Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom[a] (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big 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 over 1,100 masters and composed over 270 songs.
Peggy Lee
January 21, 2002 (aged 81)
- Vocals, recordings, acting
- Songwriting
- The Jazz Tree
- Disney's Lady and the Tramp
- Pete Kelly's Blues
- The Jazz Singer
-
Jack Del Rio(m. 1964; div. 1964)
1
- Singer
- songwriter
- actress
- composer
Vocals (Contralto)
1936–2000
- Capitol
- Decca
- Atlantic
- A&M
- Polydor
- DRG Records
- MusicMasters Records
- Harbinger
Death[edit]
Lee continued to perform into the 1990s, sometimes using a wheelchair.[42] After years of poor health, she died of complications from diabetes and a heart attack on January 21, 2002, at the age of 81.[43] She was cremated and her ashes were buried with a bench-style monument in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.[44]
Awards and honors[edit]
Lee was nominated for 13 Grammy Awards. In 1969, her hit "Is That All There Is?" won her the Grammy for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance. In 1995, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[34]
She received the Rough Rider Award from the state of North Dakota in 1975,[45] the Pied Piper Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1990,[46] the Ella Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society of Singers in 1994,[47] the Living Legacy Award from the Women's International Center in 1994,[48] and the Presidents Award from the Songwriters Guild of America in 1999.[49] Other honors include induction into the Big Band Jazz Hall of Fame in 1992,[50] the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999,[51] and the Songbook Hall of Fame from the Great American Songbook Foundation in 2020.[52]
Tributes and legacy[edit]
Lee is often cited as the inspiration for the Margarita cocktail. In 1948, after a trip to Mexico, she and her husband ventured into the Balinese Room in Galveston, 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.[53]
Lee was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording in 1960. The star is located at 6319 Hollywood Boulevard in California.[54]
Baseball's Tug McGraw, whose career with both the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies ranged from 1965 to 1984, named one of his pitches the Peggy Lee. He explained to The Philadelphia Inquirer: "That's the one where the hitter is out in front of it and says, 'Is that all there is?'"[55]
In 1971, Lee sang the Lord's Prayer at the funeral of Louis Armstrong.[56]
The designer of the Miss Piggy Muppet, Bonnie Erickson, who grew up in Lee's home state of North Dakota, used the singer as inspiration for the Miss Piggy character in 1974. Originally called Miss Piggy Lee, her name was shortened to Miss Piggy when the Muppet gained fame.[57]
In 1975, Lee received an honorary doctorate in music from North Dakota State University,[20] and in 2000, she received another from Jamestown University.[58]
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.[59][60]
In 2003, "There'll Be Another Spring: A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee" was held at Carnegie Hall.[61] Produced by recording artist Richard Barone, the sold-out event included performances by Cy 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-out Hollywood Bowl,[62] and then to Chicago's Ravinia Festival, with expanded casts including Maureen McGovern, Jack Jones, and Bea Arthur.[63] The Carnegie Hall concert was broadcast on NPR's JazzSet.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Lee's birth, May 26, 2020, The Grammy Museum hosted an online panel discussion featuring musicians Billie Eilish, k.d. lang, Eric Burton (The Black Pumas), as well as Lee's granddaughter, Holly Foster Wells, and the author of Peggy Lee: A Century of Song, Dr. Tish Oney.[64]
Lee has been noted as a musical influence on other artists such as Paul McCartney,[65] Madonna, Beyoncé,[66] k.d. lang,[67] Elvis Costello,[68] Diana Krall,[69] Dusty Springfield,[70] Rita Coolidge,[71] Rita Moreno,[72] and Billie Eilish.[73]
In 2020, the ASCAP Foundation, along with Lee's family, established the annual Peggy Lee Songwriter Award. The inaugural award went to Michael Blum and Jenna Lotti for their song, "Fake ID".[74]
Songwriting[edit]
Lee wrote or co-wrote over 270 songs.[28] In addition to her own material to sing, she was hired to score and compose songs for movies. For the Disney movie Lady and the Tramp, she co-composed all of the original songs with Burke, and supplied the singing and speaking voices of four characters.[75]
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.
Her first published song was in 1941, "Little Fool". "What More Can a Woman Do?" was recorded by Sarah Vaughan with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie 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 from the 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 as Tony 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.[76]