Beech Tree News Network

“Fever” was originally recorded by Willie John.  His version sold a million copies.  But it was jazz singer Peggy Lee, in 1958, who radically reinvented “Fever” and turned it into the steamy track we know it to be. 

In 1970, Peggy Lee won a Grammy for “Is That All There Is”.  Lee saw the song as life affirming and hopeful, says her granddaughter Holly Foster Wells.  At 50, Lee was already a legend.  An artist of astonishing versatility and a master of cool, a heartbreaker and a trailblazer was Lee. There was Latin, Blues, Jazz and Pop Peggy Lee.  All those Peggy Lee’s can be traced back to North Dakota.  The girl, then named Norma Delores Egstrom spent her high school years in Wimbledon, N.D.  Her mother had died when she was just 4.  Her father was an alcoholic, so Peggy sometimes had to run the railroad depot her father managed.  Her father remarried a woman who was physically abusive. 

The railroad represented a way out for Lee.  Her other way out was music.  By 17, she was singing on the radio as Peggy Lee.  Before long, she was touring with Benny Goodman’s band, often the only woman on the bus.  They looked out for her and took her under their wing.  “She had the philosophy of “less is more”, her granddaughter said. 

It was while touring with Benny Goodman that she met guitarist Dave Barber.  They married in 1943.  Barber, like her father, had a drinking problem and the marriage ended in 1951.  The 1950’s were Lee’s most prolific and innovative period.  A rarity among women at the time, she was a singer-songwriter with 270 songs to her name. 

Peggy Lee co-wrote the score of Lady and the Tramp.  She’s the voice of the Siamese cat.  She’s Darling, the mother.  She’s also Peg in the dog pound.  In 1958, Lee had her biggest hit with “Fever” with an arrangement all her own: just bass, drums and finger snaps.  “To see Peggy Lee live was to be spellbound” said Mo Rocca, who reported the story.  Lee’s granddaughter said that she kind of came up with the bob and sunglasses.  “It’s funny because I saw Gwen Stefani doing the same thing.  No coincidence, I’m sure.

She inspired Miss Piggy, originally named Miss Piggy Lee.  Lee recorded home movies of parties at her Bel-Air estate.  Her favorite song she ever recorded was “The Folks On The Hill”, her granddaughter said.  After Dave Barber, Lee married and divorced three more times before she passed away in 2002. 

When asked where her fear came from, Lee said it came from growing up without what she really thought was a home.  “She wouldn’t have been Peggy Lee without the heartache and pain”, said Lee’s granddaughter.  She said Lee once told her “This music is going to outlive me”.  And it has.  (CBS Sunday Morning, February 6, 2022)