Norma Deloris Engstrom, known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning 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 over 1,100 masters and composed over 270 songs.
Lil Green was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter. She was among the leading female rhythm and blues singers of the 1940s, with a sensual soprano voice. Gospel singer R.H. Harris lauded her voice, and her interpretation of religious songs.
John Henry Hammond Jr. was an American record producer, civil rights activist, and music critic active from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century popular music. He is the father of blues musician John P. Hammond.
Wilbur "Kansas Joe" McCoy was an American Delta blues singer, musician and songwriter.
Helen Forrest was an American singer of traditional pop and swing music. She served as the "girl singer" for three of the most popular big bands of the Swing Era, thereby earning a reputation as "the voice of the name bands."
"Blues in the Night" is a popular blues song which has become a pop standard and is generally considered to be part of the Great American Songbook. The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues in the Night. The song is sung in the film by William Gillespie.
Easy Living is a 1986 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by guitarist Joe Pass. Fitzgerald was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards for her performance on this album.
The Harlem Hamfats was a Chicago jazz band formed in 1936. Initially, they mainly provided backup music for jazz and blues singers, such as Johnny Temple, Rosetta Howard, and Frankie Jaxon, for Decca Records. Their first record, "Oh! Red", became a hit, securing them a Decca contract for fifty titles, and they launched a successful recording career performing danceable music.
"I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" is a popular song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ted Koehler, published in 1932 for the Broadway show Earl Carroll's Vanities (1932). The song has become a jazz and blues standard. Popular recordings in 1933 and 1934 were those by Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman.
"What a Little Moonlight Can Do" is a popular song written by Harry M. Woods in 1934. In 1934, Woods moved to London for three years where he worked for the British film studio Gaumont British, contributing material to several films, one of which was Road House (1934). The song was sung in the film by Violet Lorraine and included an introductory verse, not heard in the version later recorded by Billie Holiday in 1935.
"I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" is a pop and jazz standard with music by Duke Ellington and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster published in 1941. It was introduced in the musical revue Jump for Joy by Ivie Anderson, who also provided the vocals for Duke Ellington and His Orchestra on the single Victor 27531. Recordings to reach the Billboard charts in 1941/42 were by Duke Ellington (#13) and by Benny Goodman (vocal by Peggy Lee) (#25).
"Stompin' at the Savoy" is a 1933 jazz standard composed by Edgar Sampson. It is named after the famed Harlem nightspot the Savoy Ballroom in New York City.
Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933–1944 is a 10-CD box set compiling the complete known studio master recordings, plus alternate takes, of Billie Holiday during the time period indicated, released in 2001 on Columbia/Legacy, CXK 85470. Designed like an album of 78s, the medium in which these recordings initially appeared, the 10.5" × 12" box includes 230 tracks, a 116-page booklet with extensive photos, a song list, discography, essays by Michael Brooks, Gary Giddins, and Farah Jasmine Griffin, and an insert of appreciations for Holiday from a diversity of figures including Tony Bennett, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, B.B. King, Abbey Lincoln, Jill Scott, and Lucinda Williams. At the 44th Grammy Awards on February 27, 2002, the box set won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album of the previous year.
Peggy Lee Sings with Benny Goodman is a jazz album by Peggy Lee backed by Benny Goodman, released in 1957.
Swing jazz emerged as a dominant form in American music, in which some virtuoso soloists became as famous as the band leaders. Key figures in developing the "big" jazz band included bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw. Duke Ellington and his band members composed numerous swing era hits that have become standards: "It Don't Mean a Thing " (1932), "Sophisticated Lady" (1933) and "Caravan" (1936), among others. Other influential bandleaders of this period were Benny Goodman and Count Basie.
Reefer Songs is a 1989 compilation album of jazz songs about drugs from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. It features notable artists and musicians of the period, including Ella Fitzgerald, Chick Webb, Cab Calloway, Sidney Bechet and Benny Goodman. Although cannabis is the main drug cited here, cocaine, benzedrine (amphetamine) and heroin are also mentioned.
This article presents the discography of the jazz singer, songwriter, and composer Peggy Lee, covering her recording career from 1941 up to 1993.
Rendezvous with Peggy Lee is the debut solo album by Peggy Lee, released on Capitol Records in 1948 on three 78-rpm shellac records. Backed by husband Dave Barbour and His Orchestra, the original record featured five jazz standards and one original composition, "Don't Smoke in Bed", which itself later became a standard. The original tune was co-penned by Lee, Barbour, and Willard Robison, but was credited only to Robison after he fell seriously ill. The album was a hit, reaching number two on the Billboard Best-Selling Popular Record Albums chart.
