Sorry (not sorry) for another random observation, but I have to say that Peggy’s version of “It Never Entered My Mind” is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a masterpiece.
That was included as an accident? Wow. I love that version. I agree with the statement that 50’s doo-wop has aged better that late 60’s and 70’s material, at least for Peggy.
I must join .crystalised. in reiterating that the second CD from the pink Miss Peggy Lee set is a must-get. In an ideal world, it would have been separately released as an easily affordable CD, just as the first disc from the same set was. But, ideas being ideals, let's look instead at real & practical options! I imagine that low-priced copies of the box turn up from time to time. Currently, I'm seeing one described as used but "like new" for $44, and two ranked as just "good" for $37. I don't remember this box's original price (anybody?), but it must have been above $60. No? Another option currently online is an used copy for just $13. Said to play "perfectly," it apparently misses the booklet and the box. In other words, it comes just in the slipcase: If we concentrate on acquiring Peggy's 1947 version of "Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe" (as opposed to obtaining all the rare tracks from the second disc of the pink set), then another option would be to go for the best of the Public Domain CDs on which such 1947 version can be found. That would be the following 2-CD set: It is a fairly recent release (late 2017) about which I posted the following, shortly before it came out: As far as Public Domain goes, it is a superior item. Minuses include the recycling of liner notes that the same label already used on other Peggy Lee releases, and factual errors in those notes. The pluses are substantial, one of them being sound quality allegedly featuring 24-bit mastering. (A funny side note: I can tell that, in order to put together this anthology, these folks relied at least in part on the Peggy discography that I created. What's more: coincidentally or not, I have been pointing out for years that an anthology consisting of Peggy's work with Benny would be a great idea! Ha.)
I listened to the album Mirrors for the first time. Wow! That was amazing. I don’t listen to a lot of cabaret/music hall type of stuff, but I am a big fan of Bowie’s much-maligned debut album (the first of two consecutive self-titled albums). Mirrors gave me a similar vibe, not to take anything away from Peggy’s art. Some of the crazier moments on Mirrors even reminded me of Bowie’s excellent late 70’s cover of “Alabama Song.” 5/5, would play again!
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! (writers: Milton Kabak, Louis Prima) Rock Me To Sleep (writers: Benny Carter, Paul Vandervoort II) That Ol' Devil Won't Get Me (writers: Peggy Lee, Dave Barbour) Date: February 8, 1951 Location: Capitol Recording Studio Capitol Session #2053 Louis Prima and His Orchestra (acc) Jim Wynn (sax) Peggy Lee (v) Other Individuals Unknown (unk) Those are the basic details. When we get past basics and go into the nitty gritty, though, we find out that something odd is going on with this session's personnel. In Capitol's session files for Peggy, the accompaniment is indeed identified as Louis Prima and his Orchestra. However, a different Capitol file identifies it instead as Benny Carter and his Orchestra. To further complicate matters, a 1951 magazine review of the above-shown Capitol single claimed that the accompaniment consisted of a "mixed crew" led by saxophonist Jim Wynn. Well, here they are (whoever they are!) backing a saucy Peggy in a fast and brassy boogie: The long and short of this post's reply: whether Louis Prima played at this session remains to be determined. Supposing that he didn't, we still have a fair share of Prima & Lee material out there, even if all of it remains commercially unreleased. Louis was a frequent guest in Peggy's 1951-1952 radio show (the program that served as the source for the CD The Lost Radio Recordings), and he duetted with Peggy on several of those guest episodes.
Vinyl is indeed one good way to go. As you already know, the Christmas Carousel CD was mastered by Bob Norberg, and from a sonic standpoint it should not be recommended. Something else worth pointing out: there are actually two Capitol Christmas LPs. The earliest is Christmas Carousel, the other one Happy Holiday (shown above). In essence, this is an abridged reissue of Christmas Carousel. It does include, however, three brand new songs. They appear to have been recorded expressly for inclusion on the album. Besides the songs on those LPs, Peggy did a holiday 78/45 single for Capitol in the late 1940s. She also cut several holiday numbers for Decca, and a few additional tunes for one or two other labels. For me, the best-sounding of all the existent CDs is this one: Granted: it is a Special Markets release, consisting of just 11 tracks, and including no annotation or anything of the sort. But it was remastered by Ron MacMaster, who often does a very good job. (And, being a budget release, it can be found at very, very cheap prices.) On the strength of its variety in choice of tracks, the other CD to be recommended is this one: Though that's not her entire Capitol output, it is still a generous selection. Amidst the mix, there is also one Decca track and a previously unreleased number, the latter dating from the 1980s.
The Carter sessions set looks exactly like several Nat Cole sets that have come out in the last few years.
Hey, @Ridin'High , is there anything rare on that Benny Carter sessions set? Anything that can’t be found elsewhere?
That's the Bowie album that closes with the gravedigger song, right? Another tune in it is about a stalker/Peeping Tom. Those are the two numbers that have stayed in my mind. Since I think of Mirrors as a dark album, such dark-themed songs immediately bring up a feeling of association. (The stalker song, especially, might sound humorous and even lighthearted on the surface, yet both sets of lyrics are, in substance quite heavy. The same is true of some of the Mirrors songs which seem to be humorous and happy.) If David's album was much maligned by the critics, then that's something else that it shares with Mirrors. Upon its release, the critics crucified it. Because those were rock ('n' roll) critics for the most part, nearly all of their sarcasm and repudiation was reserved for the album's songwriters, whom had hitherto been perceived as belonging to "their kind." (Leiber & Stoller were the creators of "Hound Dog," "Yakety Yak," etc.). In Peggy's case, the heaviest criticism aimed at her came directly from fans and friends, many of who bemoaned that the album was too depressing, and just too much. She found the reaction upsetting. An additional album that invites comparisons to Peggy's Mirrors is Frank's Watertown. That was yet another project devised by a rock-era songwriter. It too was initially dismissed. Coincidentally, both Frank and Peggy were 55 years of age when their respective albums came out. With the passing of time (and the further distancing from the rock era), a critical re-evaluation of Mirrors took hold in critics' circles, and the album is now considered a cult masterpiece. The same thing has happened to Watertown in more recent years. Both can be rightly deemed concept albums, of course. Watertown might be more mellow, folksy and musically unified, whereas Mirrors strikes me as more passionate, expressionistic, and musically varied. In the end, though, both share a strong current of melancholia. Moreover, the entire contents of each album can be understood as voiced by one single persona. In the case of Mirrors, that persona appears to be a woman of a certain age, holding to memories of a past and trying to turn a blind eye to her present. That framework becomes evident from a listening to the opening and closing tracks ("Ready to Begin Again," "Longings for a Simpler Time"). Then there's the fourth track, "A Little White Ship," in which the album's persona reveals her mental world, and invites us in: "I can promise you passage to places dark and deep ... passage to places of forbidden pleasure ... dark and deep places you'll never be found in .. a voyage through the night ... a voyage through the light of day." Throughout, part of the paradox at play is that the memories which she is holding to are, all too often, the stuff of nightmares! Granted: as you listen, some of the songs might seem to be devoid of any "through the mirror darkly" atmosphere. They would appear to be utterly happy and innocent. Don't be fooled! The loudest and most seemingly mindless of them all, "Professor Hauptmann's Performing Dogs," is actually a political satire, with the dogs standing for the endless parade of puppets and grand-standers who typically dominate that arena. (I realize that most of the song doesn't seem to suggest any politics at all. You hear it and you say to yourself, "huh, a funny song about dogs in the circus. That's very out there, but that's all there is to it." Well, not exactly. The songwriters have pointed out that fascism and dictatorship are the underlying topics. You are also clued in toward the song's end, when our circus barker proclaims that the canines are play-acting The Spirit of '76. References to Red Coats, guns, and U.S. Marines follow.) Below are some additional comments taken from an earlier thread, opened by Jackson. (Folks interested in picking up this album have several choices, but must stay away from the Japanese CD, which has some serious flaws.)
As always, excellent post! Yeah, that’s the Bowie album in question. Critics at the time didn’t really scathe it because (for the most part) nobody noticed or cared much that the album existed. It came out on the very same day as Sgt. Pepper’s! Scientifically speaking, Bowie’s debut was like a fart in the wind. Or like tears in the rain. Take your pick. It’s been maligned in the years since Bowie became a megastar. Many people think it doesn’t yet show signs of Bowie’s genius. I think that’s bunk. It’s a great album that displays clear indicators of the inventiveness and theatricality he would unleash on the world for decades to come. Anyway, back to Peggy...I played Mirrors for my wife this morning. She loved it! She described several of the songs as “creepy” and “dark,” which is great. Even though I’m just beginning my journey into Peggy’s music, I’m already impressed by the incredibly wide range of her artistry. What a talent she was!
I know of a NKC-Billy May set which I believe to be from the same family of PD labels, too. Talking about The King ... When it comes to CD projects of this type, Nat strikes me as a especially apt subject. (I'm referring to multi-decade, arranger-oriented CD projects.) It could perhaps be said that, among the type of singers that we are discussing, he was (as is often the case) at the vanguard of such projects. What I have in mind is not the aforementioned PD releases but official CDs such as these, from the early 1990s: No, not really. I mean, there are some rare tracks, but you will get them all in your copies of Classics and Collectibles + Miss Peggy Lee + the Capitol Jazz CD editions of Mink Jazz and Sugar 'n' Spice. Might as well take the opportunity to expand on that note. Carter's involvement in some of the tracks included in The Benny Carter Sessions was discovered only after discographical research, which involved consulting non-published Lee paperwork. This PD label should not be making the claim that all the Lee-Carter material was included in their CD set. There could very well be more Peggy sessions on which Carter participated, and about which we simply remain ignorant. Incidentally, the label could have included even more tracks, but perhaps they didn't have the space, over the two prospective CDs. Right here in another post from the present page, a 1951 session that might have been conducted by Carter was mentioned. While it is true that his conductor credit remains in doubt, there is little doubt that he was the session's arranger. Outside of the recording studio, Benny and Peggy worked together, too. In the late 1940s, she was one of the first people (maybe the first) who sang his "Lonely Woman," a somewhat gloomy song that is perhaps best known today thanks to June Christy's Capitol recording with Kenton. (Peggy sang the number on the radio.) Benny and Peggy seem to have remained friendly for many decades. Her final studio recording (made at the age of 75) happened to be a composition of his.
1. Basin Street Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee 2. Beauty And the Beat (1992) 3. Beauty And the Beat (2003) 4. Blues Cross Country 5. Mink Jazz 6. Sugar 'n' Spice 7. Things Are Swingin' 8. Trav'lin' Light 9. The Best of The Capitol Years (Blues & Jazz Sessions) The last two are compilations, and could thus be skipped. There is also a British EMI twofer that combines two of these items, but I don't have it, and I don't know how it sounds. (Most likely, it's a straight transfer of the Capitol Jazz CDs. Out of thin bunch, those particular albums happen to be the ones whose sound quality is a few notches below the others.) Appreciate finding out about the album's background. Given that release date, it never stood a chance! It's like some of those fresh new character movies today, when they get released on the same weekend as movies from comic hero blockbuster franchises ... Sounds like good taste runs in the entire family (however much the preferred material might vary from one member of another)! One daringly and defiantly feminine song from that album is "Some Cats Know." It doesn't necessarily rank among the dark and creepy ones, but it's actually the best-know track from the whole album.
It's not a random observation, it's a great observation. "It Never Entered My Mind" is an example of Peggy at her finest.
The doo-wop version of "Uninvited Dream" is actually quite pretty. The ballad version features an arrangement that should make it more appealing, but it just doesn't quite reach the same level. The latter is also in the wrong key for the song (too high).
I've heard of Mirrors but never heard it. Sounds like I must do something about that! I have been meaning to explore her post-Capitol career for quite some time (especially since the last Capitol album was superb, one of her best ever), and it sounds like that's a good place to start.
I’ve grabbed a few of these Capitol Jazz release via iTunes now because it was cheap ($6!) and instantaneous and I’m an impatient guy. The music is great, of course, but I don’t get liner notes. Are any of the liner notes indispensable in the sense that they have info I can’t find anywhere else (such as this thread)?
Peggy Lee fun fact: The ascending percussion lines throughout “Hallelujah, I Love Him So” scare the bejeezus out of my cats. I guess some cats just know...
Ha. Unless they are Siamese, they probably haven't been exposed to the right Peggy Lee song for them. This one could appeal to their inner nature: Well, most of them were written by professional liner annotators and/or music critics. Hence they make for pleasant reading, overall. But, if factual info is your primary interest, then you can skip them, I think. By this point in time, just about any detail given in such notes can indeed be found in online sources, including this thread. Besides, some of those liner notes have the occasional factual error, too. Nothing major, mind you, but the thing is that they are already printed or "set in stone," and thus the errors can not be rectified on paper. Online, it's easier to fix our wrongs. (Also, however good these writers might be, they have their, um, foibles, as we all do. One of them, in particular, shows an unpleasant tendency toward including one or two mocking/negative things about the singers that he profiles.) I do not do digital files, and hence know little about particular Peggy Lee digital entries. I hope that iTunes et al are really offering the Capitol Jazz masterings (as opposed to advertising them, yet using mastering work from say, Norberg, or any disciple of his).
I felt confident that they would be the Capitol Jazz masters because they have the relevant bonus tracks. Hopefully the didn’t use Norberg versions for the main (non-bonus) album tracks!
