The Goodman Years
The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography And Videography

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Peggy Lee's Career As Benny Goodman Orchestra's Canary, 1941-1943

Peggy Lee joined The Benny Goodman Orchestra in mid-August, 1941, in Chicago. Goodman was in town to play at The Sherman Hotel's College Inn - Panther Room. He was staying at The Ambassador East, another hotel with the same management as The Sherman's. Singing across the street, at The Ambassador West's Buttery Room, was Peggy Lee.

Also staying at The Ambassador hotels was the soon-to-be Mrs. Benny Goodman (née Alice Hammond, though known then as Lady Alice Duckworth, due to her previous marriage). Alice Hammond was the first to see Peggy Lee perform at The Buttery Room. She told Goodman to go and see her, too. Both of them did, along with band's pianist (Mel Powell) and other parties. Decades later, Lee remembered singing "These Foolish Things" on that night.

Goodman had just received a resignation notice from his current canary, Helen Forrest, and hence was in need of a replacement. A very unhappy Forrest was adamant about leaving the band as soon as possible. (Yet her contract would apparently force her to stay until the end of this engagement, on August 28. Resistant to any further active participation under the leadership of Goodman, Forrest would fulfill her contractual obligation by sitting at the Sherman concerts next to the band's male vocalist -- Tommy Taylor -- and to her replacement -- Peggy Lee -- without doing any singing at all. Patrons who asked the reason for Forrest's silence were falsely told that she was suffering from a bad cold, or from laryngitis.)

Normally, a bandleader such as Goodman would have held auditions for a new canary. In this particular case, however, Goodman might have felt that the deteriorating situation with Forrest merited prompt action. Over dinner, during his attendance of Peggy Lee's performance, he was heard to mumble words along the lines of "I guess we've got to get somebody for Helen." (According to one account, Forrest had given Goodman notice on August 1, 1941. Like many other bandleaders at the time, Goodman seems to have thought of vocalists as an accessory, or even as a necessary evil, meant to appease audience members who wanted to hear vocals.) The next morning, Peggy Lee received a phone call from Goodman himself, asking her to join the band.

Peggy Lee was asked to come right away, to sing with the band at The Sherman's Panther Room. In addition to finding that she would be singing without any rehearsal, Lee initially faced complex arrangements in Helen Forrest's key, not to say anything of a hostile audience, who longed to hear the much loved Helen Forrest instead. Lee was partially overcome by a cold (possibly of psychosomatic origin) and by stage fright, stemming from her awe at the situation. (She was suddenly performing not merely with an act that she had long admired, but, more pointedly, with one of the top bands in the nation.)

About a week after hiring time, Lee was further asked to participate in what became her debut recording session -- and, just a few more days later, on a second session. These first two sessions, in August of 1941, were marred by the singer's high state of anxiety, yet they still produced recordings good enough to be deemed worth releasing.

Despite the (temporarily) adverse reception that the nervous singer met from audiences, critics, bandmembers and even the sessions' producer (see Chicago sessions below), Benny Goodman stuck to his guns, and took the singer on the road with the band -- at a pay cut -- when they moved from Chicago to the New York - New Jersey area.

In her new East Coast setting, Peggy Lee flourished both in the recording studio and, gradually, in front of live audiences. See this page's session notes for further commentary about this evolvement, and for factual data pertaining to the canary's hits, bestsellers, and other distinctions.

The exact date on which Peggy Lee joined The Benny Goodman Orchestra is unknown. The earliest record of Lee's singing (live) with the band dates from August 21, therefore postdating both of her earliest recording sessions. Vague anecdotal commentary suggests that Lee had begun singing with the band on August the 13th or the 14th (one or two days before her debut recording session). She would stay with the orchestra for over a year and a half (mid-August 1941 to mid-March, 1943).

Peggy Lee's work with Benny Goodman extends beyond the sessions listed in this page. Numerous live/radio performances from the same period (1941-1943) are extant. (See pages for radio broadcasts, once they open for viewing.) For their work together after 1943, see this page's final note.


Statistics: Number Of Songs Recorded

This discographical page lists 90 takes, recorded over 19 sessions, between August, 1941 and July, 1942. Many of those 90 takes are actually alternates, however. The actual total of different titles in this page is 32. (The number of titles could have been substantially higher, had it not been for an industry ban, which prevented recording activity during the last third of Lee's employment as Goodman's canary.) Not included in this discography are the many breakdowns, also extant, from those 19 sessions.


D. Russell Connor: Benny Goodman's Bio-discographer

My discographical page of Benny Goodman - Peggy Lee recordings has as its primary source the authoritative work of Donald Russell Connor. His earliest publications were Benny Goodman: Off The Record (1958) and Benny Goodman: On The Record (1969), the latter co-written with Warren W. Hicks. Those initial texts saw heavy expansion when Russell Connor updated their combined contents into Benny Goodman: The Record Of A Legend (1984), and then, in his definitive book Benny Goodman: Listen To His Legacy (1988). In 1996, the indefatigable discographer published yet another text, Benny Goodman: Wrappin' It Up (1996), which was dedicated to additions and corrections to the previous, 1988 opus. Russell Connor is not only the expert in all things Goodman but also the discographer credited with creating the concept of a "bio-discography."


Issues Excluded

This page does not attempt to list every CD or LP that contains a Peggy Lee recording with Benny Goodman. Doing so would mean tracking down and including dozens and dozens of Public Domain various-artists compilations, in which one or two recordings have been included. I aim instead at listing all issues credited to Peggy Lee (irrespective of whether they are legitimate or Public Domain). As for issues credited to Benny Goodman, the following types are included:

1. Official American issues credited to Benny Goodman. By official, I mean those which were released by Columbia, the label's owners, affiliates and branches. (Sony, CBS, Okeh, Harmony.) Non-American issues have not been listed on this page, aside from a few, important exceptions, of interest to Peggy Lee collectors.
2. Benny Goodman issues from reputable, collectors'-oriented specialty labels (Phontastic, Merritt, Classics, Ajaz, Jazum.) Otherwise, no Public Domain Benny Goodman issues.

On the matter of various-artists compilations, this page limits inclusion to American ones released by the aforementioned official labels. Again, no Public Domain issues.


Extant Alternate Takes And Other Technicalities

Some of the alternate takes listed in this page are not extant in Columbia's vaults. Instead, they have been discovered in reference tapes, kept by Benny Goodman and by other session participants. Naturally, Columbia's logs do not list those takes. They are accounted for, however, in the books of D. Russell Connor, who had access to Goodman's personal tape collection.

For my own discographical purposes, listing such unissued alternate takes has posed a minor difficulty: they lack an identifying number, and thus cannot be visually differentiated from other takes. For instance, all three unissued alternate takes of "I See A Million People" (recorded on August 20, 1941), bear only their matrix identification (CCO 3982), with no additional number to distinguish one from the other. I have solved this problematic lack of identification by adding a letter ("A," "B," "C," etc.) to the takes in question. (I have placed each letter between quotation marks to reinforce the fact that this device is not found in my sources, but is instead of my own creation.)

As for this page's numbered alternate takes (1, 2, 3), Columbia itself gave them their identifying number. Columbia's practice was to number each take in the order in which they were released. For example, the number 1 was assigned to the take of "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" that was originally chosen for (78) release. Later on, when another take was picked for (LP) release, that take received the number 2. Therefore, take numbers have nothing to do with the sequence or order in which they were recorded during any given session. Case in point: in the session below where "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" appears (November 13, 1941), take 2 precedes take 1.

In a few instances, Columbia's logs and Russell Connor's discographies are at odds. A main reason why: the bio-discographer has re-assigned a few takes to another recording date -- usually, the recording date that follows the one stated in the label's logs. Because Russell Connor based such re-assignments on his direct acquaintance with the session's actual tapes, I have followed his lead.

Finally, it should be noted that Goodman did not always record his sessions' takes in a consecutive, neatly ordered sequence. "On occasion," Russell Connor explains," Benny would first record one or more takes of [a] tune, switch to one or more takes of [another] tune, then eventually return to additional takes of the [initial] tune." This is actually an area in which Russell Connor's discographies do not reflect fact. In a concession to the general reader's need for order and simplicity, he has generally grouped together takes of the same tune even in those cases when he knows, from listening to the original tapes, that the order was not consecutive. Since I myself have not listened to those tapes (nor do I have any other source that may reflect the accurate take sequence), the order chosen by Russell Connor is the one that I am presenting in this page. (At any rate, Connor's wording suggests that such shifting between masters was not a frequent occurrence.)

The Benny Goodman Orchestra (ldr), John Hammond (pdr), Benny Goodman (cl), Skip Martin, Clint Neagley (as), George Berg, Vido Musso (ts), Chuck Gentry (bar), Billy Butterfield, Al Davis, Jimmy Maxwell, Cootie Williams (t), Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity (tb), Tom Morgan (g), John Simmons (b), Mel Powell (p), Sid Catlett (d), Peggy Lee (v)

At The Recording Session

This date marked the first time that George Berg, Peggy Lee, Vido Musso, and Clint Neagley recorded with The Benny Goodman Orchestra. The three saxophonists had joined the band during the previous month (July), while the vocalist had just joined, in this very month of August. None of the four newcomers fared particularly well during their initial session. What's more, the band's collective effort on the novelty "Elmer's Tune" was dismissed by various trade critics, and dissed by some fans of note. Even Goodman's bio-discographer, D. Russell Connor, has deemed the sound of the entire reed section "very ragged," and has added that the vocalist's work would show improvement during the next session (held five days after this one).

In her autobiography, Peggy Lee quotes Mel Powell's recollection of her debut session: "Columbia Records, to whom Benny was contracted, always came to wherever the band was playing. So they arrived in Chicago to record. There Peg was, making a recording with Benny Goodman just a day or two after she joined the band. She met CBS producer John Hammond in the control room, and he handed her the sheet music for Elmer's Tune. This was a pretty tough rap for a kid. There was no taping on those days. You just made records. If you blew something, you started from the beginning. You didn't say, 'Well, let's take it from measure 39 and splice it.' She was so nervous. The sheet music John handed her made such a racket, and they didn't have high-tech ways of beating that, so unfortunately, it sounded like a forest fire that was going over the brass, over the saxophones. Peggy had probably been up all night learning this thing, and then she came in, and the arrangement was disorienting because Elmer's Tune was very clever, very fancy, full of stuff."

Powell proceeds to explain how he and Lee met in an adjacent room, and he helped her by creating a cue especially for her. ("I'm just gonna pop that in there in the midst of what seems to be just a ramble over the band while the band's playing," the pianist remembers telling her.)


Songs

1. Elmer's Tune
Peggy Lee did not remember fondly her recording of "Elmer's Tune." A 1983 interviewer describes Lee as involuntarily shuddering at the mention of the tune: "Oh, that. First, I hated 'Elmer's Tune,' and second, it was in Helen Forrest's key ... it was very difficult for a while because [Helen Forrest] had so many fans. At the beginning I don't think the people wanted to hear me at all."

The artist's dislike of the song is understandable. An uptempo number whose lyricist is said to have been a Chicago undertaker (and who named the tune after himself), the novelty contains tongue-twisting, key-changing lyrics: "What makes a lady of eighty / Go out on the loose / Why does the gander / Meander in search of a goose / What put a kick in a chicken / The magic in June / It's just Elmer's tune" .... The song, better suited for a vocal group to sing, is not likely to have struck Lee as an ideal number to make her debut with the band -- a top band that she had hugely admired for years, and which was so abruptly bringing her into its fold.

By the time that The Benny Goodman Orchestra recorded it, "Elmer's Tune" was already a top hit, thanks to another version, by The Glenn Miller Orchestra. Miller's version had been released on RCA's budget label Bluebird, with joint vocals by Ray Eberle and The Modernaires. Columbia itself already had its own hit version of the tune, as recorded by Dick Jurgens and His Orchestra, and released on Columbia's own budget label, Okeh. Goodman's version was issued in the pricier Columbia label.

The Benny Goodman - Peggy Lee version of "Elmer's Tune" is actually reported to have enjoyed some degree of popularity, at least in the Chicago area. (Reports come from paper trade accounts, which are vague as to specifics.) The song might have owed its further, continued popularity to its belated inclusion in the 1942 Universal movie Strictly In The Groove. (There was even a follow-up, titled "Elmer Done It Again.") For another song that was featured in the same movie, and with which Peggy Lee fared substantially better (taking it to #1 in the radio airwaves), see "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place," under session dated November 13, 1941.


Masters And Issues

1. Elmer's Tune
Columbia Legacy's 1993 CD Benny Goodman Featuring Peggy Lee wrongly identifies "Elmer's Tune" as a previously unissued title. As shown here, the song had been first issued in 1941. Probably, the makers of the CD meant to identify the CD's track not as a previously unissued number but as an alternate take that had been previously unissued. (This alternate take had actually been issued before, on a fan club LP, but not on official label Columbia and its affiliates.)

2. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this session was the instrumental "The Birth Of The Blues" (master 3951).


Arrangements

1. Elmer's Tune
The arranger of "Elmer's Tune" was either Mel Powell or Eddie Sauter. Confusion (about which of them should get the credit) remains.

Mel Powell is listed as "pianist/arranger" of "Elmer's Tune" in the track listing of various Columbia Legacy CDs (53422, 65686). However, the liner notes of one of those CDs (53422) allude instead to Eddie Sauter as the arranger.

Powell's own comments about the session, quoted in Lee's autobiography, vaguely point to Sauter as the arranger.

For his part, bio-discographer D. Russell Connor lists Mel Powell as this session's pianist, and as the arranger of the session's other performance (an instrumental, "The Birth of The Blues"). However, Connor does not list any arranger for "Elmer's Tune," thereby suggesting that he, too, is uncertain about its arranger's identity.


Location

None of the sources consulted identifies the exact location of Benny Goodman's Chicago (and New York) sessions. Russell Connor refers in one instance to "Chicago's Columbia Studios," but does not provide any specifics.

The Benny Goodman Orchestra (ldr), John Hammond (pdr), Benny Goodman (cl), Skip Martin, Clint Neagley (as), George Berg, Vido Musso (ts), Chuck Gentry (bar), Billy Butterfield, Al Davis, Jimmy Maxwell, Cootie Williams (t), Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity (tb), Tom Morgan (g), John Simmons (b), Mel Powell (p), Sid Catlett (d), Peggy Lee (v)

At The Recording Session

1. John Hammond
It was at this session (not in the previous one, contrary to what some accounts would lead readers to believe) that producer and critic John Hammond tried to get rid of the band's brand new canary. In Russell Connor's words, "Benny was also annoyed with John Hammond during this session. With Helen Forrest on notice, John kept bugging Benny to hire Billie Holiday, get rid of Peggy Lee, who 'just cahn't sing, Benny, she really cahn't.' Benny put a stop to that by throwing a chair at his future brother-in-law." Hammond had also been present during the previous Chicago session. In his book Benny Goodman And The Swing Era, James Lincoln Collier also makes some points related to Hammond's influence in the hiring and firing of personnel: "Hammond's meddling was frequently resented by the members of the band, said [Helen] Ward, in part because they felt they knew more about how the music should be played than Hammond did, and partly because they knew his tastes were fickle, and he might at any moment start urging Benny to fire any of them in favor of somebody he had recently heard." No mention of Hammond is made, however, in any of Peggy Lee's subsequent big band sessions (which took place not in Chicago but in New York, starting over a month later), although Hammond is known to have kept his negative opinion about Lee in her canary role.


Masters

1. World Transcription Recordings
2. Mysterious, Unknown 1941 Peggy Lee Recordings?
Discographer D. Russell Connor makes reference to some mysterious Goodman & Lee sides, whose existence remains in doubt: "music press reports at this time [late August, 1941] claimed Benny recorded some sides with vocals by Peggy for World Transcriptions. Benny has no recollection of such a session, cannot imagine under what circumstances it would have occurred."

I have no knowledge of any such early World transcriptions by Lee, either. Misinterpretation could have stemmed from the fact that, between 1939 and 1941, Columbia Records occasionally made use of the World Broadcasting System's studio, in New York. If perchance some of Goodman-and-Lee's Columbia sides were recorded at World, such sides could have been mistaken for World transcriptions.

Another possible source of confusion: some 1940's transcriptions are actually re-pressings of studio recordings. For instance,
Goodman-and-Lee's Columbia recordings of "I See A Million People," "On The Sunny Side Of The Street," and "Why Don't You Do Right" were all pressed onto Armed Forces Radio transcriptions. (See page for War and Government Transcriptions, once it opens for viewing.) Press reports could have thus confused some of the AFRS material with World transcriptions.

In any case, the press reports should not be automatically dismissed or considered wrong, until more research is conducted in this area. As of May of 2008, however, there is no evidence of 1941 recordings by Lee with Goodman, aside from those listed herein.

3. I See A Million People
This session's three unissued masters of "I See A Million People" were not kept in Columbia's vaults, and therefore are not listed in Columbia's files. Discographer Russell Connor explains that they were found in the possession of audio engineer Bill Savory, who kept them as souvenirs of the session after they were discarded. (Savory became involved in the session once Goodman himself asked Savory to come by. Goodman "was unhappy with the engineering in Columbia's Chicago studios," according to Russell Connor.)

4. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this session were the instrumentals "The Birth Of The Blues" (master 3951; a remake) and "Clarinet A La King" (master 3980).


Crossreferences

1. My Old Flame
For a Goodman-and-Lee remake of "My Old Flame," see October 2, 1941 session, master 31392. After she became a solo artist, the song was actually recorded by Lee two more times, once for Decca (session June 7, 1956) and once for Capitol (session dated February 28, 1969). It is the only song that Peggy Lee recorded in each of the three main decades of her discographical career.

The Benny Goodman Orchestra (ldr), Benny Goodman (cl), Skip Martin, Clint Neagley (as), George Berg, Vido Musso (ts), Chuck Gentry (bar), Billy Butterfield, Al Davis, Jimmy Maxwell, Cootie Williams (t), Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity (tb), Tom Morgan (g), Morty Stuhlmaker (b), Mel Powell (p), Jo Jones (d), Peggy Lee (v)

At The New York Recording Sessions

By this late September recording date, more than a month had elapsed since Peggy Lee had joined The Benny Goodman Orchestra. She had spent the intervening weeks traveling across the nation and singing with the band, on a daily basis, at various concert venues. During such live concerts, Goodman's former vocalist Helen Forrest was no longer the uncomfortable presence that she had been in Chicago a month earlier, when Forrest had been forced to sit next to Peggy Lee at the podium, due to contractual obligations. (Forrest would sit but would not sing at all, to the obvious consternation and resentment of concertgoers.) It would still take a few months for the new vocalist to find full approval from many Goodman fans, who continued to pine after the then-celebrated vocals of Forrest. But by the next year (1942), Peggy Lee would begin to place high in "favorite canaries" polls. She would end up leaving the band (1943) at the height of her popularity as a canary, thanks to her much-played recording of "Why Don't You Do Right."

Recording in New York rather than Chicago, with this session Lee had a fresh re-start in the recording studio. New arrangements (especially those by Mel Powell) were now being tailored for Lee's range. She would record them along with some leftovers (by Eddie Sauter) from Helen Forrest's period. On at least two recording dates, including this one, Peggy Lee also became involved in the area of song selection. (See immediately below, under Songs, and also under the session dated July 27, 1942.) As for the rather nefarious presence of John Hammond in the studio, it is not known whether he actively produced or even attended the New York sessions. Be that as it may, the sources extant make no further mention of discontent with Lee's vocals, from any of the session's members.

On the contrary, the vocalist would soon prove a hit-making machine, to Goodman's obvious satisfaction. Hit vocals would be turned in at this session and at the next one. Subsequent sessions resulted in not only further hits but also a couple of top sellers.

Lee's increasing ascent in Goodman's and in his band's estimation culminated with her participation in two of the bandleader's prestigious, elite sextet sessions, in which she was given a prominent role. (See sessions dated December 24, 1941 and March 10, 1942.) The ballads from those sextet sessions ("Where Or When," "The Way You Look Tonight") display a very personalized singing style, which might hark back to the years before she had become a member of Goodman's big band orchestra. (Peggy Lee's integration in the band had entailed the adjustment of her vocals to the demands of a dance-oriented beat, craved by the nation.)

As for the specifics surrounding this initial New York recording session, Peggy Lee is not directly involved in the few anecdotal details that have been passed down, over the ensuing decades. (The session has long piqued the curiosity of Goodman fans because of its apparent problems in the area of percussion, which led to the recording of various drumless takes.)


Location

None of the sources consulted identify the exact location of Benny Goodman's Chicago and New York sessions. For the New York sessions, Liederkranz Hall is a prime suspect. In various interviews, Lee and Goodman corroborate that they indeed recorded together in this hall, which was then located between Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue. However, such general comments by the artists cannot guarantee that each of the New York sessions (16, in total) took place at the same location. (Columbia is known to have also had four recording studios at a penthouse facility, located on 799 Seventh Avenue. The label would acquire yet a third facility in the late 1940s, and would occasionally record in the World Transcriptions' studio.) Hence the present discography lists Liederkranz only in sessions for which the location has been corroborated by the actual participants.


Songs

1. Let's Do It
According to D. Russell Connor, "Let's Do It" was Peggy Lee's "first big hit" with The Benny Goodman Orchestra and "a must in her repertoire for years." Rather than popularity in radio airplay, Connor seems to be referring to audience response in concert: "Peggy's sexy treatment of those clever lyrics," he writes, "was a looked-for highlight of Benny's dance and radio dates of wartime '40's." The song's suggestive title probably kept it away from the airwaves, not merely in 1941 but also after and certainly before, right from its initial appearance, 13 years earlier (1928).

"Let's Do It" constitutes Lee's first active contribution (or suggestion) to the band's repertoire, and as such, an indication that she was gaining a footing as a member of Goodman's ensemble. Lee told radio broadcaster Fred Hall that she had been previously singing the song solo, during her days at Chicago's Ambassador Hotel. In her autobiography, the singer further clarified how she became acquainted with the Cole Porter number. "Rather late at night after I sang," writes Lee, "I would go to Rush Street and hear Laura Ricker [sic; Rucker] and Baby Dodds [brother of Johnny Dodds] -- two of the truly old-time greats. Laura played the piano and sang, Baby sang and played the drums ...... she taught me how to sing songs like Let's Do It ... They both had quite an effect on me, and, without reservation, I loved them very much."

The number was re-recorded by Lee and The Benny Goodman Orchestra again on October 21, in the more formally sung version that has become best-known through continued issuing.

However, the takes from this session reveal a looser, adventuresome and tongue-in-cheek vocal approach. It's an approach that arguably points to not only Laura Rucker's influence but also Lee's more relaxed state of mind by the time of this recording date. (As previously mentioned, she had spent weeks performing and traveling with the band and, from here on, sessions would take place at a new facility in a new city, without any known intrusion from John Hammond.)


Masters And Takes

1. How Deep Is The Ocean
Columbia does not seem to have released any of this session's takes of "How Deep Is The Ocean" before the CD era. For the take originally issued by Columbia on 78, see remake session dated October 8, 1941. The first two takes (A and B) of "How Deep Is The Ocean" differ from the last two (1 and 2) in instrumentation: drums are present in the first two, absent in the last two.

2. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this session was the instrumental "The Earl" (master 31364) and the song " 'Tis Autumn" (master 3136), which features a vocal by Tommy Taylor.

3. Sequence Of Takes
During the session, the band actually recorded numerous takes of both "The Earl" and "How Deep Is The Ocean." Word of mouth suggests that Goodman was dissatisfied with the session's drummer. Extant on tape is the recording sequence, beginning with two completed takes of "How Deep Is The Ocean," which are followed by various takes of "The Earl," some complete, some aborted. More takes of the two songs are then recorded, but without drums. When queried decades later, a hesitant Goodman inferred that the sometimes problematic acoustics at Leiderkranz Hall had led him and his engineer to get rid of the drums. Adding to the session's peculiarities is the fact that the drummer in question was not the band's regular drummer at the time, Sid Cattlett (part of the ensemble until October, when Ralph Collier took over).


Personnel

1. Jo Jones
Jo Jones on takes A and B of "How Deep Is The Ocean" only. Jones out on all other takes and masters.


Arrangements

1. Let's Do It
"Let's Do It" began as a head arrangement, later polished by Mel Powell. See also notes under session dated October 21, 1941.


Issues

1. Okeh 6474 (78) And "Let's Do It"
"Let's Do It" and the instrumental "The Earl" were originally issued not on Columbia but on the budget Okeh label. Discographer Russell Connor deems the choice of label as "a strategical move to counter RCA's low-priced Bluebird releases."

A peculiarity of that Okeh 78 is that not all pressings featured the same take of "Let's Do It." The pressing that contains take 4 (not take 2) is considered an extremely rare collectible.

2. Elmer's Tune (LP) And "Let's Do It"
In the update (1996) to his Benny Goodman bio-discography (1988), D. Russell Connor corrects what he believes to be an error of his: a supposed misidentification, in the 1988 text, of take 2 of "Let's Do It" as the one heard on the LP Elmer's Tune. The LP, he says, contains instead take 4, recorded during a later session (October 20, 1941). An inspection of the actual LP reveals that Connor was actually right in 1988 and that he is partially right in 1996, too. The LP in fact contains both takes of the song (2 and 4). I have thus disregarded Russell Connor's recommendation in this one instance.

3. Peggy Lee & Benny Goodman: The Complete Recordings
Columbia's 2-CD set contains two versions of the song How Long Has This Been Going On. One take is from a remake session, found below, dated October 8, 1941.

The other take is listed as coming from this session, and as originally released in 1941. That information must be partially erroneous: none of this session's takes of How Long Has This Been Going On were released in 1941.

Moreover, there is some doubt as to which 1941 take is the one heard in that 2-CD set. The set identifies its take as number 1. However, collector Bill "Mr. Alternate Take" Brooks hears otherwise. Brooks believes that the take in the CD is the one identified here as A. Take A has also been issued on LP (Blu-Disc 1015). Because I have not been able to listen to Blu-Disc 1015, I cannot corroborate or deny his claim. However, I have certainly listened to the questionable take on the 2-CD set, and I do hear the presence of a drummer. Such detail (i.e., a drummer's presence) makes it likelier that the take in question is either A (as proposed by Bill Brooks) or otherwise B -- not 1 nor 2. For that reason, I have followed Brooks' lead, tentatively identifying the take on the CD set as A.


Crossreferences

1. Let's Do It
For additional takes of "Let's Do It," and for a peculiarity of issue Okeh 6474, see session dated October 21, 1941, including notes.

The Benny Goodman Orchestra (ldr), Benny Goodman (cl), Skip Martin, Clint Neagley (as), George Berg, Vido Musso (ts), Chuck Gentry (bar), Billy Butterfield, Al Davis, Jimmy Maxwell, Cootie Williams (t), Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity (tb), Tom Morgan (g), Morty Stuhlmaker (b), Mel Powell (p), Sid Catlett (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

1. "I Got It Bad" In The Charts
According to Joel Whitburn's estimates in his book Pop Memories, 1890-1954, "I Got It Bad" was Peggy Lee's first chart hit. Her version peaked at number 25 in the week of November 15. (Duke Ellington's own version, with a vocal by Ivie Anderson, had naturally seen release first, and it had peaked a month earlier, at number 13.)

The soon-to-become-a-standard "I Got it Bad" was the first of Peggy Lee's 10 chart hits as vocalist with The Benny Goodman Orchestra. During Lee's stay with the band, her vocal recordings actually accounted for the bulk of airplay hits by the ensemble. Only two of Goodman's instrumentals seem to have made a significant wave on radio airplay within that time -- along with three vocals by Dick Haymes, who was the orchestra's male singer for a very short period. (This is not to say that Lee, per se, should be significantly credited with the band's success, as some extreme fans have occasionally tried to argue. For starters, it must be noted that Goodman had had well over a hundred radio hits before Lee joined the band -- many of them featuring other female vocalists. Still further, Goodman would go on to have about thirty more hits after Lee left his orchestra. Herein, my intention is only to show that Peggy Lee became increasingly popular during her years with the band.)


Masters

1. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this session were the instrumentals "Caprice XXIV Paganini" (master 31390), "Clarinet A La King" (master 31393) and "I'm Here" (master 31402).


Collectors' Corner

1. CD Vocalists (70 Oz. Series)
The woman shown in the front cover of this various-artists compilation is obviously a young Peggy Lee, in a curious drawing that updates her attire to contemporaneous times. (n. b.: My copy of this CD identifies it as a Sony product, but it also features prominently the label "Compose CD's & cassettes," plus the lgend "distributed by PPI Entertainment Group, a division of Peter Pan Industries, Inc.)


Cross-references

1. My Old Flame
For an earlier version of "My Old Flame," see August 20, 1941 session, master 3981.

The Benny Goodman Orchestra (ldr), Benny Goodman (cl), Skip Martin, Clint Neagley (as), George Berg, Vido Musso (ts), Chuck Gentry (bar), Billy Butterfield, Al Davis, Jimmy Maxwell, Cootie Williams (t), Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity (tb), Tom Morgan (g), Sid Weiss (b), Mel Powell (p), Sid Catlett (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

1. "How Deep Is The Ocean"
In his book The Swing Era, Gunther Schuller singles out for praise Eddie Sauter's arrangements of How Deep Is The Ocean and My Old Flame. He also writes approvingly of how Peggy Lee's suitably "unemotional, virtually passive" singing of How Deep Is The Ocean "drifts across the song like a slow-moving distant cloud in the sky." This assessment of the singer's craft as pictorial poetry would have probably pleased Lee herself.

2. "How Deep Is The Ocean" in The Charts
Columbia did not release Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman's version of "How Deep Is The Ocean" until September of 1945. (Perhaps the record label was trying to capitalize on Peggy Lee's incipient success at rival label Capitol?) According to Joel Whitburn's estimates in his book Pop Memories, 1890-1954, "How Deep Is The Ocean" peaked at #19 on the week of October 6, 1945, and belatedly became Lee's 10th charting success as Goodman's canary.


Masters

1. A Remakes Session
This was one of three consecutive sessions which Goodman partially or completely dedicated to remaking previously recorded songs. (Peggy Lee did not participate in the third one, dated October 23.)

"How Deep Is The Ocean" had been first recorded on the September 25 session. This session's version was given the same master number, with a 3 assigned to the completed take.

Two songs from this session would be remade in the session following this one (October 21): the above-listed "Shady Lady Bird" and also "Buckle Down, Winsocki," which does not feature Lee.

2. "How Deep Is The Ocean"
As noted by Richard Sudhalter in his essay for the Columbia Legacy CD Benny Goodman Featuring Peggy Lee, the singer reverses the first two lines of "How Deep Is The Ocean." Because the same pattern is present in all takes, the reversal is presumed to have been intentional, perhaps requested by the bandleader or the arranger. Sudhalter wonders if the change was motivated by a desire to start the vocal with its title.

3. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this session were the instrumentals "Roll 'Em, Part 1" and "Roll 'Em, Part 2," to which Columbia did not assign a master number. A fifth recording from this session was "Buckle Down, Winsocki" (master 31427), whose vocal was sung by the musicians in chorus, and by the orchestra's new male vocalist, named Tommy Dix or Tommy Taylor. (His membership with The Benny Goodman Orchestra seems to have lasted a couple of weeks, at most.)


Dating

1. "Shady Lady Bird"
In addition to the four takes listed in this session, yet four more takes of "Shady Lady Bird" can be found in the next session (October 21). The dating of these takes is problematic. Columbia's database places all the takes that it lists in just one session (this one). Nevertheless, discographer D. Russell Connor believes otherwise. Because he has inspected both Columbia's 16" safeties and reference tapes originally in Goodman's possession, I am trusting his judgment on this matter. His proposed distribution is thus the one that I have followed in this Peggy Lee discography.


Issues And Collectors' Corner

1. Co 36429 (78)
The issue Columbia 36429 exists in two different pressings. The rarer pressing contains this session's take 1 of "Shady Lady Bird." The other pressing contains take 3, listed in this discography under a different date (October 21, 1941). The two pressings can be told apart by inspecting the typeface used on the song's title. The pressing with take 3 shows the standard size for Columbia's typeface, whereas the other pressing uses a larger typeface.


Personnel

1. Cootie Williams
According to discographer Russell Connor, trumpet player Cootie Williams stayed with the band until October 31, when his one-year contract expired. Connor adds that Williams is present in extant broadcasts from later in October. However, this early October session is the last one to include Williams amidst its personnel, according to Columbia's logs.

The Benny Goodman Orchestra (ldr), Benny Goodman (cl), Clint Neagley, Julie Schwartz (as), George Berg, Vido Musso (ts), Chuck Gentry (bar), Billy Butterfield, Al Davis, Jimmy Maxwell (t), Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity (tb), Tom Morgan (g), Sid Weiss (b), Mel Powell (p), Ralph Collier (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters And Cross-references

1. A Remakes Session
This was a session entirely dedicated to remakes: "Let's Do It" (previously recorded on September 25), "Shady Lady Bird" and "Buckle Down Winsocki" (both originally recorded on October 8). It should be noted that, in Columbia's official logs, only the takes of "Let's Do It" are listed under this date. As for the other songs' takes, Columbia's log lists some of them under the earlier, October 8 session (specifically: take 2 and 3 of "Shady Lady Bird" and also various takes of "Buckle Down Winsocki"). However, Goodman's discographer has re-assigned them to this session. Russell Connor's re-assignment is based on actual listening to tapes from the session, and I have followed his lead here.

2. Non-Lee Masters
"Buckle Down Winsocki" is the only non-Lee master recorded during this session. Initial takes of "Buckle Down Winsocki" featured vocals by Tommy Dix, whereas later takes featured Benny Goodman himself on vocals. Also singing in all takes, as a chorus: the musicians.


Arrangements

1. "Let's Do It"
"Let's Do It" began as a head arrangement, and was later polished by Mel Powell. This was a tune with which, in Peggy Lee's own words,
"we fooled around ... quite a bit. I guess you'd have to say Mel Powell was responsible for the arrangement as it was finally recorded."

2. "Shady Lady Bird"
In the track listing of Columbia Legacy CD 53422 (Peggy Lee And Benny Goodman), Eddie Sauter is identified as the arranger of "Shady Lady Bird." Also in that CD's liner notes, writer and musician Richard M. Sudhalter confidently gives his opinion that Sauter is the arranger, too.

On the other hand, Columbia Legacy CD 65686 credits Mel Powell with this arrangement.

Relying on Sudhalter's aural expertise, I have tentatively accepted Sauter as the arranger of "Shady Lady Bird." (As for Russell Connor's discography, arrangers are listed for the session's other two songs -- Cliff Jenkins in the case of the instrumental "Buckle Down Winsocki" -- but not for "Shady Lady Bird." Obviously, Connor does not have definite knowledge on the arranger's identity.)


Issues

1. Okeh 6474 (78)
"Let's Do It"
A peculiarity of this 78 is its existence in two versions: one that contains takes 2 of "Let's Do It," the other take 4. The pressing that contains take 4 is deemed an extremely rare collectible.

2. Co 36429 (78)
"Shady Lady Bird"
This 78 also exists in two pressings. See notes under session dated October 8, 1941.

3. Peggy Lee And Benny Goodman (CD)
"Shady Lady Bird"
Columbia Legacy's CD Peggy Lee And Benny Goodman identifies its performance of "Shady Lady Bird" as take 3, yet dates it October 8. In doing so, the CD's producers were just following Columbia's database, which indeed lists all takes of "Shady Lady Bird" under the same date. I have instead followed the modified dating which discographer D. Russell Connor proposed, after he listened to the sessions' tapes. As shown above, take 3 receives an October 21 dating from Connor.

The Benny Goodman Orchestra (ldr), Benny Goodman (cl), Clint Neagley, Julie Schwartz (as), George Berg, Vido Musso (ts), Chuck Gentry (bar), Billy Butterfield, Al Davis, Jimmy Maxwell (t), Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity (tb), Tom Morgan (g), Sid Weiss (b), Mel Powell (p), Ralph Collier (d), Peggy Lee (v)

At The Recording Session

This was the first session entirely dedicated to songs with vocals by Peggy Lee. It generated Lee's first number one hit.

Judging from the patter that has been preserved, it also seems to have been a fun date. In the audio, Lee is "charged" with a mistake that, as it turns out, she had not made. The "non-mistake" occurred during the recording of That Did It, Marie, toward the session's end. D. Russell Connor reports: "Benny, evidently at a different microphone and watching the band, believes that Peggy has missed her entrance cue; he terminates the recording by exclaiming, in meter, 'Where the hell's the vocalist?' But Peggy is on time, and Benny realizes he's wrong; he says he's sorry, but asks, 'Why didn't you tell me about it?' The session proceeds [...]; as if to compensate, Benny digs hard. Peggy then saucily adds a bop phrase -- a a diddle la dip, When all the cats gave out their jive -- not on the original [...], seemingly in retaliation for the boss' blunder. Fun and games in the studio..."


Songs

1. Somebody Else Is Taking My Place In The Charts
According to Joel Whitburn's estimates in his book Pop Memories, 1890-1954, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" topped the charts for three consecutive weeks, starting on March 7, 1942. Released on Columbia's budget imprint Okeh, the top record stayed in the charts for a total of 15 weeks.

Chronologically, it was the second of Peggy Lee's records to make the chart, though the fourth to actually peak. (For her very first chart hit, see session dated October 2, 1941. For the two records that were released after, but peaked before "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place," see below, under sessions dated November 27 and December 24, 1941.)

Furthermore, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" managed the feat of re-entering the charts once again six years later, when Peggy Lee had become very popular as a solo recording artist. On this second round, the recording, newly pressed on Columbia 38198, peaked at number 30, The re-entry charted on the week of June 19, 1948, just a few months after Lee and Goodman had successfully hit the radio airwaves with a brand new, 1947 reunion track ("For Every Man There's A Woman"). The Columbia-pressed single "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" was their last joint collaboration to make the charts, raising the total to 13 hits.

2. Somebody Nobody Loves
Goodman bio-discographer D. Russell Connor has reserved some pointed praise for this particular vocal by Peggy Lee: "it's her kind of tune, there's a perky lilt in her voice, and I consider it one of her better, if little remarked efforts ... I prefer her in uptempo things." While at odds with the perspective of many fans of her Goodman period, Connor's opinion has found indirect backing in one of Lee's definitive CD retrospectives, The Singles Collection: the makers of that set chose to include the lesser-known Somebody Nobody Loves over the hit ballad Somebody Else Is Taking My Place.

3. How Long Has This Been Going On
Although take 1 of "How Long Has This Been Going On" has become the most frequently released one, and thus the best-known take over the years, take 2 was the original issue. Vocally, take 1 is the more effective of the two; in it, Lee invests the lyrics with more sentiment and meaning, through the use of a slight vibrato, and through emphasis on certain notes.


Masters

1. The "Different Versions" Of Somebody Else Is Taking My Place
A curious detail can be heard in the takes of "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place." In the master take (#1), Lee sings the fifth and six lines of the lyrics in their correct, official order (Little you know the price that I paid / Little you care for vows that you made"). In the alternate take (#2), she reverses those two lines ("Little you care for vows that you've made / Little you know the price that I've paid"). The change to perfect tense in the alternate take suggests that Lee's reversal was intentionally -- rather than erroneously -- made.

2. Non-Lee Masters
Only numbers with vocals by Peggy Lee were recorded during this session.


Arrangements

1.