Peggy Lee

From Wikipedia:

Norma Deloris Egstrom[a] (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman’s big band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music. Called the “Queen of American pop music,” Lee recorded more than 1,100 masters and composed over 270 songs.

In 1963, The Beatles recorded “Till There Was You”, because Paul McCartney knew a rendition of this track by Peggy Lee released on her 1960 Capitol album, “Latin ala Lee”.

In 1965, Peggy Lee was one of the first American singers to cover a Beatles song, when she recorded “A Hard Day’s Night.”

While Peggy Lee was in London for a 1970 engagement at the Royal Albert Hall, she invited Paul and Linda McCartney to dinner at The Dorchester Hotel. At the dinner, the couple gifted Lee with a song they had written entitled, “Let’s Love”. In July 1974, with Paul McCartney producing, Lee recorded the song at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, and it became the title track for her 40th album, her only one on Atlantic Records.

I used to have records of Peggy. I did ‘Til There Was You’ because I had Peggy’s record of it [see Latin a la Lee]… So I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, you know. And she came to London and she invited us for dinner over at her hotel. So I thought ‘I’m going along to dinner. Well, I’m either gonna take a bottle of champagne or a song…‘

Paul McCartney – From Zoo World: The Music Magazine, July 18, 1974

It was such a thrill to work with Peggy Lee who had been one of my idols since a kid. Her version of ‘Til There Was You’ was what inspired me to do it with The Beatles (of course, I didn’t realise it was from the musical ‘Music Man’) so meeting and working with her was a real pleasure. She was a classy lady whose music thrilled lots of people all over the world. Happy Birthday, Peg! –

Paul McCartney, from Facebook, May 26, 2020

Albums, EPs & singles by Peggy Lee

Albums, EPs & singles which Peggy Lee contributed to

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