Description
Label Review.
Official 22 track best of to celebrate her 100th anniversary. Also available on Vinyl.
Our Overview.
The commanding Peggy Lee was one of the great female song stylists who sits among iconic female sonic alumni such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. Smoky, sensual, sultry, confident, commanding…there has never been a voice quite like that of Peggy Lee. A triple threat singer/songwriter/actress, Lee had a remarkable career in music spanning over fifty years.
Inaugurating Peggy Lee 100 is a new collection from UMe and celebrating an artist who never goes out of style, ‘Ultimate Peggy Lee’ is primed with 22 indelible performances including classic hits, five of her own compositions, and one previously unissued track, “Try a Little Tenderness,” from 1963. Whittling down Lee’s discography to one CD or 2 vinyl LPs is no easy task; she wrote over 200 songs and recorded more than 1,100. But the selection here is a fine cross-section of the songs that made Peggy Lee a one-of-a-kind superstar.
Drawing on her original Decca and Capitol recordings, the anthology boasts such timeless favourites as “Fever” (reinvented by Lee from Little Willie John’s original), the alluring “Big Spender,” “Black Coffee,” “Why Don’t You Do Right,” “The Folks Who Live on the Hill,” and two powerful anthems from Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller: “I’m a Woman” and “Is That All There Is?,” the latter with a Randy Newman arrangement. Peggy’s own songs here include “It’s a Good Day,” “I Love Being Here with You,” and “He’s a Tramp.”
Peggy scored her first chart-topper in 1942 and her final recordings were released in 1995, seven years before her death in 2002. She was an Academy Award-nominated actress (Pete Kelly’s Blues), a 13-time Grammy nominee (and two-time recipient), and a talented songwriter whose collaborators included the esteemed likes of Harold Arlen, Cy Coleman, Duke Ellington, and Lalo Schifrin. Lee was also a fierce advocate of artists’ rights, winning a highly-publicised lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company over home video exploitation of Lady and the Tramp, the 1955 film for which she supplied songs (including the immortal “He’s a Tramp” and romantic “Bella Notte,” both co-written with Sonny Burke) and the voice of – who else? – Peg. This week, The Peggy Lee Estate announced Peggy Lee 100, a centennial campaign honouring the late, great songstress and her influence across the spectrum of popular music.
Tracklisting: I Love Being Here With You / Fever / Things Are Swingin’ / I Don’t Know Enough About You / I’m A Woman / Just In Time / Hallelujah, I Love Him So / Sweet Happy Life / Alright, Okay, You Win / Too Close For Comfort / Why Don’t You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too) / It’s A Good Day / You Deserve / Heart / Big Spender / He’s A Tramp / I Wanna Be Around / Black Coffee / I’ve Got The World On A String / The Folks Who Live On The Hill / Is That All There Is? / Try A Little Tenderness*