Why I Love Peggy Lee

When I was in middle school (ages 9 to 13), I had a music teacher called Ken Morrell. He was the kind of music teacher everyone should be fortunate enough to have; kind, supportive, joyful, talented. He was a Jazz pianist too, and he infused his more enthused students with a love of Jazz along with teaching the music curriculum.

I can’t remember how old I was - whether I was still in middle school or I had moved up to high school (I kept in touch with him and when I got more into Jazz, he would rehearse songs with me) - but I remember him telling me I should listen to Peggy Lee.

I don’t know if it was because I was blonde, white, or because I sang softly (I hadn’t discovered any power in my voice at that point), but he said I reminded him of her.

I bought a compilation CD of Peggy’s greatest hits and fell in love with ‘Why Don’t You Do Right.’ I loved her sass. Her voice was sultry and intimate, but with indications of more power if required. And the arrangements! The big band! Ken Morrell was right.

Fast forward many years, and in 2016 I decided to put together a project that celebrated the music of Peggy Lee. I learned more about her fascinating story. Norma Deloris Egstrom; lost her mother at aged 4, had an abusive step-mother, lost 2 family homes to fires. Finally escaping to become ‘Peggy Lee’ - wife 4-times over, mother to one, musician and lyricist and singer, recording over 1,100 songs and composing over 270 of them.

Peggy re-wrote some of the lyrics of her most-famous hit, ‘Fever’ - adding in the lyrics about Romeo and Juliet, and Pocahontas, without a credit. I love re-writing lyrics to make a song more personal; maybe another thing Ken recognised?

She’s been immortalised in Disney’s ‘Lady and the Tramp’ as Peg, and wrote many of the songs of the soundtrack, as well as being the inspiration for Miss Piggy of the Muppets. But I think she’s much more than those caricatures.

Some of my favourite songs to sing are Peggy’s - including ‘It’s a Good Day’ which I recorded on my EP ‘Where’s Joe?’, and her version of ‘Folks Who Live On The Hill’ is somehow the most optimistic and simultaneously heartbreaking song I’ve ever had the pleasure to cover. I have been fortunate enough to perform some of her songs with the RAF Squadronaires and The Northern Swing Orchestra recently too.

(It would remiss of me if I didn’t mention that some of her song have absolutely not stood up to the test of time, however. There are a small number that are wholly inappropriate to sing due to being pretty, frankly, racist. I think it’s important to acknowledge that while revering artists of the past. It was socially (though not morally) acceptable then; it’s neither now.)

But generally, as a prolific songwriter and lyricist in a male-dominated arena, and as a vocalist who didn’t change her style to compete with the band and instead leaned into her softness and subtle phrasing, she has my admiration. Her songs don’t hit the high notes of Ella or Sarah, but her low notes are warm and full, she delivers lines with subtlety and humour, and she most definitely swings.

So that’s why I love Peggy Lee. She’s a testament to never giving up, being true to yourself, and some of her lesser-known recordings are PHENOMENAL. Especially this one with the Quincy Jones Orchestra. Man, if I could find the Big Band chart for this arrangement, I’d be very happy indeed.