- One More Ride On The Merry-Go-Round
- The Long And Windind Road
- That's What Living's About
- The No-Color Time Of the Day
- Let's Get Lost In Now
- Make It With You
- Passenger Of The Rain
- I've Never Been So Happy In My Life
- You'll Remember Me
- Good-bye
Make It With You
By the early '70s
Peggy Lee was pretty much relegated to serving the easy listening contingency of music lovers.
Make It with You (1970) continues her run of moderately successful long-players for Capitol Records. Once again, she joins forces with
Mike Melvoin (conductor/arranger) and
Benny Golson
(conductor/arranger) for a ten-song collection that concentrates on
selections from concurrent -- rather than classic -- pop composers. The
Neil Sedaka/
Howard Greenfield
number "One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round" is a perfect match for the
artist's interesting and at times dark, emotive, or -- in this case --
melancholy fare.
Lee lends a similar yearning to her cover of
the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road." The score and
Lee's
delivery don't suffer from the typically heavy-handed and over the top
strings that have essentially ruined many of the well-intentioned
remakes of the
McCartney-penned ballad.
Paul Anka's
"That's What Living's About" is a quirky "stop and smell the roses"
slice of life that may make listeners of a certain demographic very
nostalgic for not only the sweet sentiment set forth in the lyrics, but
the deceptive simplicity that seems innate when referring to top-shelf
talents such as
Anka. The haunting and surreal "The No-Color Time of the Day" is one of those noir-tinged tracks that
Lee
seems to include on each of her mid- to late-'60s and early-'70s
albums. It has likewise aged better than the majority of the platter's
conservative and middle-of-the-road contents.
Lee's
jazzy roots make for a standout rendition of the
too-mod-for-its-own-good "message" song "Let's Get Lost in Now" from the
equally forgettable stage production Salvation. The title composition,
"Make It with You," reaffirms
David Gates' often underrated skills as a writer.
Lee's inviting timbre and
Melvoin's
light yet affective orchestration are completely simpatico. The
festivities begin to wind down with the bouncy and forcefully hip "I've
Never Been So Happy in My Life," followed by "You'll Remember Me" -- a
number that was blatantly recycled from an earlier
Lee LP,
Bridge Over Troubled Water (1969). "Goodbye" returns the vocalist to her status as one of America's singular torch balladeers, providing an opening for
Lee
to do what she does best, not to mention a fitting conclusion to the
endeavor. After several decades out of print, in 2008 Collectors' Choice
Music teamed
Make It with You and
Where Did They Go (1971) along with four non-LP bonus tracks onto a two-fer CD.
Peggy Lee's
alluring tone, distinctive delivery, breadth of material, and ability
to write many of her own songs made her one of the most captivating
artists of the vocal era, from her breakthrough on the
Benny Goodman
hit "Why Don't You Do Right" to her many solo successes, singles
including "Mañana," "Lover" and "Fever" that showed her bewitching vocal
power, a balance between sultry swing and impeccable musicianship.
Born
Norma Egstrom
in Jamestown, North Dakota, she suffered the death of her mother at the
age of four and endured a difficult stepmother after her father
remarried. Given her sense of swing by listening to
Count Basie
on the radio, she taught herself to sing and made her radio debut at
the age of 14. She made the jump to Fargo (where she was christened
Peggy Lee), then to Minneapolis and St. Louis to sing with a regional band.
Lee twice journeyed to Hollywood to make her fortune, but returned unsuccessful from both trips.
She finally got her big break in 1941, when a vocal group she
worked with began appearing at a club in Chicago. While there, she was
heard by
Benny Goodman, whose regular vocalist
Helen Forrest was about to leave his band.
Lee recorded with
Goodman
just a few days later, debuting with the popular "Elmer's Tune" despite
a good deal of nerves. That same year, several songs became commercial
successes including "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)" and "Winter
Weather." In 1943, "Why Don't You Do Right" became her first major hit,
but she left the
Goodman band (and the music industry altogether) later that year after marrying
Goodman's guitarist,
Dave Barbour.
After just over a year of domestic life,
Peggy Lee
returned to music, first as part of an all-star jazz album. Then, in
late 1945, Capitol signed her to a solo contract and she hit the charts
with her first shot, "Waitin' for the Train to Come In."
Lee
continued to score during the late '40s, with over two dozen chart
entries before the end of the decade, including "It's a Good Day,"
"Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" -- the most popular song of 1948 -- and
"I Don't Know Enough About You." Many of her singles were done in
conjunction with
Barbour, her frequent writing and recording partner.
After moving to Decca in 1952,
Peggy Lee scored with the single "Lover" and an LP, Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues recorded with
Ella Fitzgerald
(both singers also made appearances in the film). She spent only five
years at Decca however, before moving back to Capitol. There, she
distinguished herself through recording a wide variety of material,
including songs -- and occasionally, entire LPs -- influenced by the
blues, Latin and cabaret as well as pop.
Lee also used many different settings, like an orchestra conducted by none other than
Frank Sinatra for 1957's
The Man I Love,
the George Shearing Quintet for 1959's live appearance
Beauty and the Beat,
Quincey Jones as arranger and conductor for 1961's
If You Go, and arrangements by
Benny Carter on 1963's
Mink Jazz.
Barbour's problems with alcoholism ended their marriage, though they remained good friends until his death in 1965.
Peggy Lee
was an early advocate of rock and made a quick transition into
rock-oriented material. Given her depth and open mind for great songs no
matter the source, it wasn't much of a surprise that she sounded quite
comfortable covering the more song-oriented end of late-'60s rock,
including great choices by
Jimmy Webb,
Buffy Sainte-Marie,
Burt Bacharach,
Randy Newman,
Goffin & King and
John Sebastian. She nearly brushed the Top Ten in 1969 with
Leiber & Stoller's "Is That All There Is?" She continued recording contemporary material until 1972's
Norma Deloris Egstrom From Jamestown, North Dakota brought her back to her roots. It was her last LP for Capitol, however.
Lee
recorded single LPs for Atlantic, A&M, Polydor UK and DRG before
effectively retiring at the beginning of the 1980s. She returned in 1988
with two LPs for Music Masters that revisited her earlier successes.
Her last album,
Moments Like This,
was recorded in 1992 for Chesky. Her voice was effectively silenced
after a 1998 stroke, and she died of a heart attack at her Bel Air home
in early 2002.
