Today is Peggy Lee's birthdate. She was born Norma Delores Egstrom on May 26, 1920 in Jamestown, North Dakota, and would have been 97 years old on this day. Let's celebrate the occasion! Here she is, at the Madison Square Garden, singing for President John F. Kennedy on May 19, 1962 (first photo below). Yes, that was the same gala on which Marilyn Monroe legendarily sang "Happy Birthday" for mister president (second photo below). Did you know that Marilyn actually asked Peggy to borrow Peggy's light man for the occasion? ... So, Peggy kind of shares some of the credit! By the way, there is a Peggy campaign currently going on ... not a political one, though! ... Peggy's centennial is quickly approaching, and the hope is that she will be honored with her own US mail stamp. If interested in helping the cause, any letters sent on her behalf will probably help a lot. The mailing address: Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 3300 Washington, DC 20260-3501 And a Happy Peggy Lee & Miles Davis Day to ya all.
Seeing as I said I would, what better day than Peggy's birthday to list what I have? This is going to take a while. The Fabulous Peggy Lee playing as I type this... All UK originals unless stated: 10" Albums: Capitol Presents Peggy Lee Songs In An Intimate Style My Best To You 12" Albums: Rendezvous With Peggy Lee (French Pathe Marconi 1984 reissue) If I Could Be With You (Jasmine 1986) Black Coffee (Japan - Decca) Black Coffee (Ace of Hearts) Pete Kelly's Blues Dream Street Miss Wonderful Sea Shells (Jasmine 80s reissue) The Fabulous Peggy Lee Perfect-Lee (MCA compilation) The Man I Love (original turquoise Capitol pressing) The Man I Love (UK 1984 reissue - this sounds much better) Jump For Joy (original turquoise Capitol -mono) Things Are Swingin' (Dutch Capitol purple label reissue - mono) I Like Men! (1987 French Pathe Marconi reissue - stereo) Beauty and the Beat! (stereo) Latin Ala Lee (US yellow label Capitol reissue - stereo) All Aglow Again! Pretty Eyes (mono) Christmas Carousel (Dutch purple label Capitol reissue - mono) At Basin Street East (mono) Ole Ala Lee (UK World Record Club reissue - stereo) If You Go (UK 1985 Capitol reissue - stereo) Blues Cross Country (1984 French Pathe Marconi reissue - stereo) Bewitching-Lee! (mono) Sugar 'n' Spice (original US stereo) Mink Jazz (mono) I'm A Woman (stereo) In Love Again! (mono) In The Name Of Love (mono) Pass Me By (mono) That Was Then... Now Is Now! (mono) Guitars A La Lee (mono) Big Spender (mono) Is That All There Is? Make It With You Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown North Dakota (Canadian orange Capitol) Let's Love (US Atlantic) Mirrors (US A&M) 7" Singles: Fever / You Don't Know Light of Love / Sweetheart Yes Indeed (live) / Boston Beans Til There Was You / Bucket of Tears Hey, Look Me Over / When He Makes Music (demo) Tell All The World About You / Amazing (demo) Got That Magic / A Doodlin' Song I Go To Sleep / Stop Living In The Past EP's Presenting Peggy Lee Fever I'm A Woman CDs Beauty and the Beat! (the studio session without overdubs) Basin Street East (Full concert - the as it was recording) Classics and Collectibles Travelin' Light Miss Wonderful (Proper 4CD box) Black Coffee (not the album! A 2CD best of early stuff on Music Club) Peggy Lee with the Dave Barbour Band (LaserLight - Jazz Collector edition) The Gold Collection (Retro) I also have the Fever - The Music of Peggy Lee DVD. The thing I would like most is the 4CD Singles Collection set. I also listened to Songs In An Intimate Style as I typed this. Some of my favourite Peggy songs are on that record.
I forgot, I also have the Benny Goodman orchestra material on CD too. I couldn't get the original as it's deleted, so I went for the rather cheeky Acrobat label public domain issue, titled Where Or When. The original has turned up a couple of times since I bought this!
You have a wonderful collection of our birthday girl! She was a Gemini, just like me. Allow me to recommend some additional titles, if you are curious about minor details: 1. The mono issue of I Like Men! includes the master takes of "I'm Just Wild About Harry", "Bill" and "Jim". The stereo issue uses alternate takes, presumably by mistake. It's fun to compare the slight differences of interpretation, particularly of the latter two performances. 2. The stereo issue of Pretty Eyes - stereophonic sound really helps to capture the essence of Billy May's arrangements, and the UK pressing of this title is particularly nice. 3. The Singles Collection will give you the doo-wop version of "Uninvited Dream" that is not available on any other licensed compilation. I love it. 4. Pass Me By in stereo - the arrangements really groove on this album and it sounds more fun in stereo! Question - does your 1985 reissue of If You Go feature Peggy in one channel only, or does she appear phantom center?
I recently catalogued my albums on discogs.com, and you have inspired me to do the same (listing LPs only; not able to dig up the 7" for now): Decca: Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues (original Canada pressing) Black Coffee with Peggy Lee (original 12" Canada pressing) Dream Street (original Canada pressing) Sea Shells (original UK pressing) Miss Wonderful (original Canada pressing) Lover (original Canada pressing) The Fabulous Peggy Lee (original Canada pressing) The Best of Peggy Lee (MCA Records Canada reissue with "rainbow comet" label, 1973) Capitol: Rendezvous with Peggy Lee (original Canada pressing) The Man I Love (UK Pure Pleasure reissue) Jump For Joy (original Canada pressing, mono) Jump For Joy (UK pressing, stereo) Things Are Swingin' (original Canada pressing, mono) Things Are Swingin' (Canada pressing, stereo) I Like Men! (original Canada pressing, mono) All Aglow Again! (original Canada pressing) Pretty Eyes (original UK pressing, stereo) Bewitching Lee! (S&P reissue, 2003) Latin a la Lee! (S&P reissue, 2003) Olé a la Lee! (original Canada pressing, stereo) Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee (original Canada pressing, mono) I'm A Woman (original Canada pressing, stereo) Pass Me By (original US pressing, stereo) How interesting to realize there is only one domestic (original) pressing in my musical library.
You have the original Brunswick Sea Shells. That's one I would love! I can imagine it being a real problem to get in excellent or better condition though. Which is essential for that album. I've never seen a copy even in bad condition. How did you get a lot of Canadian pressings? I can imagine them being very nice. The If You Go LPs are both vocals in one speaker, music in the other. Awful! I will eventually get monos of these. I'm thinking of getting the World Record Club reissue of Pretty Eyes to get it in stereo. Just because it has a different sleeve. My mono is immaculate, like new, but I can tell how that kind of album would open up in stereo. I'd also like to hear Jump For Joy and Things Are Swingin' in stereo. The reason I have such a mix of different pressings is because I've been picking them up cheap, with a lot coming from charity shops and cheap boxes in record shops and fairs. I've not paid more than £5 for any of them, a lot have been £1 or under. With the exception of the 10"s they are all in excellent condition or better. Two of the 10"s have bad wear (My Best To You) or a bad spiral scratch (Songs In An Intimate Style - this is annoying as it ruins about 10 seconds of an otherwise nice record but it doesn't jump. Such a scarce record though, so I'll live with it. The sleeve is perfect.) I had a few of Peggy's LPs for a long time (All Aglow Again, Beauty and the Beat! A worn Things Are Swingin'), but a couple of years ago, sadly a friend who volunteered in a charity shops wife became seriously ill. He had to move house and decided to get rid of his vinyl. Thousands of records. He sold the bulk of it to a dealer, who only took the usual 60s and 70s rock / pop type stuff, probably because he didn't have a clue what a lot of it was! There were hundreds of albums left and he is a big Peggy fan, so he donated the leftover records to the shop he worked in, pricing them at only 69p each! I got all his Peggy records along with a lot of other interesting stuff. In a Peggy type style there was a lot of Nat King Cole, Sinatra (I'm not big on Sinatra!), Julie London, some Blossom Dearie, Dakota Staton, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Connie Francis, Nancy Sinatra and much more across many genres. As there was a lot it took me a while to get to listen to them. I found myself enjoying Peggy more than expected. I thought she could potentially be samey or bland. How wrong I was! I started filling in the gaps as I found them and reading these threads. You and Ridin' High in particular have been invaluably helpful with this. There's been a few times you've mentioned an album here and I've bought it straightaway. I still have a lot to fully take in, but it's there and I have the rest of my life to do that! But I am playing and enjoying this collection a lot.
I feel compelled to point out that Peggy Lee has the most albums in my record collection. This is not a coincidence In addition to what I have now, I previously owned the following albums: Blues Cross Country Sugar 'n' Spice Mink Jazz In Love Again! In The Name of Love Big $pender Guitars a la Lee Is That All There Is? I pawned these titles because I did not care for the albums as much as the other offerings. In all cases, it's not the fault of Peggy, but of the arrangements and song choices. I'm a minimalist, so I keep my collection tidy, not making a habit of keeping albums that I do not enjoy. I try to live within means, and in my small house there's limited space for records! Tastes change over time, though, so perhaps one day I will come to appreciate some (if not all) of these albums. I've never owned LP versions of Christmas Carousel or If You Go, and those are two I'd like to have on record. In the case of the latter, I'll be looking for a mono pressing. Peggy's vocals are off-center on the I'm A Woman album, too, but I don't find it as distracting as I do for If You Go, because there's more reverb on the former and the arrangements seem less affected by an off-center presentation. The only version of If You Go that I've heard is the two-on-one EMI CD with The Man I Love. This CD uses the stereo mix of If You Go, but an interesting note is that it features a narrow stereo mix, presumably to make the "2.0" channel separation feel less noticeable. It would be nice if someday the session tapes were used to create a freshly balanced stereo mix. I'd also love to see an audiophile reissue of Pretty Eyes - a wonderful album with great arrangements and stunning stereo sound.
Wonderful post, and thanks for your kind comments! The Brunswick copy of Sea Shells is one of my most prized albums. It sounds far superior to any other presentation of the album that I've heard to date. Peggy's vocals sound breathier, earthier, with a good weight and purity of tone. The pressing is full of life and sparkle. I've always been a fan of Brunswick pressings, and prefer them for my Patsy Cline albums, too. The reason I have so many Canadian pressings is simple - I live in Canada, and I tend to buy most of my records at the local stores rather than online. Canadian pressings are typically high quality, and I've compared the Capitol US/CA pressings of several titles, and of those, the Canadian versions beat the domestic pressings, but only very slightly. The UK pressings seem to be of higher quality than both Canada and US, with less noise and a blacker background. Regarding the mono/stereo differences of Jump For Joy and Things Are Swingin', you will notice a greater difference for the latter, which is somewhat surprising because it features a much smaller ensemble than the former. I became familiar with the songs of Things Are Swingin' from a stereo pressing, so when I finally heard a mono copy, the performances felt so different that my ears tricked me into thinking that I was listening to an album filled with alternate takes, when really that is not the case (except for "You're Mine, You"). The main difference between the mono/stereo versions of Jump For Joy is that the stereo lacks the weight or punch of the mono - the percussion and rhythm are not as easily heard in the stereo, although the timbre of the brass and strings have a delicious texture in the stereo that is less noticeable in the mono. In short, the mono has a more balanced and cohesive presentation, and the stereo has more space and air to it. Peggy's vocal sounds better on the stereo version, so both copies are required listening. I'd like to find a copy of the French reissue of I Like Men! someday.
I haven't played Christmas Carousel yet. Children singing? No! Charming in reality, but I don't want it on a record! Some of the ones you've listed haven't done much for me. I don't like Big Spender as a song and the album didn't thrill me. Same with Guitars... I enjoyed Mink Jazz. Blues Cross Country was a bit disappointing because it's not very bluesy! I can't remember In Love Again. Liked In The Name Of Love. I really like Got That Magic from one of those, but I have that on 45. Pass Me By doesn't do much for me. Great opening track but then the dreadful title track follows it! I do think there's a drop in quality with Peggy from the mid 60s, not that she went bad, but didn't get near the standard of the Decca era or Pretty Eyes again. But she was over 20 years into an incredibly prolific career by then and she was still good. The late 60s LPs don't sound very interesting. I haven't heard any album I've disliked though. To be honest I feel uncomfortable being negative about any Peggy LP. I've deliberately stopped at Mirrors. I don't get the impression there's much artistically after that and I don't want to hear a real decline. I'm not a minimalist with records, I find room somehow! I just like too much music to be. I do have regular clearouts though and get rid of the ones I have no connection with. I don't see Peggy's ever going that way. Peggy has more albums than most artists in my collection, but she released a lot more too. I also have a lot of Dylan, The Who, Beatles, Queen, Neil Young and Bowie. Whenever I have a lot by an artist I get a case for their records so they don't have a massive amount of shelving taken up with a few artists. I must get a mono If You Go...
Blues Cross Country was probably my least favourite of the bunch. I found it very disappointing, indeed. The only Quincy Jones album that I've enjoyed to such an extent as to consider essential is Vaughan and Violins. I wonder if I'd enjoy Then Was Then and Now Is Now - I may have to consider giving that one a chance, and perhaps the albums from the early 1970s.
I like That Was Then... and was very surprised when I Go To Sleep came on. I absolutely love The Kinks and had no idea Peggy had recorded this Ray Davies composition first. Ray is a big Peggy fan and sent her a demo and she recorded it! Very cool. The Kinks never released a version themselves at the time.
Fab, fab, fab, fab ... [Fab four times -- that's what I say. Four or five times.] I mean: yours is a fab list of albums. Sacrilege! Just kidding. It was interesting to read how you have developed such an extensive Peggy Lee collection in a relatively short time. Thank you. Nice to feel useful and helpful! That's the right attitude. Incidentally, your words brought to mind a song that Peggy wrote: "Life's for Living." (It's in the Things Are Swingin' album.) Taking a close look at your collection now ... From the Capitol years, the only LPs you don't have, if I am not mistaken, are those which were never released in the United Kingdom. Since they all happen to be from the late 1960s and early 1970s, I don't know if they will be of your interest. We will hopefully get to discuss all of them here, in due time. For the time being, I want to make a point about this one: In this case, the better option is the CD (instead of the LP), for several reasons. First of all, the rarity of this LP translates into high asking prices. More importantly, the CD gives you much better sound quality and also 12 bonus tracks, many of them quite rare. Going back to Decca, you now have all the LPs except for another one that was never issued in the UK, and an album that perhaps you fear will be too child-oriented (per your comment about Christmas Carousel): Leaving those albums aside, and taking into account that most of us tend to enjoy that period of Peggy's career so much ... Are you all set now, or are you considering to acquire every single song from that period? I imagine that there is very little Decca material for you to collect. Just a few songs ... Here is one that comes to mind (because I happened to come across this clip a couple of days ago):
The video won't play in the UK! I'm not intending to get every song as that seems incredibly difficult. I've just been searching out the albums as I see them. The thing I'm most excited about is, I have the 4CD Singles Collection on it's way! I can't wait for that to arrive. I intend to get The Lady and the Tramp OST but I'll hold out for a cheap copy. I'll probably go for the Ace of Hearts reissue as it has more tracks. The same with the late 60s and early 70s albums. I will get them, but the ones I'm missing don't seem essential. I'd like the Lover album, but it will be a struggle to get it in the UK. All the tracks are on the Proper 4CD set though. I also have the Mink Jazz CD on it's way, for the handful of scarce extra tracks. Aside from the few I'm missing showing up cheap, I feel just about done buying Peggy's music for now. I think I have all the essentials and more. I need to play them more rather than add to them.
The Singles Collection 4CD has just arrived. This looks incredible! Shame the first words heard are racist!
Up to halfway through disc one. This really is very special. The booklet really is excellent too. Peggy was as beautiful as she was talented. Everytime I see a photo or film clip of her with Dave Barbour I can see how in love she was with him. I like his guitar playing a lot.
When I read that Peggy holds the record of most albums in your collection, I almost fell to pieces. Crazy, man, crazy. [Of course, I am sure that you'd be inCLINEd to retort that it's a matter of numbers and proportion: Peggy happened to make many, many more records than a certain all-time great country-pop singer, whose life was cut short much too early.] How is the Pure Pleasure version of Peggy's The Man I Love? Are you pleased with its sound quality? All I have to say to you is: Just kidding again. When it comes to singers who released many albums, it's only natural to like some of them less than others -- all the more so if the singers experimented with a variety of styles or musical backgrounds. My guess is that, at the very least, you will like some of the interpretations in the mid-1960s album Then Was Then. Musically, it is a fairly cohesive strings-oriented piece, orchestrated by Sid Feller. (He is best known for being the man behind Ray Charles' career-defining albums of the 1960s, as well as his hit "I Can't Stop Loving You," all material which preceded the recording of Then Was Then. His working relationship with Peggy went back to the early 1950s, however.) I am a big fan of several Blues Cross Country cuts: "Going to Chicago Blues," "Kansas City," "The Train Blues" ... I do think, though, that the LP as a whole is too brassy and loud for my own taste. It's the type of album that I enjoy playing only from time to time, and never more than once in a row. That's a very different situation from, say, Things Are Swingin', which I could probably play all day without getting tired of it. For what is worth, I think that there are individual Quincy Jones charts that you might enjoy. Case(s) in point: the charts for both "Hey Look Me Over" and "(Stay With Me) Stay With Me" are credited to him. I believe that you like Peggy's interpretation of the former, and loved the latter in a YouTube version where she duets with Andy Williams. (The chart for that duet might not be by Quincy Jones, but it must have been derived from the one that he did do, for the studio recording) ... All that having been said, charts credited to Quincy Jones are always a big question mark, because he is rumored to have farmed out a fair amount of the stuff that was assigned to him.
PEGGY LEE ON THE RADIO Back in the 1940s, radio was the thing. Singers who were active and well known made frequent appearances on radio programs. Peggy Lee was no exception. Lee was receiving offers to be a radio show host(ess) since at least 1945, when she was asked to take over Songs By Sinatra for the summer. A couple of years later, the songstress received a similar request to take the summer spot for Bing Crosby's Philco Show. She declined those two particular offers, but did accept others. In fact, Lee worked as the hostess of five radio shows (1947-1952), served as the "girl singer" on two others, and made guest appearances on many more. In more recent times, a fine portion of her old-time radio vocals have found its way into commercial releases (CDs, LPs, cassettes). Herein we will point out the essential releases among those. The most notable of the shows that this singer hosted was Club 88 Starring Peggy Lee, which ran for about a year, from late 1951 to late 1952. A generous selection of her performances from that show was issued in this officially issued 2CD set which has the added attraction of containing only numbers that Peggy never recorded in the studio. Consisting of 45 remastered tracks, it is easily the best of all the radio releases to be discussed in this post. A second CD, containing more performances from the same show, is rumored to be in the works. Another radio program that Peggy Lee hosted for an extended period of time was Chesterfield's Supper Club. The two best known hosts of that daily program were actually Perry Como, who was regularly heard on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday since its outset (1944), and Jo Stafford, who was heard on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starring in 1945. After making quite a few guest appearances in both Perry's and Jo's installments, Peggy Lee eventually joined the Chesterfield family as a hostess, taking over the Thursday slot (1948-1949), and thus becoming the Chesterfield Supper Club's third chief host. Here is the primary CD on which her vocals from this show can be heard: This is an unofficial but decent-sounding CD, released by a worthwhile British collector's label. You will hear Peggy's radio versions of mostly songs that she had recorded for Capitol (e.g., "Waiting for the Train to Come in," "I'm Glad I Waited for You"). You will also hear her sing a few numbers that she did not do in the studio (e.g., "I Cried for You," "Can't Help Lovin' That Man"). And, as suggested by the front cover, we get to hear her in duets with Dean Martin and Frankie Laine, too. "Our gal" does not sing in nine of the CD's tracks, but you still get plenty of Peggalee, because there are 29 tracks in this disc. The Summer Electric Hour was the name of one of the other Lee radio shows from which CDs and LPs have been compiled. This 1947 program was actually co-hosted by Peggy with her Capitol label mate Woody Herman. You can hear tracks from the program in many unofficial CDs, in which such radio numbers are usually mixed up with studio recordings and even television tracks. The original release from which all the low-cut CDs appropriated the radio numbers is this collectors' LP, from the UK: Next up in this overview is a CD that is worthwhile because, unlike the previously mentioned items, it gives you the full radio broadcasts, rather than selected numbers from them. (Or maybe I should say that the CD gives you versions of the full radio broadcasts ... I'll leave it at that, lest I end up complicating my comments too much.) To be more specific, this CD consists of one full episode of The Summer Electric Hour (on which Andre Previn guested) and three episodes of Club 88 Starring Peggy Lee. Finally, we have the following release: which has been issued by more than one collectors' label, and which can be found on several formats -- CD, LP, cassette. It is another case of a release that gives you full episodes of the radio shows -- in this case, one episode from Club 88 Starring Peggy Lee and one episode of a program that we have not mentioned yet, The Peggy Lee Rexall Show (1951). Peggy's guests on these broadcasts were bandleaders Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. Some of the song choices are ditties that were chart hits at the time, and others are standards. In addition to the above, you can track down many radio CDs and LPs by other artists, on which Peggy can be heard as a guest artist. Of those, the most important ones contain her extensive work with Bing Crosby and Jimmy Durante .......... But I won't go into that topic any further, because this post is already very long. (If anyone is curious or interested, we can certainly cover it in subsequent messages, of course.) Let's close with the titular track from one of the aforementioned releases: Next up: at last, indeed. We are ready to get into the Capitol world of Peggy Lee, which spanned several decades (1944-1972). We will be talking first about recommended boxed sets, which seems a timely topic, since Man at C&A was just talking about one of them.
Last Monday (May 26), Holly Foster Wells came to the radio show Martini in the Morning for a chat about her grandmother, Peggy Lee. In addition to all things Peggy, comments were made about the following notable artists, too: Paul McCartney (twice; first near the beginning of the clip, and then at 15:00), Frank Sinatra (after 8:00), Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett (both around 27:00). The chat was videotaped and uploaded to YouTube; here it is:
Great stuff, yet again! I've just picked up the live 1947 - 1952 CD cheap. It's a bit annoying that the At Last - Lost Radio Recordings CD is always overpriced (£30 on Amazon). I enjoy the radio recordings but don't really want to pay a lot for them or the rest of the stuff outside of Peggy's core catalogue - the stuff released at the time. I also cannot find an affordable copy of The Lost Capitol Masters anywhere which is a shame as it appears that along with the Decca era covering Classics and Collectibles, it will complement the Singles Collection 4CD set very well. I think that's the last thing I'll need. Of course I'll be missing tracks but that's OK, there's so much to get and it's going to take too much buying of CDs for one or two tracks. Is anybody on this thread the person who is compiling the complete Peggy Lee singles onto CD and writes the superb and very informative reviews on Amazon of Peggy's CDs?
It sounds so good that I parted with my original Canada pressing. The reproduction of the cover art doesn't look as nice on the reissue, but the disc sounds great! "I Can't Stop Loving You" having been written by the sad poet himself, the great Don Gibson. I was very pleased when I first learned that Peggy performed this number. Yes, our tastes are similar. My biggest problem with Blues Cross Country is that it's too brassy. There's plenty of brass on Things Are Swingin', too, but the execution is different. Like you, I could listen to the latter all day, although I can live without the former. I recall thinking that In Love Again! (the bright side) and Sugar 'n' Spice had the same stylistic issue as Blues Cross Country - the arrangements are just too loud for my taste. Again, though, I'd like to stress this is not a Peggy Lee problem, and just a matter of my own tastes. (Albums in the same style by other artists fall on my deaf ears too - Julie London's Send For Me being another example. Awful.) Correct; I enjoy "Hey, Look Me Over" because I feel that it effectively captures the essence of what Peggy's live concerts were like during the early to mid 1960s.
A little Dave Barbour goes a long way for me, although I agree with your comments. It's obvious and very special to see how much Peggy loved that man. I wish, however, that she (or her producers) allowed the chance to do more work with other arrangers during her first Capitol period - greats like Frank De Vol, Nelson Riddle, Billy May, etc. Barbour was an excellent guitarist and I enjoy his style, but I don't feel that his skill level as arranger/bandleader was the same as other names I mention. Barbour's style was versatile, and Peggy certainly enjoyed variety in her arrangements, but the Barbour sound is perhaps too "distinctive" for a popular vocalist, and it gets tiresome when one is listening to Peggy's material in chronological fashion. I'm fine with him taking solos every now and then, but I feel like Barbour did plenty of showboating behind Peggy - this works against her and serves as a distraction at times.
I consulted the Decca sessionography at the Peggy Lee Discography, and it appears that I have all except the following masters: "It's Christmas Time Again" "Ring Those Christmas Bells" "White Christmas" "Snow" "The Possibility's There" Mostly seasonal offerings. I was missing "Love You So" until very recently, when I obtained a copy of the Love Songs compilation. It's always nice to hear a "new" performance of Peggy Lee.
PEGGY LEE ON CAPITOL: RECOMMENDED ANTHOLOGIES Having already covered Peggy Lee's work on Columbia (1941-1943) and Decca (1952-1956), let us now explore her vast Capitol catalogue. Peggy actually spent two tenures on that label (1944-1952; 1957-1972), recording nearly 600 Capitol masters during all those years. I believe that she ranks as Capitol's longest-lasting female artist. Given the large number of Capitol masters at hand, we might want to look first into any available Peggy Lee anthologies covering this period -- or periods. There are two official options available on compact disc. (By "official," I mean that these are not Public Domain releases, and that the producers dealt directly with the original masters.) 1. The Singles Collection Nominated for two Grammys in 2004, this longform CD set remains the crowning jewel of Peggy Lee's entire digital catalogue. It consists of four CDs and a 72-page booklet. The discs hold a total of 107 tracks, while the booklet is filled with photos (some in color, some in black & white) as well as other worthwhile features (an extensive essay, a comprehensive discography, galleries of album covers and sheet music). As the set's title indicates, the focus is on Peggy's singles. It should be clarified outright that, despite the very large number of tracks included, this release does not contain her entire catalogue of singles. Still, at up to 27 tracks per disc, it certainly is a generous collection. Although EMI was the releasing label, and although the main vault mined was Capitol's, the producers also licensed tracks from other labels (Columbia, Ara, Decca, Atlantic, A&M), thereby offering a fairly encompassing outlook of Lee's 78-rpm and 45-rpm world. Most charting Capitol singles are present -- certainly, all the well-known ones -- and there are plenty of rarities as well, including numerous renditions that had not been digitized before. If you are not an audiophile, you will probably deem the sound quality good throughout. If you are an audiophile, know that several different music engineers were involved in the project, including a certain Capitol-associated gentleman whose work is not favored by many fellow forum members. (In a nutshell: sonically speaking, this is not a straight A project, but neither is it aurally execrable.) EMI also issued one separate CD culled from the contents of this longform set. An image of the CD can be seen right above. If you are interested in getting this particular disc, a matter to bear in mind is that it was separately released in the United States and the United Kingdom. The artwork is the same but there is one noteworthy difference between track listings. The American edition consists of 22 tracks. The British edition contains the same 22 tracks, but adds three more, including a previously unissued Capitol master. So: if you want more, go British! 2. Miss Peggy Lee This is Peggy's only other major, legitimate (i.e., not Public Domain) boxed set of her Capitol masters. A 4-CD box as well, it offers a total of 113 tracks along with a 76-page booklet filled with black & white photos, track-by-track annotation, and a long essay. The tracks are distributed as follows: hits (CD #1), mostly rarities, including some numbers that had remained unissued before 1998 (CD #2), and cuts taken from Peggy's many Capitol LPs (CDs #3 & #4). As with the previously discussed case, EMI released one CD culled from this set. In this case, the CD (shown down below) is a straight reissue of the box's first CD. I can not fully recommend this pink box. The two main reasons to get it would be its booklet and its second CD, which happens to have pretty good sound quality overall. (The first CD also has fairly good sound quality, but, as already mentioned, it can be separately acquired.) The problem is with CDs #3 and #4. I feel that the remixing of the tracks on those discs have resulted in a fairly muted atmosphere, sorely lacking the vibrancy that comes through in some of the original LP releases. Previous Comments About The Singles Collection In agreement with everything you said about the Collection. And I too enjoy Dave Barbour's jazz guitar; he was quite good. But, yes, that choice of opening song is indeed regrettable. Of course, the times were different back then (1941), and many folks probably saw nothing wrong in using those words in a song. I do not know if Peggy, being then a 21-year-old ingenue who had grown deep in the countryside, knew that those words could be considered derogatory. Even if she did, and was at all uncomfortable uttering them, she still would have had little choice but to sing the song as written. At that point in time, Peggy was essentially a paid employee -- and one that had been hired just a couple of months before, at that. The lyric the she and Benny Goodman recorded was exactly what Cole Porter had written in 1928, and also what had already been recorded by the likes of the Dorsey Brothers with Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Paul Whiteman and, well, Porter himself. (He would eventually make the necessary changes, getting rid of the offending parts.) Even leaving aside the problematic words, I must say that this number does not strike me as one of the most suitable picks from Peggy's Columbia work. Mind you, I do have an appreciation for the fast pace and the sauciness of her rendition. It is just that, if only three numbers from her Columbia singles were to be picked, I feel that the appropriate choices should have been "Where or When" (arguably her best rendition from the period), "Somebody Else Is Taking my Place" (a #1 hit), and "Why Don't You Do Right?" (the number that permanently placed her in music history's map.) But, hey, we all have different opinions; in this particular case, the producers chose only one of the three songs that I just cited ("Why Don't You Do Right?"). For any reader interested in taking a trip down memory lane, a forum thread discussing The Singles Collection was opened way back in 2002, when the set had just come out: First impressions - Peggy Lee Singles box set Previous Comments About The Box Miss Peggy Lee Plenty to love on Capitol, as Saturnsf said a while ago. The pink box itself is a lovable miss, even if she intermittently suffers from a hearing impairment ... Next: recommended two-disc & one-disc Capitol compilations ...
And, in a fair and just world, Peggy's label mate Margaret Whiting would also receive a collection that spans her chronological tenure at Capitol, along with a similarly abridged compilation which summarizes the box and contains noteworthy performances. Seconded - the UK edition of the Best of the Singles Collection comes highly recommended for all fans of Miss Lee, whether completest or casual. The sound quality is acceptable and the highlighted performances are superb. The bonus tracks are an additional treat - especially the previously unissued live recording of "Always True To You In My Fashion", which includes some humorous dialogue from Lee. The three titles you propose are excellent choices, for the reasons you state. "Where Or When" would be the finest way to kick off a Peggy Lee box set. Were you pleased with the inclusion of "Somebody Else It Taking My Place" in the recent FX series Feud - Bette and Joan ?
