Peggy Lee

My hometown, Jamestown ND, spawned a number of famous poeple - Western writer Louis L'Amour, disc jockey Shadoe Stevens (older brother of the guy who got me into radio, as it happens), California Angels center fielder Darren Erstad...

...and Peggy Lee, who was actually born about a block from the house I grew up in, and where my Dad still lives.

Scott Johnson pays homage:

Lee had an improbably winding path to success from her hometown of Jamestown, North Dakota, to Fargo (where she took on her show business name), to Minneapolis and St. Louis, and to Chicago, where she was discovered by Benny Goodman at the moment he needed a replacement for Helen Forrest. In between St. Louis and Chicago were a couple of premature attempts on Hollywood. Once she caught on with Goodman in 1941, however, she never looked back.

She wrote several of her most successful songs, such as "It's a Good Day." She equally owned the songs she covered, including of course Little Willie John's "Fever" and the Leiber-Stoller composition "Is That All There Is?" They carry her personal stamp every bit as much as her own numbers.

Call it adolescent self-centeredness, but I never really started appreciating Lee's music until this past year or so.

Posted by Mitch at May 27, 2006 12:33 PM | TrackBack