Digital-only album features 49 newly remastered performances recorded for the World Broadcasting System 70 years ago

Half the collection features songs Peggy Lee recorded only once

Los Angeles, CA – June 12, 2026 – More than seventy years after they were recorded, Peggy Lee’s celebrated 1955 World Broadcast recordings return as Too Marvelous for Words, a newly restored, digital-only 49-track collection from Peggy Lee Associates. The collection is available today at all digital service providers; listen here.

Too Marvelous for Words presents the World Broadcast recordings from newly acquired, high-quality transfers of the original transcription discs. Restored, remastered, and remixed by archival producer and engineer James Sáez, whose credits include restoration projects for Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Linda Ronstadt, and the Beach Boys, the collection brings new depth, clarity, and fidelity to these intimate performances. While versions of these recordings have been available in various forms over the years, Too Marvelous for Words offers a level of musical detail and presence previously unavailable.

Recorded during four sessions in February and August 1955 for the World Broadcasting System’s radio transcription service, Lee and her ensemble captured 49 songs over roughly 14 hours, creating performances intended not for commercial sale but for syndicated radio broadcasts across hundreds of stations nationwide.

Backed by a superb group of West Coast musicians, Lee’s ensemble featured pianist Gene DiNovi, bassists Bob Whitlock and Don Prell, drummers Larry Bunker and Ray Rivera, guitarist Bill Pittman, and percussionist Jack Costanzo. The ensemble also included trumpeter Pete Candoli and harpist Stella Castellucci, both of whom were featured on Lee’s classic Black Coffee sessions (1953 and 1956).

Drawing from the work of some of America’s greatest songwriters, including Harold Arlen, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and her longtime friend and mentor Johnny Mercer, the collection features memorable interpretations of “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Just One of Those Things,” and “I Get a Kick Out of You.” She also brings fresh insight and emotional depth to Duke Ellington’s “I Got It Bad” and George Gershwin’s “Somebody Loves Me,” songs she had first recorded years earlier.

Half of the 49 performances featured on Too Marvelous for Words represent the only studio recordings Peggy Lee ever made of those songs, including “Autumn in New York,” “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.” The collection also highlights Lee’s talents as a songwriter with two of her compositions, “Sans Souci” and “It’s a Good Day.”  

Free from the constraints of recording a commercial studio album, the World sessions capture Lee at one of the most dynamic moments of her career, giving her a uniquely intimate creative space. That same year (1955), Lee co-wrote songs and voiced multiple characters for Disney’s Lady and the Tramp while earning an Academy Award nomination for her role in Pete Kelly’s Blues.

Originally distributed to stations on 16-inch transcription discs spinning at 33 RPM, these recordings were part of the World Program, a pioneering radio syndication service later overseen by broadcaster Frederick W. Ziv and his influential World Broadcasting System. Other artists who recorded for World include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Mel Tormé.

Track Listing

1. Too Marvelous for Words*
2. My Ideal*
3. My Future Just Passed*
4. Somebody Loves Me
5. I Never Knew
6. Taking a Chance on Love
7. I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful)*
8. ‘Deed I Do
9. Button Up Your Overcoat*
10. You’re Mine, You
11. Mean to Me
12. What Can I Say After I Say I’m Sorry?
13. Try a Little Tenderness
14. I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
15. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues*
16. Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me*
17. Let’s Call It a Day
18. It’s a Good Day
19. Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’*
20. Mountain Greenery*
21. The Surrey with the Fringe on Top
22. People Will Say We’re in Love*
23. Almost Like Being in Love*
24. The Best Things in Life Are Free*
25. Let There Be Love*
26. Come Rain or Come Shine
27. Fools Rush In
28. My Romance
29. We Kiss in a Shadow*
30. Speak Low*
31. What’s New?
32. Bye Bye Blackbird
33. Autumn in New York*
34. I Feel a Song Coming On*
35. You*
36. Me
37. From This Moment On*
38. Them There Eyes
39. That Old Black Magic*
40. You Do Something to Me*
41. I Get a Kick Out of You
42. What Is This Thing Called Love?*
43. Love Me or Leave Me
44. Just One of Those Things
45. Sans Souci
46. Hard-Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)*
47. It Ain’t Necessarily So
48. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
49. Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive*

*denotes the only Peggy Lee recording of that song