“There can be no doubt that the best run estate of a major legacy recording artist is that of Lee, with that of Elvis Presley also a contender. The great lady’s granddaughter, Holly Foster Wells, has been doing a commendable if not spectacular job keeping Lee’s music out there; every year or so, there’s an important new release…. Now, Ms. Foster Wells has given us a triple treat in three separate digital collections of scarce material — a total so far of 37 tracks — that are available on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services…. As Emerson exhorted, Peggy Lee was not about to be beset by a foolish consistency; to look at the rough outline of her career, we would expect her to follow the musical trajectory shared by the other female singers of her approximate generation, from Ella Fitzgerald to Rosemary Clooney, who started as big-band vocalists and graduated to become stalwart supporters of what gradually became the Great American Songbook, the music of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood. Lee’s journeys here, though, are all over the musical map; the so-called standard songbook is a starting point rather than a final destination.” [Source: Will Friedwald, New York Sun]
