Peggy Lee. Tish Oney

point in her career, Lee, along with countless other artists, had to defer to Capitol’s producers and company executives who decided which masters to use and which to toss. Being female made her influence even smaller with regard to the record executives’ decisions. Several of Lee’s original songs were recorded at Capitol sessions but never made the final cut for albums or singles, although she was fortunate to have been allowed to release some of her own compositions early in her career. Her songwriting prowess was already proven by the number of other mainstream artists (both at Capitol and at competing labels) who recorded her songs, namely Sinatra, Martin, Day, Vaughan, Cole, and others. That her originals had produced genuine hits may have further persuaded the record producers to include her songs in their album releases.

      “‘Is That All There Is?’ is not just the title of a hit song recorded by Peggy Lee . . . It’s also a question long-time Lee collectors have posed throughout the CD era.”^[10] Peggy Lee fans all over the world rejoiced when the albums Rare Gems and Hidden Treasures and The Lost ’40s and ’50s Capitol Masters were finally made available to the public. EMI took on the latter project with cooperation from Capitol Records archivists and Lee’s granddaughter Holly Foster-Wells leading the charge. These archived recordings bore merit of their own and constituted an important additional catalog of Lee’s output. Scores of previously unheard tracks that Lee had recorded many decades earlier finally took their rightful places in her canon of recorded music. Aficionados and scholars of music from decades past obtained a much greater sense of Lee’s total musical and artistic output when the plethora of unreleased songs gained their due hearing alongside well-worn recordings her fans remembered as big hits. Music critic Jack Garner wrote of this posthumous project: “Through the 39 tracks, Lee stokes the fires that ultimately lead to ‘Fever,’ her late-’50s megahit. If you only know Peggy Lee from her later hits, check out this early material. This lady was a winner from the get-go.”^[11] Nashville music writer Ron Wynn asserted that the same collection revealed “Lee’s deep blues roots [. . .] her ease working with small combos or larger orchestras and her ability to elevate novelty fare and disposable period piece bits into memorable, explosive productions. Lee . . . displayed outstanding phrasing and enunciation and covered songs from Irving Berlin, the Gershwins and Cole Porter. It’s rare so much quality music remains obscure, but there’s absolutely nothing disposable or generic about anything included.”^[12] New York Sun’s Will Friedwald gushed: “It is unimaginable why Capitol Records would have kept these gems in the can for almost 65 years; they are considerably better than a lot of the contempo songs the label did release during these years.”^[13]

      The first Capitol Records era in Peggy Lee’s career spanned the years 1946 to 1952. This was followed by a five-year stint with Decca beginning in 1952 and ending in 1957, after which she moved back to Capitol for an impressively long stretch from 1957 to 1972. No other female artist held a Capitol recording contract for as long as Peggy Lee held her consecutive contracts. This reality proved the immense value Peggy brought to the Capitol brand and to the catalog of American popular music that was enjoyed each day through radio broadcasts, jukeboxes, and records played in the homes of her adoring fans. As early as 1947, Peggy Lee was well on her way to becoming the jazz and pop diva she came to embody.

      Notes

      1.

      Peter Richmond, Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee (New York: Picador, 2006), 160.

      2.

      Dave Dexter Jr., Playback (New York: Billboard Publications, 1976), 52.

      3.

      James Gavin, Is That All There Is?: The Strange Life of Peggy Lee (New York: Atria Books, 2014), 135.

      4.

      Gavin, Is That All There Is? 89.

      5.

      John Chiodini, interview by author, Spartanburg, SC, digital recording, April 23, 2013.

      6.

      Gavin, Is That All There Is? 91.

      7.

      Iván Santiago-Mercado, “The Capitol Years, Part I: 1943–1945,” The Peggy Lee Discography, accessed November 24, 2018, http://www.peggyleediscography.com/p/preCap.php.

      8.

      John Chiodini, interview by author, Los Angeles, digital recording April 4, 2007.

      9.

      Santiago-Mercado, “The Capitol Years, Part I.”

      10.

      David Torresen, Peggy Lee: The Lost ‘40s & ‘50s Capitol Masters, EMI Music Special Markets, CD liner notes, 2008.

      11.

      Jack Garner, “Peggy Lee: The Lost ‘40s & ‘50s Capitol Masters,” Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, accessed September 13, 2019, https://www.peggylee.com/new-cd-dvd-releases/the-lost-40s-and-50s-capitol-masters/

      12.

      Ron Wynn, Nashville City Paper, accessed September 13, 2019, https://www.peggylee.com/new-cd-dvd-releases/the-lost-40s-and-50s-capitol-masters/

      13.

      Will Friedwald, New York Sun, accessed September 13, 2019, https://www.peggylee.com/new-cd-dvd-releases/the-lost-40s-and-50s-capitol-masters/

      Chapter 3

      Capitol Hits and The Peggy Lee Show

      Lee’s career as a Capitol Records artist continued to flourish and grow immensely. By 1947 she was enjoying regular session calls for Capitol, putting forth increasing numbers of hit records, and gaining national fame as a leading singer of popular music. One song hailing these transformations, “There’ll Be Some Changes Made,” Lee recorded with Frank DeVol’s jazz orchestra in August of that year. Lee’s bluesy approach revealed her ability to embody traits of various blues singers who preceded her (from Bessie Smith’s vocal power to Billie Holiday’s inflections) as well as her talent for packaging those traits into her own unique style and sound. This unique, expressive style enhanced Peggy’s live performance polish and elicited invitations to appear as a guest on radio shows that later gave rise to television variety shows.

      Radio shows were all the rage in the mid-1940s through the 1950s and were hosted by famous entertainers including Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, Woody Herman, and eventually, Peggy Lee. Highlights from Lee’s show often included her performances of songs associated with other artists, like Nat King Cole’s hit “Somewhere along the Way,” and Louis Armstrong’s “A Kiss to Build a Dream On.” Performances from hosted radio programs represented a crucial connection between leading pop musicians and their American fans. These shows finally gave way to widely popular television variety shows filmed before a live studio audience and hosted by stars such as Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, and many others. Among a slew of interesting skits and other acts, these radio and TV variety shows broadcast hundreds of impromptu performances showcasing the top entertainers of the day.

      On September 12, 1947, Lee joined fellow Capitol artists Johnny Mercer, Benny Goodman, Margaret Whiting, The Pied Pipers, and Paul Weston and His Orchestra at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles to record a new patriotic Irving Berlin song, “The Freedom Train.” This post-war song featuring an all-star cast of singers celebrated American freedom. The song experienced an unusually rapid turnaround between composition and commercial release, not only by Capitol Records, but also by its chief competitor, Decca. The latter studio enlisted Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters to provide an immediate recording for the airwaves. During a conversation with disc jockey Fred Hall, Lee shared a humorous story of this Capitol session during which uncontrollable giggling temporarily stopped the process:

      And one time we had an all-star group of all the singers on the whole label on that record. And something happened. We got the giggles in the middle of trying to record this thing, and one would laugh, and then two