by Earl Wilson The get-well telegrams and phone calls to Peggy Lee had come from such friends as Frank Sinatra and Doris Duke. There was a note of alarm in them – for Peggy was under an oxygen tent, fighting pneumonia, at Polyclinic Hospital. Her daugher, Nicki Barbour, just 18,[…]

by Thomas C. Wheeler Peggy Lee has the sturdy figure of a North Dakota farm girl, which she originally was. But when she sweeps onto the nightclub stage, her platinum blond hair shining and her hazel eyes glittering, a transformation takes place. As she bows and blows kisses, she seems[…]

When Peggy Lee recorded “Where or When” and “The Way You Look Tonight” with the Benny Goodman Sextet 25 years ago, her performance was noted for directness, simplicity and a perfection of phrasing. In the years between, Miss Lee has sung much and traveled far. Her perfection in phrasing has[…]

by Joseph Wershba Jazz historian Leonard Feather has already written the definitive critique of Peggy Lee: “If you don’t feel a thrill when Peggy sings, you are dead, Jack.” But this doesn’t completely explain how a nice, shy, flaxen-haired, Gretchen-faced Swedish-Norwegian girl from the plains of North Dakota became a[…]

by Alfred T. Hendricks Now it’s Peggy Lee’s turn to wail the blues. Friday night a sneak thief hit her dressing room at Basin Street East and made off with $21,000 worth of gowns. The caper had a familiar ring. Only the day before, a larcenous gent paid a similar[…]

by Lou Levy I don’t know of two more generous and understanding singers to work for than Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee. Peggy presents more of a thoroughly planned act, usually doing the same show during an entire engagement. Ella’s concert or nightclub performance is carefully planned, but she makes[…]