From the Capitol Jazzmen session, one song in particular received extensive radio airplay. “That Old Feeling” mesmerized Lee’s fans because of the way she filled it with expression and meaning. She became so sought after from the success of this record that she hired her first manager, Carlos Gastel, to help shape her solo career. Shortly thereafter, Lee recorded a few sides with Bob Crosby and Orchestra, possibly in conjunction with a guest appearance on Crosby’s radio show. These included Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer’s song “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” and Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke’s adorable song “It’s Anybody’s Spring.” The first began with the unmistakable sound of an orchestral depiction of a locomotive engine and train whistle (provided by a chorus of woodwinds) throughout the long introduction. When Lee entered, her youthful exuberance contrasted brightly against the more mature baritone voice of Bob Crosby. Lee’s lighthearted tones brought the song to life while Crosby’s counterpoint balanced her energy with intentional coolness. In “It’s Anybody’s Spring,” Lee sounded remarkably different, using more vibrato than usual, as if copying Bing Crosby’s style (for whom the song was written by Jimmy Van Heusen for the film Road to Utopia). This marked an interesting choice for Lee in interpreting this swing song—instead of her usual swing groove and spoken-on-pitch style, she mysteriously deferred to a previous style used when she had to sing in higher keys. Given her greater success with a more spoken style when singing swing, this rendition seemed out of place, amateurish, and inconsistent next to her more successful work, but it may have represented an experimental, transitional period when she was discovering her own voice. When readying herself for this session, she possibly had been modeling Bing Crosby’s film rendition because she sang it (note-for-note) exactly as the composer wrote instead of interpreting it with her signature stylistic touches.
In December 1944 Dave Barbour and His Orchestra entered the recording studio with Lee and recorded a charming ballad, “Baby (Is What He Calls Me).” Already, fans heard the mature Peggy Lee sound replete with thoughtful interpretation and expression packaged in a lower, slightly husky tone quality. Lee’s signature breathy vocal production would become her calling card, by which she would become known and loved worldwide. The first Barbour-Lee collaboration to be recorded, “What More Can a Woman Do?” was also undertaken at this 1944 session, and it fully utilized the breathy voice Lee had grown accustomed to using in favor of the earlier pure, high, and youthful tone resplendent with innocence and clarity. In coming into her own sound, Lee sacrificed some of the pristine finish heard in her most youthful records but gained a unique, earthy sound she felt was more her own. Lee’s penchant for smoking cigarettes intensified the huskiness of her tone. Over time this approach to singing was firmly cemented into Lee’s style, and there was no turning back. Fortunately for Lee, this novel sound exactly fit the persona she exhibited onstage, so she made the most of her unique musical niche.
“What More Can a Woman Do?” exemplified a slow and lovely original ballad and painted a picture of devotion typical of Lee’s lyric-writing style. So often, Lee approached songwriting from the standpoint of total commitment. While other writers may have stopped short of saying the obvious message (leaving a bit to the imagination), Peggy unapologetically wore her proverbial heart on her sleeve, holding nothing back. This self-revelatory lifestyle allowed her warmth and expressive depth to stay honest and vulnerable throughout her career.
In December 1944 Dave Barbour and His Orchestra recorded “A Cottage for Sale” by Willard Robison and Larry Conley, with Lee singing vocals. The master was never released as a single until it appeared in 2008 on Peggy Lee: The Lost ’40s & ’50s Capitol Masters album. This session marked Lee’s first enterprise as a solo Capitol artist. Lee’s initial entrance displayed temerity, and her voice bobbled slightly in a couple of places, which may have accounted for the fact that this track was cut from Capitol’s list of songs fit for release. Her usually secure centering of the pitch lapsed in a few places at the mercy of a fluttering vibrato. Still, much of the song was beautifully rendered, and Lee’s confidence seemed to sharpen as she progressed through it.
Shortly thereafter, Lee and a jazz quartet led by Dave Barbour recorded an original blues song called “You Was Right, Baby” that showcased Lee’s outstanding bluesy style and flirtatious expression. In this song (with Barbour’s quartet backing Lee’s vocals), both Lee and Barbour showed the peak of their performing abilities. Barbour’s guitar solo flaunted his ability to maintain an understated groove while exploring the tension between the flat and natural thirds that define the blues. He then tapered his guitar seamlessly back into the texture, making room for Lee to finish the piece. Lee balanced her true confidence in this style with artistic note choices, using a half-spoken, half-sung manner of communicating her text.
Peggy credited Great American Songbook composer, singer, and early Capitol executive Johnny Mercer for encouraging her to write her own songs and for suggesting that Barbour and Lee record their original songs at Capitol sessions. Agent Carlos Gastel had encouraged the Barbours to play their originals for Mercer, and Lee heartily welcomed the songwriting veteran’s suggestions and advice. As Iván Santiago-Mercado explained in his exhaustive Peggy Lee discography, Peggy remarked: “When they talked us into recording, we didn’t have any material, so Johnny said, ‘Do those things I heard—those are great.’ So we did them, and they were hits . . . ‘What More Can a Woman Do?’ and ‘You Was Right, Baby.’”[7] These two songs ended up on opposite sides of a Capitol 78-rpm single that spent ten weeks on the Disc Hits—Box Score best-seller music charts affiliated with Cash Box magazine. “You Was Right, Baby” peaked at number eleven.
In 1945 Peggy Lee joined Dave Barbour and His Orchestra to record another 78-rpm record, titled “Waitin’ for the Train to Come In,” by Martin Block and Sunny Skylar. This was issued for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service along with selections featuring Dick Haymes and Frank Sinatra, in addition to other artists. This dragging ballad aptly described the painfully slow passage of time as one waited hour after hour and day after day for a loved one to return. The song stayed on Billboard’s charts for fourteen weeks beginning in November 1945, peaking at number four. Lee’s relaxed and easygoing manner, as mirrored in the companion ballad on the reverse side, “I’m Glad I Waited for You,” beautifully expressed the sentiment of a faithful woman awaiting the return of her beloved from the war. This latter song on the second side also attained chart positions, in March 1946, reaching number twenty-four on the Billboard list.
Billboard represented the gold standard of popular music’s record sales and radio spins—a song’s weekly ranking could be viewed in both parameters, and its overall success depended on the combination of both. Billboard measured, and still measures, popularity of a song relative to the other songs in the current week’s market. Billboard magazine featured its first “hit parade” in 1936, and a plethora of song charts followed in ensuing years. The charts soon reached around the world, and awareness of the fast-paced change occurring in American popular music spread internationally in part thanks to the weekly change-up of Billboard’s top songs, eventually known by 1958 as the Hot 100. Since then other charting services evolved in an effort to grow readership for other publications competing in the pop music industry.
In December 1945 Lee recorded “I Can See It Your Way, Baby” with the Dave Barbour All-Stars. This easy swinging ballad allowed Lee to purr her lyrics gently into the microphone. The song showcased Lee’s ability to persuade using her feminine charms and musical nuances, emphasizing the consequent phrase balancing the title, “but please see it my way tonight.” The song attained a level of sexy playfulness that Lee would build into her style.
At, presumably, the same session, Lee and Barbour recorded one of their best-known original hits, “I Don’t Know Enough about You.” This slow swing tune employed elements of the blues amid clever lyrics that explored an angle of male-female relationships that had not been described in other songs. Elucidating details about human interaction in new ways that resonated with millions of people seemed to