This story was originally broadcast by “Sunday Morning” on February 6, 2022.
Peggy Lee was awarded a Grammy in 1970 for “Is That It All There Is,” which many considered an anthem to ennui.
Is this all there is? Is this all there is? If that’s all you have, my friends, let’s dance! Let’s get out the booze to have a good time if that’s all you have.
Holly Foster-Wells, Holly Foster’s granddaughter, said that Lee was not the one she saw. “She saw it absolutely as life-affirming, hopeful, and that bad things will happen, and that you can rise above them. Have a good time and stand up. In spite of everything that may be happening, celebrate life.
Lee had much to be proud of. She was 50 years old and already a legend.
Mo Rocca, Correspondent, asked Peter Richmond, Lee biographer, “Musically how many different Peggy Lees was there?”
“Oh God, dozens!” He laughed. “There’s Latin. There’s blues. There’s jazz. There’s pop. ‘Oh, you want to me to perform “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” so that you weep? That’s possible. You want me to make “Black Coffee” so that you can think it’s like, Oh! I’m just hanging out with junkies at the kitchen table. “I can do that.”
All of the Peggy Lees can be traced back the the desolate plains in North Dakota and the girl named Norma Deloris Egstrom. Norma spent her high-school years in Wimbledon, now known as the Peggy Lee Museum.
Rocca stated, “That wind is like a rumbling.”
Foster-Wells said, “It is powerful; it feels as if it could blow down this house.”
When she was four years old, her mother had already died. Her father, who was the town’s railroad depot manger, was an alcoholic. Foster-Wells stated, “He sometimes couldn’t run it, so she would have the job of taking over.”
Worse, her father married a woman who was physically abusive. Lee later revealed that her stepmother beat Lee with a cast iron skillet.
Foster-Wells said that Foster-Wells’ grandmother said she would see the railroad tracks from her window and imagine their destination. It was a way out. She saw the railroad as a way out. Music was her other option.
She was 17 when she began singing on the radio under the name Peggy Lee. Soon after, she was touring with Benny Goodman’s band, often being the only woman on the bus.
Foster-Wells stated, “She said these men always looked after her.” Foster-Wells said, “People took her under their wings. You wanted to protect her because she had that quality.
She had cultivated a style that was as simple as the land she grew up in, and it was cool but not cold.
Foster-Wells stated, “She believed that less is more.” She would welcome you in. You had to pay attention.”
Richmond continued, “And so, for most of her life she knew that the louder she can get the room to quieten down, the better she was at it.”
Foster-Wells stated, “She said that the challenge is to not leave out the essentials – keeping them right there, minimal.”
Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman Orchestra perform “Why Don’t You Do Right?” in 1943’s musical “Stage Door Canteen”.
She met Dave Barbour while on tour with Goodman. They were married in 1943.
Foster-Wells said, “They had such chemistry together.” Foster-Wells said, “That was her love and my grandfather was her best friend.”
Peggy Lee sings “I Don’t Know Enough About You”.
Barbour had a drinking problem like her father and their marriage ended in 1951.
Foster-Wells stated, “It broke her hearts.” It fueled her music, just like it has always done.
Don’t be sad, there will be another spring. I know that our hearts will sing again and dance again. So wait for me until then
Lee was most innovative and prolific in the 1950s. She was an uncommon woman at that time. She was a singer-songwriter and had 270 songs.
Rocca asked Rocca, “As an infant, was it cool for you to know that your grandmother was part ‘Lady and the Tramp?
“That’s how I knew her from my friends!” Foster-Wells replied.
Lee co-wrote the score for the Disney classic and was also the voice of Siamese cats Darling and Peg at the dog pound.
Lee’s biggest hit was “Fever” in 1958. It featured an arrangement that she created: only bass, drums and finger snaps.
Richmond stated, “She keeps so much in. This (finger snaps), if it’s the only way to indicate what you’re singing, then that’s very powerful.
Peggy Lee was a rare sight to see live. This hypnotic rendition of “See See Rider” at Basin Street East, New York, proved that.
Foster-Wells said, “She barely moves.” Foster-Wells said, “She barely moves.” Just her face. It’s so seductive.”
Lee would soon be an icon. Foster-Wells stated, “She kinda invented that bob with the glasses.” “It’s funny, ’cause I then saw Gwen Stefani doing it the same way.”
“Probably not a coincidence!” Rocca said.
She was the inspiration for Miss Piggy Lee, originally Miss Piggy Lee in Muppets. She thought it was amazing. Foster-Wells stated, “That pig is glamourous.”
Rocca said that Miss Piggy was the Paragon of Glamor.
“Right. She’s a diva. My grandma was a diva!”
Her life was full of glamour. She made home movies of her Bel Air estate parties.
One song was her greatest unfulfilled wish.
We’ll one day build a home on a hilltop. You and I, Shiny, will fill it with a cottage. We’ll be proud to be known as “The people who live on the hill.”
Foster-Wells stated that “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” is her favorite song. It paints a picture of a happy relationship, growing older together, and having your soulmate always by your side.
Lee was married to Dave Barbour three times more, before she passed away in 2002.
Rocca asked Rocca, “And do she think that she was ultimately happy?”
Foster-Wells responded, “That’s a very complicated question.” Foster-Wells replied, “I believe she had amazing moments of happiness, but also incredible heartbreak, disappointment and fear.”
“And from where do you believe the fear came?”
“She claimed that it was actually from growing up without what she considered a home.”
One day, he disappeared and I thought that I would die. But I didn’t. And then I thought, “Is that all there’s to love?”
Foster-Wells stated, “But, she wouldn’t be Peggy Lee without this pain and heartache.” That truth is what resonates with people. I would hear her say, “This music is going to outlive me.”
Rocca said, “She knew.”
“She knew.”
More information:
Midland Continental Depot Transportation Museum, Wimbledon, N.D.
John D’Amelio produced the story. Editor: Steven Tyler.
