Also that month, Peggy and the Goodman band recorded the Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen standard “Blues in the Night,” from the Warner Brothers film by the same name. Lee’s rather conservative rendition of this blues song represented an excellent example of the early Peggy Lee sound. In her later years, her approach to the blues became much earthier and more dramatic, and her voice more husky, breathy, and prone to quieter singing.
Accustomed to the rigors of having to share Capitol’s studio time among many active artists, Lee recorded Rodgers and Hart’s “Where or When” from the Broadway musical Babes in Arms, on Christmas Eve in 1941. Recording schedules also frequently stretched late into the night when deadlines loomed so that projects could be finished before opening the studio for a different artist or band the next morning. Peggy’s “Where or When” peered into the future by revealing her use of an ultra-soft vocal technique that, years later, became Lee’s go-to strategy for making audiences listen. Her enchanting and gentle approach on this early recording melded perfectly with the delicate celesta and piano accompaniment. The celesta was an instrument often used on radio shows and in certain types of ballads during this time period. Played at a keyboard, the celesta contained a series of metal bars struck by felt hammers operated by keys, yielding a heavenly tinkling sound. This tone quality commonly accompanied children’s music, holiday music, and ballads with dreamlike texts to create an ethereal quality. Lee’s understated approach and the slow, steady pace of this ballad suggested that the tenderness of a lullaby was the desired effect. Throughout the song, Lee provided a remarkably even softness and haunting beauty, spanning a wide range beyond an octave. She effortlessly traversed the difficult final phrases that slowly ascended stepwise all the way up the major scale. This recording’s attention to vocal nuance and tonal consistency throughout a wide range represented Lee’s finest example of vocalism to date.
That same day in the recording studio, Lee and Goodman laid down a track of the Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields standard “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” from Broadway’s International Revue. Goodman bounced along through the opening melodic statement before Lee entered with an uplifting statement of her own. She managed to sing several low F’s (far below the range of a soprano and lower than most altos were required to sing) without difficulty. Her stylistic choices to change a pitch here and to bend a note there yielded an enjoyable, rewarding romp through a very well-known song. Her sense of syncopation was also rich here, as she anticipated downbeats by selectively choosing to enter an eighth note early on some occasions, as was, and still is, respectful of the jazz or swing style.
“The Lamp of Memory” was a nostalgic tune that received its due attention by the Goodman band during their first known studio date of the new year in January 1942. Far from being a swing song, this romantic ballad rapt in melancholic wishful thinking had Peggy singing with a great deal of vibrato and old-fashioned sentimentalism. At that same session, Lee joined Art London again in a duet from the Paramount film The Fleet’s In, singing “If You Build a Better Mousetrap.” This clever tune by Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger served as an adorable cat-and-mouse romp for any pair of songbirds. First Art lectured on all the techniques and tricks he knew to attract women. Peggy then described her recipe for dating success in a similar way, and both ended their litany of tips with the questions: “Why doesn’t anything happen to me?” and “What’s the matter with us?” During this storytelling foray, Lee showed her predilection for genuine swing feel, a keen sense of humor, and a vocal approach that was more spoken on pitch than sung. This last point described Lee’s manner of singing throughout most of her life. Although that same day in the studio she sang with a more classical, traditional approach for “The Lamp of Memory,” the duet revealed her preference for her unique style of storytelling.
Lee and Goodman recorded the ballad “When the Roses Bloom Again” at the same recording session in January. The inclusion of nostalgic pieces like this in a mainstream swing band’s recording session (and live performances) illustrated the balance often sought by bands and recording companies to present to the public not only new, forward-looking material tailored toward youth, but also songs that appealed to those established, mature music consumers preferring music in the style of yesteryear. In this way the Goodman band appealed to more than one demographic. In catering to mature audiences, Peggy tended to modify her vocal approach toward the same classical technique she employed for tunes like “The Lamp of Memory.”
Recorded in February of that year, the somber song in a minor key “My Little Cousin” began with an ethnic folk flourish by the trumpet reminiscent of traditional Jewish music. This ethnic folksong flair returned at the end of the song, during which Lee and Goodman performed together several times in well-rehearsed harmony a particular type of ornament (a mordent, or turn) specific to that cultural style. Considering Goodman’s Jewish heritage and upbringing, the inclusion of this song may not have been surprising to some, although it certainly was not a frequent sound in commercial recording sessions of the early 1940s. Interestingly, the original Yiddish lyrics of “My Little Cousin,” which expressed frustration and disillusionment on behalf of America’s Jewish immigrants, were drastically toned down in translation. Instead of rocking the image of Jews in America, the text’s focus changed to that of a romantic relationship. While Goodman clearly demonstrated a desire to reflect his ethnic heritage in his music, the reality of political stress likely influenced Capitol’s repackaging of the song’s message.[7]
This was not the first time Benny Goodman advocated for diversity and inclusion. Several years earlier, Goodman crossed racial barriers by organizing a mixed-race trio and quartet for recording and performing. Goodman had hired Teddy Wilson, an African-American pianist, and praised him as the finest jazz pianist in the business.[8] The trio and quartet also featured Caucasian drummer Gene Krupa (who had already performed in the Goodman band) and African American vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Goodman was known throughout the music business as leading one of the first racially integrated music ensembles in American history, so his decision to record a song with strong Jewish inflections shortly before the U.S. entry into World War II was neither surprising nor insignificant.
“The Way You Look Tonight,” a classic standard by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, fell onto the list of songs to be recorded by Goodman and Lee in March 1942. This delightful love song from the RKO film Swing Time fit Lee’s knack for imbuing a ballad with beauty, tenderness, and sincerity. In this recording she gave attention to each tone, enlivening each note with grace and innocence. She slightly delayed several phrase entrances as though in the midst of an extemporaneous conversation. This manner of backphrasing, either intentionally delaying the start of a lyric phrase until after the musical phrase has already begun or anticipating the musical phrase by singing the lyric early, was an expressive technique first used by Billie Holiday, who learned it from saxophonist and mentor Lester Young. Lee followed suit quickly, staying at the forefront of stylistic trends. Certainly aware of Billie’s style, Lee possessed her own expressive compass as well. Creating a trancelike atmosphere within the song, she wove her musical lines in a spellbinding fashion mirroring the text. The impression she gave through her relaxed gliding from note to note suggested hypnosis experienced while gazing at her lover, yielding a dreamlike desire to remember that moment forever. The celesta accompaniment added a sparkling twinkle of magic to the total sound on the recording, and this meshed well with Lee’s delicate voice. The song peaked at number twenty-one on the pop charts in June of that year.
Irving Berlin’s “I Threw a Kiss in the Ocean” yielded a charming swing tune for Lee to explore with Benny Goodman and his big band at one of their March 1942 recording sessions. It opened with a full band fanfare followed by a brief, energetic clarinet solo punctuated by trumpet hits, the low brass provided the finish to the introduction with a vocal lead-in transition driven by the saxophones. The trumpets