Ultimate Peggy Lee From UMe/Capitol Out Today
Features Previously Unreleased Recording of “Try A Little Tenderness”
Peggy Lee Decca Rarities Also Available
31-Song Collection Makes Digital Debut and Features Songs Written for Lady and the Tramp
SiriusXM’s Siriusly Sinatra Channel 71 To Air Centennial Celebration Segments Through May
Peggy Lee 100 Commemorated With New Music Releases, Tributes, Concerts and Exhibits Throughout 2020
LOS ANGELES, CA – April 17, 2020 – In conjunction with UMe/Capitol, the Peggy Lee Estate announces the digital release of Ultimate Peggy Lee, a new collection in celebration of Peggy Lee 100, a centennial celebration honoring one of the 20th century’s most important musical influences in the world of jazz and popular music.
The 22-track career retrospective set features her hits, five songs she co-wrote, as well as the previously unreleased “Try A Little Tenderness,” which makes its world debut 57 years after it was recorded. A full track listing is below. The CD and LP release will follow this summer and will include a track-by-track annotation by Peggy Lee discographer, Iván Santiago-Mercado and an introduction by Peggy Lee’s granddaughter, Holly Foster Wells.
Also available is Peggy Lee Decca Rarities, a 31-song collection making its digital debut. Though long associated with Capitol Records, for five years (1952-1956), Peggy Lee had an artistically and commercially successful recording career with Decca Records. Eleven of the featured tracks were co-composed by Lee, among these are seven songs co-written by Lee and Sonny Burke for Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, some of which did not make the final film.
Throughout 2020, the 100th anniversary of Peggy Lee’s birth—May 26, 1920—will be commemorated around the globe with music releases, notable exhibitions, special events, programming and a host of tributes and concerts, including a recently announced Hollywood Bowl tribute concert on August 5, “Miss Peggy Lee at 100 with The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra.”
Through May 31, SiriusXM’s Siriusly Sinatra Channel 71 will air a celebration of Peggy Lee’s Centennial with interview segments from Lee’s granddaughter, Holly Foster Wells.
Born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, she was christened Peggy Lee in 1937 by a local North Dakota deejay. A 13-time GRAMMY® Award-nominee, Peggy Lee helped redefine the female singer with her captivating voice, which continues to resonate with audiences of all ages. Her compositions and recordings, including “It’s A Good Day,” “I Don’t Know Enough About You” and “I Love Being Here With You,” can be heard today in countless television shows and feature films.
Best known for such songs as “Is That All There Is?,” “Fever,” “Why Don’t You Do Right,” and “I’m A Woman,” which made her a jazz and pop legend, she recorded over 50 albums and amassed over 100 chart entries. She won the GRAMMY® for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance for her 1969 hit “Is That All There Is?” In 1995, she received the GRAMMY’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Coined “the female Frank Sinatra” by Tony Bennett, Lee did something few of her male counterparts ever attempted: she wrote songs. As one of the foremothers of the singer-songwriter school, Lee ranks among the most successful female singer-songwriters in the annals of American popular music. Over her remarkable seven-decade career, singer, songwriter and composer Peggy Lee wrote over 200 songs and recorded over 1,100 masters.
Her vast and varied catalog of compositions have been covered by Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Diana Krall, Queen Latifah, Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Janelle Monae, Nina Simone, Regina Spektor and Sarah Vaughan.
Ultimate Peggy Lee [CD; digital; 2LP vinyl]
- 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*
*Previously Unreleased
Peggy Lee Decca Rarities [digital-only]
- Straight Ahead (with the Mills Brothers)8
- Me
- You Let My Love Get Cold
- I Still Get A Thrill (Thinking Of You)
- Ooh, That Kiss
- It Must Be So (with the Mills Brothers)*
- Baubles, Bangles and Beads
- Where Can I Go Without You*
- Summer Vacation
- That’s What A Woman Is For
- Never Mind
- How Strange
- Apples, Peaches and Cherries
- The Moon Came Up With A Great Idea Last Night
- How Bitter, My Sweet
- Merry-Go-Run-Around (with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby)
- It’s Because We’re in Love (with Jimmy Rowles)*
- Watermelon Weather (with Bing Crosby)
- Moon Flowers
- Pablo Pasablo
- The Possibility’s There (with Bing Crosby)
- Guess I’ll Go Back Home (This Summer)
- Bouquet of Blues
- That’s Him Over There
- Singing (‘Cause He Wants To Sing)*
- That Fellow’s a Friend of Man*
- Jim Dear*
- Old Trusty*
- What Is a Baby?*
- La La Lu*
- Bella Notte*
*Co-composed by Peggy Lee
About Peggy Lee
One of the most important musical influences of the 20th century, Peggy Lee wrote over 200 songs, recorded over 1,100 masters, and had over 100 chart hits throughout her seven-decade career. As one of the world’s first female contemporary singer-songwriters, she co-wrote and sang many of her own hits, most notably “He’s A Tramp” for Disney’s Lady and the Tramp as well as “It’s A Good Day” and “Mañana.” She’s best known for hits “Why Don’t You Do Right?” “Fever,” “I’m A Woman,” and “Is That All There Is?,” for which she won the GRAMMY® for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance. A 13-time GRAMMY® nominee, she received Lifetime Achievement awards from NARAS, ASCAP and The Society of Singers, was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Pete Kelly’s Blues. For more information about Peggy Lee, visit peggylee.com.