to put it behind her, she was even able to joke about it. And of course, there's very little humor in something like that." But her real gift was the music and her ability to connect with an audience. "Her phrasing and her style musically were impeccable," said Jerry Leiber, who with Mike Stoller wrote one of Lee's Grammy-winning songs "Is That All There Is?" 'She was very measured, even mannered, but still a great swinger. So much was contained, and yet you could sense the wildness in the swing." Lee once told an interesting story about the imagery that her voice elicited. Songwriter "Alan Wilder used to make a strange analogy about my voice," Lee said. "He said I had a voice like a streetwalker you'd walk past, but if you ever stopped, you'd never leave. . . . "Now, I don't exactly think of myself as a streetwalker, but I think I know what he means: the sensuousness." Her marriage to Barbour ended in divorce, as did marriages to actors Brad Dexter and Dewey Martin and musician Jack Del Rio. In addition to her daughter, Lee is survived by grandchildren David Foster, Holly Foster-Wells and Michael Foster, and by three great-grandchildren. Services will be private. _ _ _ Times staff writers Ann O'Neill and Barbara Thomas contributed to this report. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Genie Date: 23 Jan 02 - 08:06 AM Yeah, Joe, I find it interesting that nowadays every singer who ever wrote even one of his/her own songs is called a "singer/songwriter," while several of the "singers" of the pre-1960 era, notably Peggy Lee, wrote or co-wrote many of their own songs. Am I wrong, or did Peggy co-write the lyrics to her version of "Fever," in addition to her other compositions cited above? (There's a previous version with different lyrics.) She'll be missed. Genie |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: Jon Freeman Date: 23 Jan 02 - 08:23 AM Genie, peggielee.com, the site Joe Offer gave a link to says that she did write new lyrics for "Fever". A couple of people here mentioned listening to Peggy Lee at an early age. I was another - I'd guess I was about 7 when I strted playing some of my parents 45s on the record player. "Fever" was one I really did enjoy then and still love. Jon |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: WyoWoman Date: 23 Jan 02 - 08:28 AM Genie -- that's an interesting observation. I was thinking about that the other day, too. Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald are two of my greatest musical role models. And Odetta. And ... Oh well, Peggy Lee was definitely one of them. I never even attempted "Fever." How can you reinterpret perfection? Now I wish I already had a couple of her CDs. I'm sure there will be a run on them for the next several weeks. ... ww |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: beachcomber Date: 23 Jan 02 - 05:19 PM Am I correct in thinking that she recorded "The Folks who live on the hill" also ?? I have a memory of a version that seems like her "style" .It was only gorgeous. I hope she has contentment now. Beach |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: Peggy Lee From: gnu Date: 23 Jan 02 - 05:48 PM Gosh. A sad day. Must dig out some LP's and remember. And say a prayer of thanks to her. Smooooooth. Nough said. |
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