Peggy Lee

The daughter of Scandinavian parents, Peggy Lee had a difficult childhood, raised by an alcoholic father and a cruel stepmother in North Dakota. She had her first big break singing on a local radio station, getting her own radio series while still at school when a colleague at the station persuaded her to change her name from Norma Egstrom to Peggy Lee. She developed her trademark sultry purr singing in night clubs and hotel residencies and was discovered in 1941 by bandleader Benny Goodman, who installed her in his band as a replacement for departed singer Helen Forrest. Lee stayed with Goodman's band for two years when she had her first Number 1 hit, Somebody Else Is Taking My Place, followed by the million-seller Why Don't You Do Right? She also featured with Goodman in the movies Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl, temporarily retiring after her marriage to guitarist Dave Barbour, with whom she wrote and recorded a series of hits like It's A Good Day and Mañana. Lee became a regular TV and radio personality and recorded her signature song Fever in 1953, a highly sensual interpretation of an old Little Willie John record. Other major hits during the 1950s included Mr Wonderful and Lover as her understated, interpretative style became very influential for other singers. She also continued to be an acclaimed songwriter, notably with her material for the Disney movie The Lady and The Tramp (He's A Tramp, Siamese Cat Song) and her collaborators included Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Lalo Schifrin and Quincy Jones. Lee's best-known film performances include The Jazz Singer and Pete Kelly's Blues and she continued to perform until she fell into bad health and died in 2002.