The Peggy Lee Centennial Tribute. Special guests: Holly Foster Wells and Stacy Sullivan are here! Holly is Peggy’s granddaughter and historian! Stacy Sullivan is an amazing vocalist with an amazing Peggy Lee album and tribute show. [Source: Quarantine, Cabaret and Cocktails/YouTube]
This week on Radar, we visit a truly golden age of Hollywood. Who better to join us on this journey than the always glamorous, sophisticated, beautiful and talented Peggy Lee? 2020 marks Peggy Lee’s 100th birthday—her centennial—and as such there are several projects to discuss: the Grammy museum hosted a panel discussion about Peggy including Billie Eilish, K.D. Lang and others, and many of Peggy’s albums have been reissued, on vinyl of course, particularly the Ultimate Peggy Lee, the forthcoming Ultimate Christmas, and an exciting reissue of Ms. Lee’s much-revered Black Coffee album. [Source: TVD Radar]
The Great American Songbook Foundation is honoring singer-songwriter Peggy Lee and The Music Man creator Meredith Willson as the 2020 inductees to its Great American Songbook Hall of Fame. The Songbook Foundation will celebrate the legacies of these artists with two weeks of livestreamed tributes, discussions and other activities shared through its Facebook page and YouTube channel. Peggy Lee Induction Week takes place Sept. 10-12, kicking off with a private visit to the Peggy Lee Archives led by her granddaughter Holly Foster Wells. The full schedule is available at TheSongbook.org/PeggyLeeHOF [Source: Great American Songbook Foundation]
Seventy-two restricted Capitol Transcriptions from the 40s constitute a lavish banquet for Peggy Lee admirers… On each song, Lee’s ‘sultry purr’ fuses emotional intensity with unflustered delivery. Her vibrato is tightly controlled. Her intonation and enunciation are precise. Applying unexpected accentuations, she’s able to wrest extra meaning out of almost any lyric. When Peggy Lee sings a song, she owns it. [Source: London Jazz News]
“Peggy Lee was a universal artist in many things,” states Dr. Tish Oney, author of an insightful new book on the singer, Peggy Lee: A Century of Song. “She was a top-grade performer and recording artist, producer, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, voiceover artist, Academy Award-nominated actress and a lyricist for many collaborative composers.” Dr. Oney also points out that the singer’s legacy also includes her active participation in helping musicians involved with film music get a fairer financial deal from movie companies. “She was an advocate for musicians’ rights later on,” reveals Oney. “So she was a pioneer in a whole lot of ways.” [Source: UDiscoverMusic]
One of the most important musical influences of the 20th century, Peggy Lee wrote over 200 songs, recorded over 1,100 masters and had over 100 chart hits throughout her seven-decade career. As one of the world’s first female contemporary singer-songwriters, she co-wrote and sang many of her own hits, most notably “He’s a Tramp” for Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, as well as “It’s a Good Day” and “Mañana.” She’s probably best known for hits “Fever,” “I’m a Woman,” “Why Don’t You Do Right?” and “Is That All There Is?”; “Is That All There Is?” won her a Grammy for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance. A 13-time Grammy nominee, Peggy Lee received Lifetime Achievement awards from NARAS, ASCAP and the Society of Singers, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and — as an actress — earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Pete Kelly’s Blues.
The iconic singer-songwriter Peggy Lee would have turned 100 years old this week. To celebrate her centennial birthday, a brand new compilation record called Ultimate Peggy Lee was released and the GRAMMY Museum hosted a panel discussion with guests that included Billie Eilish, k.d. Lang, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, and more. Jazz singer and composer Tish Oney was also a part of that panel discussion. She just released a new book, titled Peggy Lee: A Century of Song. Oney joined us to share a short gateway to Lee’s music and influence. Source: CBC Radio.
The work ethic and determination that made Peggy Lee an international star as a singer, songwriter and actress started right here in North Dakota, according to her granddaughter Holly Foster Wells. “She was very proud of being from North Dakota,” Wells said. “… she worked hard in North Dakota, a lot of physical labor and she was always singing.”
A tip of the top hat and genuflection to Miss Peggy Lee, today celebrating the centennial of her birth. Peggy has long been one of my very favorite singers, from the day a friend turned me onto her album Sugar ‘N’ Spice in 1984. In the years since, I have delved deeply into her catalog, which is truly a gift that keeps on giving. Peggy was a towering figure in 20th century popular music. A singer for the ages, she was also one of the most accomplished lyricists in music history, and mostly at a time when very few women were songwriters, much less singer/songwriters. She was an innovator throughout her six-decade career, and, like most great artists, was restless, experimental, uncompromising, and a perfectionist. [Source: Zachary Mule]
From a young age, Holly Foster Wells was being groomed to take over her grandmother’s estate. That’s no small task when your grandmother was Peggy Lee, one of the most influential singers of the 20th century. “She didn’t want to be forgotten,” Foster Wells says from her home in the Los Angeles area. She recalls Lee telling her, “This music is going to outlive me and I need someone to manage my legacy.”
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