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Peggy Lee

Across a seven-decade career, Peggy Lee helped shape the sound of American popular music. With a voice marked by intimacy, subtlety, and a masterful sense of phrasing, she became one of the most distinctive vocalists of the twentieth century, moving effortlessly between jazz, popular song, blues, and the Great American Songbook. She recorded more than 1,100 masters, wrote over 270 songs, and charted more than 100 hits.

At a time when singers in popular music rarely wrote their own material, Peggy was one of the earliest and most successful contemporary singer-songwriters. She co-wrote many of her own hits, including “It’s a Good Day,” “Mañana,” and “Where Can I Go Without You?” and also composed for film, co-writing songs for Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, including “He’s a Tramp” and “La La Lu.”

Best known for classics such as “Why Don’t You Do Right?,” “Fever,” “I’m a Woman,” and “Is That All There Is?,” Peggy continually reinvented herself throughout her career. She famously transformed “Fever” into a minimalist masterpiece and later delivered “Is That All There Is?” with a sophistication and wit that defied categorization.

Well before the term “creative director” entered the cultural lexicon, Peggy was living the role. She oversaw every aspect of her work—writing, arranging, producing, staging, costuming, lighting, and shaping the emotional arc of her performances. Few women of her era enjoyed—or insisted upon—such artistic control.

A 13-time Grammy nominee, Peggy received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance for “Is That All There Is?” and later received Lifetime Achievement honors from the Recording Academy, ASCAP, and Society of Singers. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Pete Kelly’s Blues.

More than a singer, songwriter, actress, and performer, Peggy Lee was a singular artistic voice whose influence continues to resonate across generations.

The Myth of the Holy Trinity—It's Actually the Big Four

by Todd M. Carlsen
May 29, 2026

There is a received wisdom in jazz that goes unchallenged. The greatest female jazz vocalists are a fixed trio: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan. Critics repeat it. Jazz education enshrines it. This is one of the great misreadings in American music history. Peggy Lee is the third seat. She also holds a case for number one. She did not write just a few tunes, nor was she a bombshell girl singer who simply got ...

Album Review

Julia Úlehla And Dàlava: Understories

Read "Understories" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
September 18, 2025

Album molto particolare, questo della cantante, compositrice e artista multidisciplinare Julia Úlehla, oggi residente a Vancouver, studi in molti paesi del mondo (Italia inclusa), ma origini morave che qui mette a frutto in modo davvero singolare. Il programma prevede infatti in prevalenza rielaborazioni di canzoni popolari del paese della Moravia slovacca di cui era originaria la bisnonna della Úlehla, Marta, e che furono trascritte dal marito, Vladimir Úlehla, e poi pubblicate in una raccolta uscita poco prima della ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Releases From Tyler Henderson, Sandra-Mae Lux, Zohar Amar Mokady, Chloe Youtsey, Ryan Truesdell & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
June 9, 2025

This broadcast includes new releases from Tyler Henderson, Sandra-Mae Lux, Zohar Amar Mokady, Chloe Youtsey and Ryan Truesdell, with birthday shoutouts to Miles Davis, Clora Bryant, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jenny Scheinman, Amanda Ekery, Adison Evans, Samantha Boshnack, Lynne Arriale, Kate Baker, Denise Donatelli, Alexa Tarantino, Yissy Garcia, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the world that A Woman's Place is ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Releases By Ellie Lee, Kerry Politzer, the Jihye Lee Orchestra, Peggy Lee and Miles Davis Share A Birthday & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
June 3, 2024

This broadcast includes new releases from Ellie Lee, Natasha Blackwood, Lauren Henderson, Kerry Politzer, John Ambrosini and the Jihye Lee Orchestra, with birthday shoutouts to Peggy Lee, Miles Davis, Fats Waller, Carmen Souza, Cynthia Sayer, Denise Donatelli, Sheryl Bailey and Darcy James Argue, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can continue to distract, comfort, provoke and inspire.Playlist Gabriel Mark Hasselbach “I'm Gonna ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Releases, Birthday Celebrations For Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Miles Davis & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
June 5, 2023

This broadcast includes new releases from Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke, Walter Bishop Jr., Ellie Martin, Edward Simon, The JM Jazz World Orchestra, plus birthday shoutouts to Peggy Lee, Yoko Miwa, Caity Gyorgy, Rosemary Clooney, Nadje Noordhuis and Miles Davis among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can continue to distract, comfort, provoke and inspire.Playlist Krasno Moore Project (Eric Krasno, Stanton Moore) ...

Album Review

Sara Schoenbeck: Sara Schoenbeck

Read "Sara Schoenbeck" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
December 9, 2021

Sara Schoenbeck is cast against type in the world of bassoonists. The versatile double reed, broad-ranged instrument dates to the Renaissance and is commonly found in wind ensembles and chamber orchestras. But Schoenbeck has brought her classical-leaning instrument to creative music in an electrifying body of work. Her self-titled leader debut is the first such project of her career. A series of nine duets allows Schoenbeck to fully explore the scope of the bassoon in close settings. Not ...

Radio & Podcasts

Singing and Plinkin'

by Patrick Burnette
July 29, 2021

We look at two lesser known vocalists tonight and two fairly obscure pianists, and things turn out pretty well if it wasn't for that darn echo. What's going on in the Riverside studios, anyway? At some point, the episode turns into a trivia show, but at the last minute, John Cale turns up to set things right and Pat gets a few words in edgewise about the Denver jazz scene.PlaylistDiscussion of Mike Nock's album Climbing (Tomato) ...

Video / DVD

Videos: Peggy Lee in Action

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 13, 2022

Yesterday I didn't get done nearly as much as I needed to and it's Peggy Lee's fault. I watched one of her YouTube videos, and then one thing led to the next and today I have to work twice as hard. The good news for you is that my distraction resulted in today's post. Enjoy these clips of the powdery, irrepressibly upbeat, fiercely savvy and shrewdly swinging Miss fPeggy Lee: Here's Lee in 1950 with then husband, guitarist Dave Barbour... ...
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Book / Magazine

'Peggy Lee: A Century of Song' by Tish Oney, Available June 2020 - Pre-Order Now.

Source: All About Jazz
May 5, 2020

One hundred years after the singer’s birth, Peggy Lee: A Century of Song brings to life the eventful career of an iconic performer whose contributions to the Great American Songbook, jazz, popular music, and film music remained unparalleled. Lee stood out among her peers as an exquisite singer possessing a cool vocal style, a songwriter frequently collaborating with leading composers of American jazz and film music, and a globally-loved entertainer with star quality. Tish Oney sheds new light upon this ...
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Video / DVD

Videos: Freewheeling Peggy Lee

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 4, 2018

When Peggy Lee wasn't stuffed into elaborate ball gowns with cinched waists and forced to appear on TV with a glazed, ice- queen expression, she could be downright soulful and bluesy. Personally, I never cared much for Fever or any of the other hyper-stylized slow-burn songs that turned Lee into an emotionless caricature of herself. I much more prefer the down-and-dirty Peggy Lee, the emotional earthy singer who let it all out. Here are five videos of the Peggy Lee ...
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Recording

Peggy Lee: Jan. 1945

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 6, 2017

When did Peggy Lee become Peggy Lee? Meaning, at what point in her recording career did she cross over from a straight reader of songs to someone who was keenly hip and aware of her sly seductive powers when delivering songs? Today, we're most familiar with latter Lee, the woman with the hourglass figure in the 1940s and '50s cooly in control of her facial features as she cast a spell on viewers by moving her eyes from left to ...
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Video / DVD

Peggy Lee and Dave Barbour

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 30, 2015

Recording

Peggy Lee: CBS Radio Sessions

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 25, 2015

In June 1951, Peggy Lee began hosting her own radio show on CBS. She appeared on the national network twice weekly—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—for a total of 89 episodes before her stint ended in November 1952. The first 42 episodes of The Peggy Lee Show ran from June 1951 until May 1952 and were broadcast from New York, directed by Russ Case, who worked with Perry Como. Lee's marriage to guitarist Dave Barbour was fizzling in Los Angeles, so the ...
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Event

Jazz Legend Peggy Lee to be Memorialized by Her Childhood Hometown (Wimbledon, North Dakota)

Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations
May 19, 2012

(May 18, 2012 - Wimbledon, ND) World-renowned jazz legend Miss Peggy Lee is being memorialized by her childhood hometown of Wimbledon, North Dakota with a permanent installation of photos, music and memorabilia from her unparalleled career at the transportation depot where she lived a number of years as a child. The exhibition will be dedicated at a Grand Opening ceremony attended by Lee's grandchildren on Saturday, May 26, which would have been the singer's 92nd birthday. When Lee was a ...
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Recording

Celebrating Peggy Lee's 91st Birthday - Capitol/EMI To Digitally Debut 22 Classic Albums

Source: Keyboard
May 23, 2011

CAPITOL/EMI TO DIGITALLY DEBUT 22 CLASSIC PEGGY LEE ALBUMS COMMEMORATING MUSIC & FILM LEGEND'S 91ST BIRTHDAY On Tuesday, May 24, Capitol/EMI will commemorate what would have been Peggy Lee's 91st birthday on May 26 by digitally releasing 22 classic albums from the legendary singer's Capitol Records catalog for the first time, including several out-of-print titles. The albums will be available for download purchase from all major digital service providers. Praised for her distinctive and sophisticated singing style, Peggy Lee is ...
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Music Industry

"Fever" Singer Peggy Lee is Hot Again

Source: All About Jazz
May 17, 2010

Perhaps best known for her smooth, sultry 1958 cover of the rhythm-and-blues hit “Fever," Peggy Lee has returned to the “Billboard" Top 200 album chart hit for the first time since 1970. Lee died in 2002. Music buyers still have the fever for Peggy Lee.

Perhaps best known for her smooth, sultry 1958 cover of the rhythm-and-blues hit “Fever," the late pop-jazz singer, songwriter and actress has returned to the “Billboard" Top 200 album chart hit for the first time ...
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Recording

Collectors' Choice Reissues More Rare Peggy Lee Albums

Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations
January 6, 2010

COLLECTORS' CHOICE REISSUES MORE RARE PEGGY LEE ALBUMS TWO SHOWS NIGHTLY and LET'S LOVE To Be Released January 26 TWO SHOWS NIGHTLY Perhaps the most famous album in the Peggy Lee canon is one that few people have ever heard! Culled from three nights of a three-week April run at New York's Copacabana in 1968, during which Lee played two shows per night (and three on Saturday), blending in contemporary songs with old favorites to rave reviews. “Two Shows Nightly" ...
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