MUSIC BREAK: BENNY GOODMAN - LET'S DO IT

A DISCOGRAPHY MOMENT: PEGGY LEE - SEPTEMBER 14, 1950

Here is what Peggy Lee was recording for Capitol Records on this day in 1950...

September 14, 1950

Location: Capitol Recording Studio, 5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA

Label: CAPITOL
Capitol Session #1912

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour And His Orchestra (acc), Unknown (b, str, p, d), Peggy Lee (v), The Jud Conlon Choir (bkv)

a. 6607-7Master Take (Capitol) Where Are You? - 3:01(Jimmy McHugh, Harold Adamson) / arr: Richard "Dick" Hazard
CAPITOL 78 & 451298 & F 1298 — {Ay, Ay, Chug A Chug / Where Are You?} (1950)
Armed Forces Radio Service 16" Transcription DiscP 1785 - P 1786 — Basic Music Library [6 Peggy Lee vocals] (1951)
CAPITOL (10") LP(United Kingdom) Lc 6584 — Capitol Presents ... Peggy Lee (1953)

b. 6608-8Master Take (Capitol) Once In A Lifetime - 2:46(Mel Torme, Robert Wells) / arr: Richard "Dick" Hazard
CAPITOL 78 & 451244 & F 1244 — {Once In A Lifetime / Life Is So Peculiar} (1950)
Armed Forces Radio Service 16" Transcription DiscP 1725 - P 1276 — Basic Music Library [6 Peggy Lee vocals] (1950)
 CAPITOL©EMI CD7243 5 39756 2 3 — THE SINGLES COLLECTION (2002)

c. 6609-3Master Take (Capitol) Something To Remember You By - 2:51(Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz) / arr: Henry J. "Heinie" Beau
Collectors' Choice Licensed CDCcm 917 — THE LOST '40'S & '50'S CAPITOL MASTERS (2008)

MY FIVE FAVORITE FEMALE SINGERS

Since I just updated my favorite male singer list recently, I figured I better give the favorite female singers an update. There are so many great songbirds out there that have left their mark, but these are currently my five favorite...

5. ELLA FITZGERALD (1917-1996)
Ella Fitzgerald had a way with a song that no other vocalist, man or woman, had. She started out with Chick Webb and his band in the 1930s, but went out on her own after Webb died. She was with Decca Records in the 1940s, but I think my personal favorite era of her records in when she was with Verve and recorded those Great Songbook series in the 1950s and 1960s. 2013 ranking: 7

4. PEGGY LEE (1920-2002)
The smoky quality of Peggy Lee's voice always appealed to me. Peggy started out with Benny Goodman and his band in the early 1940s, and she became one of the truly great vocalists. She not only was a singer but an actress and songwriter as well. My person favorite recording of hers is "Where Can I Go Without You" on the Decca label. 2013 ranking: 11

3. CONNEE BOSWELL (1907-1976)
Even though she suffered from polio and was handicapped, Connee was one of the great voices of our times. She started out with her sisters, the Boswell Sisters, but went on her own in 1936 when her sisters got married and retired. She could sing jazz like no other woman. Her duets with Bing Crosby were legendary, and she continued to make great records through the 1950s. She did an album with Sy Oliver in 1956 that is one of the best things put on vinyl. 2013 ranking: 2

2. DINAH SHORE (1917-1994)
For the few people that remember Dinah Shore, they might think of her just from her television show of the 1970s. She was so much more, and a wonderful singer. She was discovered by Eddie Cantor, and she had countless hit records like: "Lavender Blue", "Jim", and one of my favorites
Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy". She started out with RCA Victor, but would also record with Columbia and Capitol. Her voice is audio gold. 2013 ranking: 3

1. JO STAFFORD (1917-2008)
Jo Stafford has been my favorite female singer nearly as long as Bing Crosby has been my favorite male singer. I am also honored to have gotten an autographed picture of Jo Stafford in the late 1990s. Jo started out as a member of the Pied Pipers in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, but she became a solo artist in 1943, and she was one of the first acts signed to Capitol Records. There is not enough room to list all her hits but a few include: "You Belong To Me", "Shrimp Boats", and "Make Love To Me". Jo retired from performing in 1970 while she was on top, but she had nearly perfect pitch. I have a lot of favorites by Jo, but check out her recordings of "Always True To You In My Fashion", "A Ghost Of A Chance", and "Best Things In Life Are Free" to just name a few. 2013 ranking: 1

Again, this is just my opinion as of 2019 and not a complete list. I have dozens of singers that I love and listen to. Here are five more runners up that I love as well: Billie Holiday (1915-1959), Kate Smith (1907-1986), Lee Wiley (1908-1975), Mildred Bailey (1903-1951) and Judy Garland (1922-1969)...

NEW RELEASE: PEGGY LEE - LIVE IN LONDON

The great jazz vocal stylist Peggy Lee will be celebrated by USM’s release of the 3CD/1DVD package ‘Peggy Lee – Live In London’ on December 4.

The set captures the landmark recordings by Miss Lee in the British capital, including her full live show at the London Palladium in March 1977. This recording includes outtakes, rarities and rehearsals, while the first disc is the studio album ‘Peggy,’ which like the concert itself is being released in full on CD for the first time. The DVD features the full BBC show ‘Peggy Lee Entertains’ from 1981. The set forms a comprehensive record of the only recordings Peggy ever made outside of the US.

The masterful musicality of Peggy Lee, born Norma Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota in 1920, made her one of the great names in both the jazz and pop worlds for many decades. Known for such signature songs as ‘Fever,’ ‘Mr. Wonderful,’ ‘Is That All There Is’ and her vocals for the soundtrack of such classic films as ‘Pete Kelly’s Blues’ and Walt Disney’s ‘The Lady and the Tramp,’ she won a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1995.

Lee was uniformly admired by her peers, including Louis Armstrong, who described her as “the greatest ever since I heard her chirp the first note.” Tony Bennett called her “the female Frank Sinatra,” while Sinatra himself said “her regal presence is pure elegance and charm.”

‘Peggy Lee – Live In London’ is dedicated to the memory of her producer Ken Barnes, who produced the original recordings, compiled the new set and wrote the accompanying liner notes. The British-born Barnes, who was a film-maker, songwriter and musicologist among his other talents, also worked with Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and many other great names. He sadly died on August 4 at the age of 82...

SOURCE

SINGER SPOTLIGHT: ART LUND

One of the unsung greats of the big band era was vocalist Art Lund. Many of the vocalists of that era (other than Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Jo Stafford) have faded into obscurity after the big band era was over. However, after Lund was done with the bands he had a varied and interesting career.

Born Arthur London on April 1, 1915 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lund was a popular baritone of the Big Band era whose recording of "Blue Skies" was an enduring hit throughout the 1940s. At 6 feet, 4 inches and with rugged good looks under a mop of blond hair, Lund also had a dramatic career in films, stage and television. 

He was a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, and received his master's degree from the United States Naval Academy in aerological engineering. Lund was a high school math teacher in Kentucky who worked as a musician on the side. He left teaching to tour with Jimmy Ray and his band. He originally billed himself as Art London.

His recordings of "Blue Skies," "My Blue Heaven" and "Mam'selle" became the foundation of a career that began in the late 1930s with the Benny Goodman band. One of my favorite recordings Lund made during the big band era was the song "If You Build A Better Mousetrap" in 1941, a duet with fellow Goodman vocalist Peggy Lee. The song was taken from the Paramount movie The Fleet's In.

Lund was on Broadway first in the early 1950s in a musical adaptation of "Of Mice and Men" and later in "The Wayward Stork." He was seen across the country in touring companies of "Fiorello," "No Strings" and "Destry Rides Again." "The Most Happy Fella," the Frank Loesser adaptation of "They Knew What They Wanted," was one of Broadway's biggest hits of the 1950s.

In 1968, Lund moved into films as Frazier, biggest of "The Molly Maguires" in the picture about the Irish rebel miners. His other movies included "Ten Days Till Tomorrow," "Decisions, Decisions," "Bucktown" and "The Last American Hero."

On TV he was a frequent guest on "Gunsmoke," "Police Story," "The Rockford Files," "Little House on the Prairie" and "Daniel Boone."

Lund was still singing the 1980s. He was a frequent guest at Big Band nights in Southern California, toured with the Harry James ghost band and recently sang in Australia.

Art Lund died May 31, 1990 of liver cancer in Holladay, Utah...not far from where he was born. 

PEGGY LEE: THE EARLY YEARS

One of my favorite vocalists to come out of the big band era was the great songbird Peggy Lee. Her voice was as audio aspirin to anyone who had the pleasure of hearing. She was one of the biggest recording artists at Capitol Records in the 1940s and Decca Records in the 1950s, but I wanted to profil some of her earlier and formative years.

Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota on May 26, 1920, the seventh of eight children of Marvin Olof Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad, and his wife Selma Amelia (Anderson) Egstrom. She and her family were Lutherans.^[Her father was Swedish American and her mother was Norwegian American.  Her mother died when Lee was just four years old. Afterward, her father married Min Schaumber, who treated her with great cruelty while her alcoholic father did little to stop it. Later, she developed her musical talent and took several part-time jobs so that she could be away from home.

Lee first sang professionally over KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota in the mid 1930s. . She later had her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her a salary in food. Both during and after her high school years, Lee sang for small sums on local radio stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy, of WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota (the most widely heard station in North Dakota), changed her name from Norma to Peggy Lee.  Miss Lee left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17.

She returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy, and was noticed by hotel owner Frank Beringin while working at the Doll House in Palm Springs, California. It was here that she developed her trademark sultry purr – having decided to compete with the noisy crowd with subtlety rather than volume. Beringin offered her a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel East in Chicago. There, she was noticed by bandleader Benny Goodman. According to Lee, "Benny's then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into The Buttery, and she was very impressed. So the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for a replacement for Helen Forrest. And although I didn't know, I was it. He was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking. I thought that he didn't like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing." She joined his band in 1941 and stayed for two years.

In 1942 Lee had her first No. 1 hit, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place", followed by 1943's "Why Don't You Do Right?" (originally sung by Lil Green), which sold over a million copies and made her famous. She sang with Goodman's orchestra in two 1943 films, Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl.

In March 1943 Lee married Dave Barbour, a guitarist in Goodman's band. Peggy said, "David joined Benny's band and there was a ruling that no one should fraternize with the girl singer. But I fell in love with David the first time I heard him play, and so I married him. Benny then fired David, so I quit, too. Benny and I made up, although David didn't play with him anymore. Benny stuck to his rule. I think that's not too bad a rule, but you can't help falling in love with somebody."When Lee and Barbour left the band, the idea was that he would work in the studios and she would keep house and raise their daughter, Nicki. But she drifted back to songwriting and occasional recording sessions for the fledgling Capitol Records in 1947, for whom she produced a long string of hits, many of them with lyrics and music by Lee and Barbour, including "I Don't Know Enough About You" (1946) and "It's a Good Day" (1947). With the release of the US No. 1-selling record of 1948, "Mañana", her "retirement" was over.

Thankfully Peggy did not stick to her retirement. Her time with the big bands was relatively short, but her tenure with the Benny Goodman Orchestra saw her emerging as a formidable vocalist. Her early years performing showed that she definitely had the talent, and it paved the way for her super stardom as a singer and jazz vocalists for decades to come...

HISTORY OF A SONG: BYE BYE BLACKBIRD

"Bye, Bye, Blackbird" is a song published in 1926 by the American composer Ray Henderson and lyricist Mort Dixon. It is considered a popular standard and was first recorded by Gene Austin in 1926. It was the #16 song of 1926 according to Pop Culture Madness. In 1982, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) posthumously awarded John Coltrane a Grammy Award of " Best Jazz Solo Performance" for the work on his album, Bye Bye Blackbird. Recordings of the song often include only the chorus; the verses are far less known.

The song was also copied by Charlie and His Orchestra, German Karl Schwedler, of The Templin Band during World War II as part of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda campaign. But the lyrics were changed to reflect the German political rhetoric of the time and intended to demoralize the Allied forces. The tune(s) were sung in English and aimed at United States and British troops, as well as British citizens. The song and melody were not permitted to be played in Nazi Germany because the Nazi leadership forbade progressive styles of music such as jazz.

Paul McCartney recorded the song for his 2012 album Kisses on the Bottom. McCartney said that "A lot of these songs, like 'Bye Bye Blackbird', were ones that I'd sung along with" at family gatherings.

There is much speculation about the meaning of the song. At least two commentators tribute the song to a prostitute's leaving the business and going home to her mother. As such, it is the opposite of "House of the Rising Sun," where the prostitute returns to the business. The reason for the song's apparent ambiguity is that the opening verse and the verses about the bluebird are rarely sung.

I have many recordings of this song, and it  is one of my all time favorite songs (despite what some people think the lyrics mean). My favorite recording of the song is a mournful and soulful version of the song by Peggy Lee from the movie "Pete Kelly's Blues" (1959). Another favorite version is one sung by my son. Even though he is not a professional singer, there is just something cute about a three year old singing the song...

INTERVIEW: BENNY GOODMAN

Here is a great interview with big band legend Benny Goodman. The interview took place in 1983, and Benny would die three days later. Goodman was one of the greatest clarinetists of all time...

PEGGY LEE - 1952

This is one of my favorite Peggy Lee recordings, and it is great to have video of her singing "Lover" from the movie THE JAZZ SINGER(1952). She was the female lead in the movie, opposite Danny Thomas. The movie remake is forgettable but Peggy Lee's singing is not...