The incomparable Peggy Lee (1920-2002), American pop and jazz singer, composer, and actress, was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota. The grandchild of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants, her depression-era childhood was brutal: The sixth of seven children, her mother died when she was four years old; her beloved[…]
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Peggy Lee, Meredith Willson Named to Songbook Hall of Fame
The Great American Songbook Foundation is honoring singer-songwriter Peggy Lee and The Music Man creator Meredith Willson as the 2020 inductees to its Great American Songbook Hall of Fame. The Songbook Foundation will celebrate the legacies of these artists with two weeks of livestreamed tributes, discussions and other activities shared[…]
Peggy Lee’s ‘Ultimate Christmas’ Adds Holiday Flavor to Centennial
One of the great vocal stylists in recording history will decorate the 2020 holiday season, with the news that her Ultimate Christmas collection will be out on September 25. The album will be released by the Peggy Lee Estate in conjunction with Ume/Capitol. The new collection will feature 22 holiday[…]
A ‘Century of Song’ Started in Jamestown
The book “Peggy Lee: A Century of Song” by Tish Oney is crafted by a woman who knows the history of the singer as well as her songs. “I felt I needed to write a book to communicate her importance in music,” she said. “Her musicianship was very good and[…]
100 Years After Her Birth, Peggy Lee Celebrated With a Book on Her ‘Century of Song’
Tish Oney was a doctoral student in search of a dissertation when she met the daughter of singer Peggy Lee at a jazz conference in 2004. “Nicki Lee Foster was in a room full of 600 jazz singers and stood up and said, ‘I’m Peggy Lee’s daughter,’ and got this[…]
Peggy Lee – “The Capitol Transcriptions 1946-1949”
Seventy-two restricted Capitol Transcriptions from the 40s constitute a lavish banquet for Peggy Lee admirers… On each song, Lee’s ‘sultry purr’ fuses emotional intensity with unflustered delivery. Her vibrato is tightly controlled. Her intonation and enunciation are precise. Applying unexpected accentuations, she’s able to wrest extra meaning out of almost[…]