Peggy Lee

The Sixties

The Steve Allen Show
1/18/60, NBC, w/ Jimmy Durante, Bobby DiNeri
Songs included: El Toro (My Matador)

What’s My Line?
2/28/60, CBS
Peggy appeared as a mystery guest

The Revlon Revue
3/10/60, CBS, w/ Julius LaRosa, Nancy Walker, Jack Carter
Songs included: I Wonder Why / It’s a Good Day / They Can’t Take That Away from Me / Basin Street Blues / When the Saints Go Marching In / My Man

“Miss Lee, svelte and glamorous in a white gown, warbled her trademarks… That blues are Miss Lee’s forte was aptly shown in a medley which had her throatily chirping such standards as ‘Basin Street Blues’ and ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’.” – Variety, 3/16/60

General Electric Theater: So Deadly, So Evil
3/13/60, CBS, w/ Ronald Reagan, Gavin MacLeod, Robert Hopkins, Terry Loomis, Michael Granger, Les Green

“Song stylist Peggy Lee stars in a straight dramatic role, as a small town girl who comes to New York to forget a recent tragedy, only to have her own life threatened by a masked stranger, in So Deadly, So Evil on the General Electric Theater. Ronald Reagan, who is regularly seen as host of the series, co-stars in the drama. Miss Lee plays Natalia Cory, a beautiful, efficient but troubled copywriter in a New York department store. She is cold to the efforts of her co-workers to be friendly, mainly because of an accident in her home town which took the life of her brother. Allan Richards (Reagan), a rival copywriter, persists in his attempts at friendship, and when Natalia gets anonymous telephone calls, recalling her former troubles, she enlists Richards’ help. The story reaches an exciting climax when a masked stranger breaks into her apartment and threatens her life.” – CBS press release, 12/26/60

Revlon Presents: A Salute to Paul Whiteman
3/24/60, CBS, w/ Bing Crosby, Jack Teagarden, Buster Keaton, Peter Nero, Mike Wallace
Songs included: Tribute to Mildred Bailey Medley (Rockin’ Chair / Gypsy in My Soul / Georgia on My Mind / It’s So Peaceful in the Country / Hand on the Plow), Tribute to Paul Whiteman Medley w/ Jack Teagarden (Jeepers Creepers / Up a Lazy River [Teagarden only] / Them There Eyes / Christmas Night in Harlem [Teagarden only])

Revlon Presents: Night Clubs, New York
4/7/60, CBS, w/ Mike Wallace, Felicia Sanders, Earl Grant, Bob and Ray
Songs included: It’s All Right with Me / Baby, Baby All the Time

“Peggy Lee, who recently wound up a smash engagement at Basin Street East, got the biggest layout of time and made the most of it. As in her Basin Street East engagement, she got nifty keyboard support from Joe Harnell.” – Variety, 4/13/60

Revlon Presents: 76 Men and Peggy Lee
4/14/60, CBS, w/ Mel Tormé, the Chad Mitchell Trio, the Yale Glee Club, the Vagabonds
Songs included: I Like Men / Mañana / Alright, Okay, You Win (w/ Tormé)

“Consistent with her manner of singing, Peggy Lee’s special for Revlon last Thursday was tasteful, artistic and handsomely restrained. The latter quality was particularly refreshing for a video musicale. It would have been an altogether distinguished affair had there been one standout solo by the star and had the comedy relief been classier than what the Vagabonds provided… It made for a smooth and swift 60 minutes of television. Even the intros were done in song, with special lyrics to standard tunes, eliminating the stilted and usually lackluster talk between numbers that characterizes the conventional music-variety offering. Miss Lee spoke only once, and very briefly, at the windup. She had a good opener in ‘I Like Men’ and soloed a second time with a solid medley, but otherwise she chirped only the quickie intros and a duet with Mel Torme… An encore for Miss Lee, and her style of show, is indicated.” – Variety, 4/20/60

“A collegiate-styled production number with Peggy parading stage center proved that she is not now, and probably never will be, the ‘Betty Co-ed’ type. Peggy is the Peggy Lee type. A highly individual variety: a silky voice softening that pulsing swing, her eyes fixed not at the audience or camera, but riveted on some faraway star, a performer whose offbeat sultriness lies in the fact that physically and vocally she sizzles while simultaneously projecting a mental aloofness — like she’s chewing gum while some guy is trying to kiss her. In any case, she never looked or sang better… She should have her own steady show.” — Atra Baer, New York Journal-American, 4/15/60

The Ed Sullivan Show (first episode in Sullivan’s “See America” series, from San Francisco)
10/16/60, CBS, w/ Johnny Mathis, Mort Sahl, Dave Brubeck, Dorothy Kirsten, the Limelighters
Songs included: I Love Being Here with You / Yes Indeed / Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)

Note: Pilot for a would-be but unsold series that was intended to spotlight various American cities. Music and songs of San Francisco were presented in the pilot episode.

Person to Person
10/20/60, CBS, w/ Charles Collingwood, Raymond Burr
Interview with Peggy at her home with daughter Nicki. Peggy plays a sample from her new album Christmas Carousel.

The Chevy Show: Four in One
1/1/61, NBC, w/ Frankie Avalon, George Gobel, Percy Faith
Songs included: Hits medley (Fever (with special lyrics), / Why Don’t You Do Right / Manana / Lover) / I Love Being Here with You / I’m Gonna Go Fishin’ / Just for a Thrill / Yes Indeed 

Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall
1/25/61, NBC, w/ Peter Gennaro, Joey Heatherton, Bea Arthur, Shelley Berman
Songs included: Day In, Day Out / On the Sunny Side of the Street / Medley with Como: Fever / Too Darn Hot / Heat Wave / Steam Heat / You’re the Top / Indian Love Call / I Get a Kick Out of You, Strike Up the Band / Medley: Lover Man / Kansas City / Birth of the Blues (w/ Ray Charles Singers) / A Foggy Day (w/ cast)

The Ed Sullivan Show
2/12/61, CBS, w/ Henry Fonda, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Paul Anka, Myron Cohen
Songs included: Non Dimenticar / One Kiss / My Romance / The Vagabond King Waltz

Summer on Ice
1961 (summer date unknown), NBC, w/ Peter Lawford
Songs unknown

Big Night Out
8/61, ABC (England), w/ Bing Crosby, David Kossoff
Songs included: I Love Being Here with You / Moments Like This / Fever / Mary Ellen (w/ David Kossoff) / Till There Was You / Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words) / All the Way

“The show was built around Peggy Lee, quite an edifice in herself, and its chief guest was Bing Crosby who’d groaned his way over from the local movie studios where he’s making another ‘Road’ picture with Bob Hope. It was Peggy Lee’s first outing on British TV, and she scored with a relaxed and polished selection of standards, sprinkled with the odd novelty… The show provided an adequate showcase for the artistry of Peggy Lee, who filled out a lack of imagination in its conception.” – Variety, 9/6/61

Happy with the Blues
9/24/61, NBC, w/ Vic Damone, LaVern Baker, Joanie Sommers, Bing Crosby and Harold Arlen
Songs included: Come Rain or Come Shine / Two Ladies in the Shade of the Banana Tree / The Man that Got Away / Medley (w/ cast)

“‘Who is Harold Arlen?’ That’s what the cab driver who drives Arlen to the studio wants to know. A 60-minute taped answer is offered by Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Joanie Sommers and Paul Weston’s orchestra. Bing Crosby narrates films tracing Arlen’s songwriting career.” – TV Guide, 9/23/61

The Ed Sullivan Show
5/20/62, CBS, w/ Louis Prima, Jackie Robinson, Slappy White, the Brothers Four, Georgie Kay
Songs included: The Sweetest Sounds / I’ll Get By / I Believe in You / New York City Blues

The Lively Ones
7/26/62, NBC, w/ Vic Damone, Woody Herman, Dave Brubeck, Damita Jo
Songs included: Tell All the World About You / See See Rider / Big Bad Bill

The Lively Ones
8/23/62, NBC, w/ Vic Damone, Buddy Greco, Oscar Peterson, New Christy Minstrels, Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall
Songs included:I’ll Be Around / When the Sun Comes Out

The Andy Williams Show
9/27/62, NBC, w/ George Gobel, the New Christy Minstrels
Songs included: Them There Eyes / But Beautiful / You Are My Sunshine (w/ Williams, Gobel)

“Peggy Lee, a familiar TV guester, did a fine job once again.” – Variety, 10/3/62

The Ed Sullivan Show
11/4/62, CBS, w/ Diahann Carroll, Gordon MacRae, Roberta Peters, Cesare Siepi, Steve Lawrence, Nancy Dussault, Peter Nero
Songs included: Mountain Greenery / Manhattan (w/ Steve Lawrence) / It Might as Well Be Spring

The Ed Sullivan Show
12/9/62, CBS, w/ Anthony Newley, the Four Seasons, Joey Forman, George Matson, Jose Greco
Songs included: The Best Is Yet to Come / Nice and Easy / Close Your Eyes / Like Someone in Love / I’m a Woman

The Jackie Gleason Show
1/17/63, CBS
Songs unknown

The World of Benny Goodman
1/24/63, NBC, w/ Dave Brubeck, Aaron Copland, Gene Krupa, John Hammond, Teddy Wilson
Songs unknown

The Merv Griffin Show
3/13/63, NBC, w/ Carl Reiner, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Vince Mauro, Louis Lomax, Senator Burton K. Wheeler
Songs unknown

The Jo Stafford Show
8/63, ATV (England); syndicated in US in 1963-64
Songs included: Day In, Day Out / Dearie, Do You Remember? (w/ Jo Stafford) / Why Don’t You Do Right?

“Peggy Lee’s own act was the show’s high-spot, and tended to show the chief fault in Miss Stafford’s delivery, which was lack of bite. Miss Lee’s ‘Day In’ and a darling ballad taken at slow-walking pace showed her versatility at its peak.” – Variety, 8/14/63

The Jerry Lewis Show
10/26/63, ABC, w/ Robert Goulet, George Kirby, Lucho Navarro
Songs included: I’ve Got Your Number / Funny Man / What Kind of Fool Am I?

The Andy Williams Show
11/12/63, NBC, w/ Buddy Epsen
Songs included: Mack the Knife / Blues Cross Country medley with Williams (Cross-Country Blues / Kansas City / Goin’ to Chicago / I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City / Boston Beans  / St. Louis Blues)

The Judy Garland Show
12/1/63, CBS, w/ Jack Carter
Songs included: When the World Was Young / “I Love Being Here with You” medley (w/ Judy Garland, incorporating It’s a Good Day / Over the Rainbow / Under the Bamboo Tree) / “I Like Men” medley (w/ Judy Garland, incorporating You Make Me Feel So Young / Tess’s Torch Song / Fever / It’s So Nice to Have a Man Around the House / I’m Just Wild About Harry / Charlie, My Boy / Oh, Johnny, Oh / Big Bad Bill / Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey)

The Andy Williams Show
1/4/65, NBC, w/ Art Carney
Songs included: Fever / You’ve Got to See Mama Every Night / Medley w/ Williams (Language of Love, Let Me Love You, Maybe It’s Because I Love You Too Much, Fly Me to the Moon, My Blue Heaven, Alone Together, Lover, I Love You)

The Jack Paar Program
3/12/65, NBC, w/ Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Señor Wences
Songs included: The Boy from Ipanema / Make Believe

“Featured guest Peggy Lee gave a lift to what otherwise would have been a relatively routine Jack Paar outing on Friday’s NBC colorcast. For Miss Lee and her songs easily survived Paar’s quips and scored easily with a songbag that ranged from ‘Boy from Ipanema’ to a free interpretation of Jerome Kern’s ‘Make Believe’.” – Variety, 3/17/65

The Jack Paar Program
3/26/65, NBC, w/ Shelley Berman, Dorothy Loudon, Cindy Adams, William C. Marland
Songs included: Pass Me By / Hello, Dolly!

The Dean Martin Show
9/23/65, NBC, w/ Jack Jones, John Wayne, Shari Lewis
Songs included: Alright, Okay, You Win / I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (w/ Martin and Jones)

The Ed Sullivan Show
11/7/65, CBS, w/ the Righteous Brothers, Herb Alpert, Anna Moffo, Alan King
Songs included: It’s a Grand Night for Singing / How Long Has This Been Going On? / Come Back to Me / Yes Indeed (w/ The Righteous Brothers)

The Dean Martin Show
1/6/66, NBC, w/ Frankie Avalon, Allan Sherman, Rose Marie
Songs included: It’s a Wonderful World / When the World Was Young / Medley w/ Martin (I Love Being Here with You, Mañana, It’s a Good Day)

The Sammy Davis Jr. Show (guest host: Jerry Lewis)
2/4/66, NBC
Songs included: Big Spender / The Folks Who Live on the Hill

The Andy Williams Show
3/7/66, NBC, w/ Tony Bennett, Frank Gorshin
Songs included: “Day” medley w/ Williams and Bennett (It’s a Lovely Day Today, It’s a Good Day, Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Everything’s Coming Up Roses, It’s a Most Unusual Day, On a Wonderful Day Like Today, Oh What a Beautiful Morning) / A Bird in a Gilded Cage / I’ve Got You Under My Skin (w/ Williams) / I Must Know / Alright, Okay, You Win (w/ Williams and Bennett)

Something Special (#1)
5/66, syndicated
Songs included: As You Desire Me / Moments Like This / The Best Is Yet to Come / Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) / I Don’t Know Enough About You / It’s a Good Day / Where Can I Go Without You? / I Love Being Here with You / Things / Funny Man / What Kind of Fool Am I? / Blues Cross-Country medley / The Folks who Live on the Hill / As You Desire Me (reprise)

“Miss Lee, doing basically her club act, worked all alone throughout except for a segment of clown songs in which a male terp decorated the background in circus makeup. In her fine jazz-pop style, Miss Lee paced out a solid hour, swinging a set of her own compositions, a travel medley, her well-known standards and the clown turn, which included a touchingly effective ‘What Kind of Fool Am I?’ She is that gifted that she can take an hour out on a low, low key with proper dramatic projection.” – Variety, 5/25/66

The Dean Martin Show
9/15/66, NBC, w/ Buddy Hackett, Dorothy Provine, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin
Songs included: You’ve Got Possibilities / The Shining Sea / Medley w/ Martin (All Alone, Call Me, I Couldn’t Sleep a Wink Last Night, Good Mornin’) / Guys and Dolls medley w/ cast (The Oldest Established, Guys and Dolls)

The Andy Williams Show
10/2/66, NBC, w/ Jack Jones, Bob Newhart, Al Hirt
Songs included: Put the Blame on Mame / Stay with Me (w/ Williams) / Smack Dab in the Middle (w/ Williams, Jones, Hirt)

The Ed Sullivan Show
10/23/66, CBS, w/ Duke Ellington, Joan Rivers, Norm Crosby, Jim Nabors, Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi, the Muppets
Songs included: Nice and Easy / Walking Happy

The Danny Kaye Show
12/21/66, CBS
Songs included: Here’s That Rainy Day / So What’s New? / Jingle Bells/Jingle Journey (w/ Kaye)

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
2/21/67, NBC, w/ Stefanie Powers, Noel Harrison, Leo G. Carroll, Randy Kirby
Episode title: “The Furnace Flats Affair”

The Dean Martin Show
3/9/67, NBC, w/ Sid Caesar, Arthur Godfrey, Joey Heatherton
Songs included: Walking Happy / I Feel It / The More I See You / Three Little Fishes (w/ Martin and Heatherton) / Medley w/ Martin (Just You Just Me / Exactly Like You / For You / The Very Thought of You / You’re Driving Me Crazy / Then I’ll Be Happy)

Something Special (#2)
5/67, syndicated, w/ Jean “Toots” Thielemans
Songs included: Things Are Swingin’ / Fever / You Fascinate Me So / Greensleeves / Then Was Then and Now Is Now / Come Back to Me / So What’s New? / Big Spender / Alright, OK, You Win / Mañana / Makin’ Whoopee (w/ Thielemans) / Unforgettable / I Can’t Stop Loving You / Lonesome Road / Lover / Stay Well

The Ed Sullivan Show
10/1/67, CBS, w/ Nancy Sinatra, Sergio Franchi, George Carlin, London Lee
Songs included: I Feel It / The More I See You / Medley with Franchi and Sinatra (One of Those Songs / These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ / Autumn Leaves / Al Di La)

The Dean Martin Show
11/2/67, NBC, w/ Van Johnson, Homer and Jethro
Songs included: Alfie / Lonesome Road / Medley with Martin (Basin Street Blues / Blues in the Night / I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues / Bye Bye Blues / I Get the Blues When It Rains / St. Louis Blues)

The Hollywood Palace
2/68, ABC, w/ Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Phil Harris, Lawrence Welk, Roosevelt Grier
Songs included: What Is a Woman? / Do I Hear a Waltz? / Sing a Rainbow / Something Stupid / So What’s New? (w/ Crosby) / Medley (w/ Crosby)

The Dean Martin Show
3/7/68, NBC, w/ George Gobel, Eddie Foy Jr.
Songs included: Come Back to Me / Here’s to You / Medley w/ Martin (A Doodlin’ Song / Do Do Do / Hoop de Doo / Zip-a-dee-doo-dah)/ Medley with Martin, Foy, Gobel 

The Jonathan Winters Show
4/3/68, CBS, w/ the Oscar Peterson Trio, Louis Nye
Songs included: The Lonesome Road / The More I See You

The Joey Bishop Show
11/18/68, w/ Grady Tate, Roy Clark, Art Linkletter, Ken Greenwald, The Turtles
Songs unknown

The Dean Martin Show
3/6/69, NBC, w/ Minnie Pearl, Peter Graves, Dino, Desi and Billy
Songs included: Didn’t We? / I’ve Gotta Be Me / Medley w/ Martin (Smile / Little Girl / The Man I Love/ A Good Man Is Hard to Find/ My Kind of Girl)

The Ed Sullivan Show
4/6/69, CBS, w/ Tony Bennett, Duke Ellington, Shirley Verrett, Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers, Eddie Albert, Edward Villella, Patricia McBride
Songs included: Spinning Wheel / A Natural Woman

The Joey Bishop Show
8/21/69, ABC, w/ Nipsey Russell, George Shearing, Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes
Songs included: Is That All There Is

The Andy Williams Show
10/11/69, NBC, w/ Danny Thomas, Victor Borge
Songs included: Spinning Wheel / “California” medley w/ Williams (California Soul / California Dreamin’ / California Here I Come)

The World of Peggy Lee
10/16/69, NET (National Educational Television)
Songs included: The Shadow of Your Smile / Alright, Okay, You Win / Didn’t We? / Spinning Wheel / Is That All There Is?

“The phenomenon of Peggy Lee, who 30-odd years ago was singing with the bands of Will Osborne and Benny Goodman and today appeases the squares of Las Vegas as well as campus audiences, is portrayed in a 90-minute special tonight. The vocalist is seen in the labors of preparing a show and the giving a performance. Admirers of Miss Lee can only be delighted by the extensive samplings of her repertory; she is in the best of form and the viewer also learns something, though far from enough, about the individual herself… The viewer sees Miss Lee, a composer herself, searching for the right interpretation of lyrics, working on her phrasing and seeking to preserve the overall mood of her choosing. The comparison with the early trials and the final results are a reminder that, be it jazz or classical music, the sheer physical toll of achieving a desired end is central to the act of creativity… For Miss Lee’s fans, it was a TV banquet.” – Jack Gould, New York Times, 10/15/69

Kraft Music Hall
October 1969, NBC, w/ host Johnny Cash
Songs included: Is That All There Is? / Down in the Valley (w/ Johnny Cash) / Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (w/ Johnny Cash) / Whistle for Happiness / He’s Gone Away / When Johnny Comes Marching Home / Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

“Two members of the royalty of song – Johnny Cash and Peggy Lee – brought distinction to the Music Hall last night. Johnny Cash, king of country music, and Peggy Lee, queen of pop, jazz and sad, sweet ditties of heartbreak, gave pleasure to millions of fans… Young Browning Bryant and Cash’s own group were excellent; but it was, after all, Johnny and Peggy’s show. The latter, as always, put over her numbers in her familiar impeccable style, which is a merger of deep emotion and the restraint of good taste. Outstanding were their medley of “love and loneliness” songs… Here was an hour of undiluted Americana, and I wish that a recording had been made of it.” – Ben Gross, New York Daily News, 10/69

The Dean Martin Show
11/13/69, NBC, w/ w/ Dale Robertson, Paul Lynde, Paula Kelly
Songs included: Is That All There Is? / Medley with Martin (Zip-a-dee-doo-dah / I Got Rhythm / Beer Barrel Polka)