The Capitol Years, Part 3
The Peggy Lee Discography And Videography
by Iván Santiago

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Peggy Lee's Recording Career, 1948-1952

During these years, Peggy Lee continued to record steadily for Capitol Records, while also working prolifically on radio and, in 1951, on television as well. Her television work occasioned a temporary move to New York, and a string of Capitol sessions held at the Big Apple, rather than in LA. The move to Manhattan also followed her divorce from Dave Barbour, and her disassociation from their common manager, Carlos Gastel. Sid Feller accompanied Lee at her New York sessions. In LA, Lee's sessions were led not only by Barbour but also by Pete Rugolo and Billy May. For additional details about this period, including a tabulation of masters, see the final notes at the bottom of this page.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Lee Gillette (pdr), Peggy Lee, Dean Martin (v)

Personnel

1. Dean Martin
"You Was" is a vocal duet featuring Dean Martin and Peggy Lee. Martin does not participate in the session's other master, "Someone Like You."

Peggy Lee (ldr), Lee Gillette (pdr), Peggy Lee and Her Dixieland Band (acc), Dave Barbour (g), Peggy Lee (v)

Personnel

1. Musicians From Woody Herman's Band
This session's personnel is identified in Capitol's session files as "Peggy Lee and Her Dixieland Band." (The same credit may also be found in the original 78, which I have not been able to inspect.) The identities of these so-called dixieland musicians remains unknown. Various secondary sources state that they are actually members of Woody Herman's Second Herd (aka The Four Brothers band). (Those secondary sources may have gotten their information from 1948 Down Beat or Metronome magazines.)

The participation of musicians from Herman's band in a Lee session is actually fairly possible. Herman and his Second Herd (Al Cohn, Stan Getz, Lou Levy, Shorty Rogers, Zoot Sims, and others) were recording for Capitol from December of 1948 to July of 1949. (In fact, their first Capitol session took place on the same day as this session, a detail which further strengthens the possibility of co-participation.) Woody Herman, Peggy Lee, and Dave Barbour had in fact spent a fair amount of time together a bit earlier, during the summer of 1947, when they had co-hosted a radio series. See also comments below about the songwriter of this tune. Moreover, they shared the same manager (Carlos Gastel).


Songs

1. "Blum Blum" In The Charts
Peggy Lee's twentieth solo hit (or her thirtieth, if the singer's work with The Benny Godman Orchestra is factored in) entered the Billboard charts during the week of July 3, 1949, and peaked at number 27.

Among compositions by the team of Barbour and Lee, "Blum Blum" was their sixth and last joint effort to make the charts. (It was not, however, Lee's last self-written hit. For the next of her own compositions to chart, see Decca session dated February 18, 1953.)


Songwriters

1. "Please, Love Me Tonight"
Capitol 78 issue 57-608 lists Watkins as the songwriter of "Please, Love Me Tonight." Watkins' first name is, or was, Herman. Some sources also refer to him as Matt Watkins, yet others call him Watt Watkins. He has a few other song credits at BMI, but otherwise is unknown to me. Because of his first name, and because of the above-made comments about this session's personnel, I am left to wonder if "Herman Watkins" could be a pseudonym for Woody Herman. (It is a possibility worth pondering, even if ultimately I am more inclined to believe that Herman Watkins is a real person, and not connected to Woody Herman, .)

Credited with "Please Love Me Tonight" at BMI is not only Herman Watkins but also Ruth Oma Wilkinson. Herein I have entered, however, the original 78's credit, which makes no reference to Wilkinson.

Dave Barbour (ldr), Lee Gillette (pdr), Dave Barbour's Afro Cubans (acc), Henry J. "Heinie" Beau (cl, ts), Ray Linn (t), Dave Barbour, George Van Eps (g), Phil Stevens (b), Nick Fatool, Iván López, Jackie Mills, Tommy Romersa (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

1. "Similau" In The Charts And In Its Original Context
The exotic-sounding "Similau" originated in a vodoo chant from the Caribbean -- an invocation to the spirit Similó. Peggy Lee's suitably drum-frenzied version of this invocation entered the charts during the week of April 23, 1949, becoming her 21st solo hit. It peaked at number 17.


Personnel And Masters

1. Dave Barbour
Notice that this is a Dave Barbour session, featuring Peggy Lee on only one of the three resulting masters.

2. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded in this session were the instrumentals "Ensenada" and "Little Boy Go Blow Your Top," on neither of which Lee participated.

3. Background Vocals
The chanters that back 'priestess Peggy' in "Similau" are presumed to be the sessions' musicians.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Lee Gillette (pdr), Dave Barbour and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

1. "Bali Ha'i" In The Charts
Peggy Lee's twenty-second hit for Capitol Records entered Billboard's charts during the week of May 14, 1949, and peaked at number 13. Fierce competition came from RCA Victor's Perry Como (number 5), Capitol's own Paul Weston (number 10; an instrumental version), Decca's Bing Crosby (number 12), and Columbia's Frank Sinatra (number 18).


Issues

1. South Pacific
Tracks.
The songs found in this album are:

(I'm In Love With) A Wonderful Guy - Margaret Whiting
Bali Ha'i - Peggy Lee
Younger Than Springtime - Gordon MacRae
Happy Talk / Honey Bun - Frank DeVol And His Orchestra
There Is Nothin' Like A Dame - Dave Barbour And His Orchestra
A Cock-eyed Optimist - Margaret Whiting
I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair - Peggy Lee
Some Enchanted Evening - Gordon MacRae

Configurations.
These are the 3 original issues of "Bali Ha'i," as listed in Capitol's sheets:

54-597 (alb. CDF-162)
54-601 (alb. CDF-163)
H-163

They are a 78 album, a 45 album, and a 10" LP, respectively. The title of the 45 and the 78 album is Songs From Rodgers And Hammerstein's South Pacific. The 10" LP shortens the title into Songs From South Pacific.

In the case of the 78 album, I believe the 54 to be a typo, and have accordingly changed the prefix to 57. (Capitol reserved the prefix 54 for 45s, the prefix 57 for 78s.)

Elsewhere, I've found listings for a 4th original issue:

EBF-162

However, I have yet to find evidence of this issue's existence, and have thus abstained from entering it in the database at present time.

If it does exist, EBF-162 should be a 45 album, just like CDF-163. The difference between them: EBF-162 would distribute its 8 songs in 2 discs, whereas CDF-163 distributes them in 4 discs.

See also session dated April 18, 1949.

2. "Bali Ha'i" (45)
Capitol lists two pressings of "Bali Ha'i" on 45: 54-547 and F547. The second pressing is the earliest Peggy Lee single with an F, which Capitol started using in 1949, to designate 45s. The prefix 54 seems to have been discontinued after a brief period of use in 1949.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Lee Gillette (pdr), Dave Barbour All-Stars (acc), Peggy Lee (v), The Jud Conlon Singers (bkv)

Songs

1. "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky" In The Charts
Sung by Gene Autry in the 1949 movie Riders In The Sky, this highly popular pseudo-western tune might have initially seemed an unlikely choice for a female vocalist to sing. Most record labels indeed assigned the number to male singers: Columbia's Burl Ives took it to number 21, Decca's Bing Crosby to number 14, and Vaughan Monroe gave a huge number 1 bestseller to RCA Victor. At Capitol, Peggy Lee's feminine approach propelled the tune all the way to number 2. She turns this novelty into less of a cowboy number and more of a melancholic ghost story. (Fittingly, the lyrics were ostensibly inspired by legends that were, like Lee herself, of Scandinavian origin.)


Personnel

1. The Jud Conlon Singers
This group sings background vocals in "Riders In The Sky" only.


Issues

1. "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair" (78, 45)
For full information about the original issues and configurations in which this song was issued, see session dated March 11, 1949. It is worth noting that, under "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair," Capitol's Peggy Lee session files list only two out of at least three released configurations:

54-603 (alb. CDF-163)
H-163

Unaccountably left out is the 78 album (CDF-162) which, in this discography, I have restored to the performance. In that 78 album, "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair" is probably found on disc 54-599.

Notice also that some online listings and record seller auctions wrongly treat 54-599 and 54-601 as singles. They are no such thing. Each is instead an album unit. (54-599 is from the 78 album. 54-601 is from the 45 album. Incidentally, the "54" prefix of this 45 album is likely to be a typo, because Capitol's usual prefix designation for 45 albums is 57 instead. The presumed typo is found in Capitol's session files, and might well be found in the 45 album itself, which I have not been able to inspect.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Lee Gillette (pdr), Dave Barbour All-Stars (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters And Crossreferences

1. "Sunshine Cake"
For an issued version of this song, see session dated October 7, 1949.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour (con), Lee Gillette (pdr), Peggy Lee (v), The Jud Conlon Singers (bkv)

Songs And Songwriters

1. "Goodbye, John"
2. Alec Wilder

In his 1975 book Letters I Never Mailed, Alec Wilder addresses one of the titular letters to Peggy Lee. He writes that, while visiting the apartment of a "very courteous but alarming man," he happened to hear one of her recordings: It was yours and Dave's record of "Goodbye John." Dear Peggy, how absolutely dear and loving that record was! Every word you uttered I believed and every note you sang was definitive. Dave's section was a model of distillation and choice! Really a very special record for anyone, let alone the writer of the music.

Wilder's eulogy gives way, unfortunately, to chastisement of his friend for a variety of vaguely stated reasons. He seems to resent the fact that she never got around to record a number that he wrote especially for her, at a time when Wilder wanted to console Lee for a loss. (Titled "Is It Aways Like This," the song was picked instead by another Wilder favorite, Mabel Mercer, and also by Lena Horne. The number was probably written for Lee in 1942, which was a rather inconvenient time for her to record it. Back then, Lee was still under the employment of Benny Goodman, and hence she had limited input in song choices. After her time with Goodman, opportunities drastically decreased, since Lee went into temporary retirement.) Wilder's main other complaint or charge seems to be that, in a struggle to "come to grips with today's goblin society" and the "bitterness or loneliness of age," his friend has lost "the belief and sweet sadness, the genuine love and the gentle touch ... an age of innocence, joy and wonderment."

If Lee ever read this 1975 book's partially unflattering comments, she must have not taken (lasting) offense to them. In her autobiography (1989), Lee refers to Wilder as a "superb composer and friend." She also describes him as "a lovable eccentric, and he and I would sit and talk about life for hours. Schmoozing, I think it's called. Which is talk with a lot of affection and closeness." Further corroboration of this portrait of Wilder comes from Lee's daughter, Nicki Foster, who is quoted in an essay written by Will Friedwald for Capitol's The Singles Collection. Foster shared with Friedwald the following reminiscence, from her childhood: "I remember Alec. He had a mad crush on Mother. He was a very odd man, very tall and lanky, and he smoked incessantly, but I remember I always found him interesting. He was practically obssessed with Mother, and she loved his writing."

For other comments about the singer and the songwriter's relationship, see notes under session dated November 27, 1947.

(n.b.; The exact reasons behind Wilder's dissatisfaction with Lee are subject to debate. They might or might not be those that he mentions on the written page. The songwriter is widely remembered as having not only an odd but also a troubled, sometimes difficult and contentious personality. Frequent drinking seems to have contributed to his bouts of contentiousness, but many other stories make it clear that the songwriter did not take lightly to singers who took liberties with his compositions. It's said that he chastised even Ella Fitzgerald for not recording any of his songs; she went on to record Wilder's "Trouble Is A Man" after the reprimand. Insiders have also said that the "supposedly never sent" letters which comprise his 1975 book were actually freshly written by Wilder in the 1970s, most of them in a booth at a club where his friend, pianist Marian MacPartland, played at the time.)


Personnel

1. Background Vocals
Background singing by The Jud Conlon Singers on all performances except "Goodbye John" and "Through A Long And Sleepless Night."


Arrangements

1. "The Christmas Spell"
Peggy Lee's sheet music library contains a Dick Hazard arrangement of this song. Because I am not aware of any collaboration between Hazard and Lee before the 1960's, I am assuming that such Hazard arrangement is different from (and much later than) the one heard in this performance.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Pete Rugolo (con), Lee Gillette (pdr), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

1. "One Day"
In his track-by-track annotation for the Capitol box Miss Peggy Lee, Jim Pierson writes: "At the suggestion of famed conductor Pete Rugolo, this previously unissued gem from 1949 has been liberated from the Capitol vaults. Rugolo recorded several sides with Peggy and recalled that she was deeply disappointed that the whimsical One Day was not released."

Peggy Lee (ldr), Pete Rugolo (con), Lee Gillette (pdr), Pete Rugolo and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Crossreferences

1. "Sunshine Cake"
For an earlier and unissued recording of this song, see session dated May 25, 1949.

Mel Torme (ldr), Harold "Hal" Mooney (con), James Conkling, Lee Gillette (pdr), Mel Torme (pdr, v), Mel Torme and The Meltones (acc), Skeets Herfurt aka Arthur Herfurt (cl, as), Jules Jacobs, Jules Kinsler, Robert "Bob" Lawson (as, ts), Chuck Gentry (bar), Conrad Gozzo, Uan Rasey, George Seaberg, Joe Triscari (t), Joe Howard aka Francis Howard, Ed Kusby aka Edward Kuczborski, Si Zentner (tb), Allan Reuss (g), Phil Stephens (b), Buddy Neal (p), Ralph Hansell (x, vib), Irv Cottler (d), Les Baxter, Peggy Lee, Loulie Jean Norman, Ginny O'Connor, Bernie Parke (v)

Issues

1. Mel Tormé's California Suite
2. Gordon Jenkins' Manhattan Tower And California: Two Musical Narratives
In 1945, pianist, composer and arranger Gordon Jenkins recorded a 17-minute hommage to New York City, which he titled Manhattan Tower. Around 1948, Decca Records released it on a 78 album (DL 8011), in which it was coupled with California (The Golden State), a similar work that Jenkins and Tom Adair had co-written. Both pieces combine music with dramatic narration, and each bears the sub-title "A Musical Narrative." The album in which they were first issued is known as Manhattan Tower And California: Two Musical Narratives, and the song that has become best-known from these Jenkins projects is "New York's My Home."

The year after the release of Jenkins' 78 album, Mel Tormé recorded his own celebration of California and the West Coast. In Tormé own words, California Suite was conceived as an "an alter ego" to Jenkins' Manhattan Tower. Although it does not feature a narrative (not, at least, a spoken one), the singer's suite can be described as musical drama. Instead of spoken dialogue, expository numbers are sung by Tormé and the other vocalists. Some of the singers play dramatis personae, such as The Extra Girl who is heard in the suite's best-known number,"Poor Little Extra Girl."

Peggy Lee sings the role of The Eastener, who is the musical drama's antagonist. In a New York accent, she extols the superiority of a few East Coast locations, and sounds sceptical about the West Coast's alleged virtues. At the end of the piece, after hearing the eulogies sung by the other characters, her character finally realizes and acknowledges that the East Coast has, after all, plenty to recommend.

Over 30 minutes long, California Suite was originally issued in three configurations: as a 78 set (three discs: 8-28004 to 8-28007), as a 45 set (four discs: 6F28004 to 6F-28007), and as a LP that was Capitol's first non-classical 12" vinyl. No song titles are given in any of those original configurations; the contents are simply presented as one long-running unit. Titles first appeared when EMI in England released the suite; thereafter, those titles were incorporated to both American and European reissues.

Tormé's suite on Capitol Records is not to be confused with a reprise that he recorded for Bethlehem Records. Though also titled California Suite and covering the same terrain, that 1957 version differs significantly from the original. Most importantly for the purposes of this discography, Peggy Lee does not participate in that reprise.

(Incidentally, Manhattan Tower was also re-recorded. The most notable of Jenkins' reprises is an expanded 1956 version for Capitol Records.)


Personnel

1. Mel Tormé
2. "Susan Melton"
3. Peggy Lee With Mel Tormé
Notice that this is a Mel Tormé session, in which Peggy Lee is not listed by her own name. Instead, the album credits the role of The Eastener to a Susan Melton. The reason why Peggy Lee used this assumed name is unknown. Chances are that she and those involved in the making of the album were merely trying to be playful. The last name "Melton" is an obvious play on the name of Mel's group (The Mel-Tones) and, by extension, on Tormé's first name.

Lee's adoption of such a pseudonym also suggests that she was not particularly interested in receiving public credit for her contribution, but participated in this project chiefly as a favor. Carlos Gastel, the manager that Lee and Tormé shared at the time, was largely responsible for orchestrating Lee's involvement. In his liner notes for the Rhino set The Mel Tormé Collection, 1944-1985, Will Friedwald quotes Tormé himself, as saying that "[w]hen we came to the point when we needed the voice of 'The Eastener,' Carlos Gastel thought of Peggy. He went to her and said, Would you do this for Mel? and she said, Sure. She sings it with that sort of mock Eastern accent."

Shortly after the completion of the California Suite, Lee and Tormé met again for a duet session, which included a light-hearted number co-written by the pair (November 16, 1949). They recorded together for Capitol yet once more (July 10, 1951), at a time when they were co-hosting a summer television show. Still later on, they jointly worked on more television (1960s) and in concerts (1990s), too. Although the two artists seem to have had a falling out at the last of those concerts (1995), throughout his long career Tormé made various appreciative comments about Lee's talents -- e.g., in his his book My Singing Teachers (1994).

4. Non-Tormé Vocals
The Capitol sources at my reach give only a collective personnel for the suite. The identity of the singers heard in each number is therefore not officially confirmed. George Hulme does list them track by track, in his Mel Tormé: A Chronicle Of His Recordings, Books And Films. Hulme relies on his own careful listening of each track. After also giving careful listening to the suite, I find myself concurring with Hulme's identification of vocals by Lee.


Arrangers

1. Mel Tormé
2. Jud Conlon
3. Dick Jones, Hal Mooney, Paul Villepigue
Mel Tormé did the arrangements for The Mel-Tones. All other choral arrangements are by Jud Conlon.

Also known to have contributed arrangemements for the California Suite are Neal Hefti, Dick Jones, Billy May, Hal Mooney, and Paul Villepigue. I do not know which of those men arranged "We Think The West Coast Is The Best Coast" and "The Miami Waltz."

In the case of "We Think The West Coast Is The Best Coast," I am aware that a segment from it was arranged by Paul Villepigue. The sub-title for the segment in question is "Dreary Days." Lee has one line in it ("Yeah, what's that?"). My thanks to Desne Ahlers for sharing with me this information, gleaned from a letter that Villepigue wrote to his mother.


Session(s) And Dating

Specific session information about these recordings has proven hard to come by. What's more, Billy May discographer Jack Mirtle reports that Capitol's master files for the California Suite contain neither dates nor song titles. Ultimately, convenience rather than accuracy has led me to group the five songs listed above under one date or session.

November 11, 1949, the one date given above, is confirmed only for "Got The Gate On The Golden Gate." This is the sole song from the Capitol suite that is included in my source for the date, Rhino's The Mel Tormé Collection, 1944-1985. (Rhino in turn obtained its information through the kind cooperation of the American Federation Of Musicians, Local 47, whose archives are deemed the most reliable for session data.) The 11th should therefore be deemed tentative dating for all other songs from Capitol's California Suite -- perhaps correct in the case of some of the other songs, perhaps off by one day or more.


Masters

1. Master Numbers
The songs of Capitol's California Suite are presumed to have been recorded separately, rather than as a whole unit. However, it is not clear if each song was originally assigned a master number, or if a different cataloguing procedure was followed for this special project. The above-shown numbers are not from the session's file (whose physical location has proven elusive) but from the log sheets for the suite's completed master. They were found by authors George Hulme and Jack Mirtle, while they were researching their respective discographies of Mel Tormé and Billy May.

The log sheets do not give song titles. Instead, they identify the contents of master 5464 as Part 1 of the released 78 and 45 album, those of master 5465 as part 2 of the released 78 and 45 album, etc. In other words, each master number covers the entire contents of one given side of the 78 or 45:

5463 -- "Mountain Desert Theme," The Golden West," and first part of "We Think The West Coast Is The Best Coast"
5464 -- second part of "We Think The West Coast Is The Best Coast"
5465 -- "Coney Island," "The Miami Waltz"
........
5468 -- "Got The Gate On The Golden Gate"
.......
5470 -- "Poor Little Extra Girl," "We Think The West Coast Is The Best Coast," and "Mountain Desert Theme"

Peggy Lee (ldr), Lee Gillette (pdr), Lou Busch and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee, Mel Torme (v), The Mellomen (bkv)

Songs

1. "The Old Master Painter" In The Charts
Peggy Lee's version of this song charted on the week of January 7, 1950, and peaked at number 9. A vocal duet, it was Peggy Lee's twenty-fourth solo hit and Mel Tormé's eighth hit. A highly popular number at the time, five other versions fiercely competed on the charts as well: Frank Sinatra's (number 13), Snooky Lanson's (number 12), Phil Harris' (number 10), Dick Haymes' (number 4), and Richard Hayes' (number 2).

Personnel

1. The Mellomen
This edition of The Mellomen featured Thurl Ravenscroft, Max Smith, Bill Lee and Bob Hamlin.

2. Accompaniment: Dave Barbour Versus Lou Busch
Extant information about this session's accompaniment is conflicting. Lee's session files credit Dave Barbour as the orchestra leader, and do not list Lou Busch. On the other hand, and according to Mel Tormé discographer George Hulme, "[t]he orchestra leader is given as Lou Busch on [Tormé's] Capitol log sheets. The notes for [EMI CD] 077779942626 credit Lou Busch as the orchestra leader but the notes for Capitol [CD] 7 93195-2 mistakenly give the leader as Dave Barbour."

Hulme's assertion strikes me as the most logical possibility, all the more so since no guitar is prominently heard in either of this session's two songs. (Piano is the main instrument. There seems to be also clarinet and organ, and perhaps a sax in "Bless You.") Hulme also makes a sensible point about Capitol's occasional practice of listing an accompaniment other than the actual one -- especially when the actual conductor was not a brand name.

However, I do not want to entirely discard the possibility that both Barbour and Busch were present during this date, and functioned as co-leaders. Although it might sound like an unusual deal, each man could have conceivably conducted one track. Barbour and Lee were, after all, a regular package, and would usually come together to recording sessions at this point in time. As for Busch, he was actually an in-house producer at Capitol; thus he could have been in charge of overseeing the session, too.

In short: Busch is the likeliest conductor of this session, but until the matter can be fully confirmed through additional official paperwork from AFM or Capitol, Barbour should not be absolutely discarded.

3. Piano: Joe "Fingers" Carr and Lou Busch
The Lou Busch who participated in this 1949 session was the same man who would soon become popular as a ragtime, honky tonk pianist, under the pseudonym of Joe "Fingers" Carr. Aural inspection of the piano playing for "The Old Master Painter" certainly suggests that Busch/Carr is the man playing.


Acknowledgments

1. George Hulme
My thanks to Mr. Hulme for very helpful and instructive details about Capitol and Tormé that he shared with me during various email exchanges, and for his superior book Mel Tormé: A Chronicle Of His Recordings, Books And Films.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour (con), Lee Gillette (pdr), The Gualadajara Boys (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters And Studio Chatter

1. "My Small Señor (With The Sonriente Eyes")
Capitol's The Singles Collection includes a very brief (:12) spoken bit from this session. Right before Lee sings take 3 of "My Small Señor," she is heard practicing her pronunciation of the Spanish word "sonriente" (English "smiling").

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour (con), Lee Gillette (pdr), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Lee Gillette (pdr), Dave Barbour and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters

There are a number of minor details that make this session a curious one. One of them is its total of 5 masters, instead of the customary 3 or 4. Moreover, the fifth master (6148) is not part of the other master's sequence (6139-6142). I am left to wonder if masters 6143-6147 were assigned to another artist, or if they were actually assigned to Peggy Lee, but eventually scrapped. A similar situation is evident in another Capitol session from this period (May 16, 1951).


2. "Show Me The Way Out Of This World" In The Charts
Peggy Lee's twenty-fifth solo hit entered the charts on August 26, 1950, and reached the number 28 position. No other versions of this song are known to have made the charts.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters And Issues

1. "If I Could Steal You From Somebody Else"
2. The Lost '40s & 50's Capitol Masters
In its debut release, "If I Could Steal You From Somebody Else" is not heard in its entirety. The performance cuts before it ends.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee (v), The Jud Conlon Choir (bkv)

Songs And Songwriters

1. "Once In A Lifetime"
2. Ambroise Thomas
The melody of "Once In A Lifetime" is strongly reminiscent of a theme by the French composer Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896), best remembered for his opera Mignon. (My thanks to Michael J. White for first alerting me to the similarity.) See also notes about the song "I Hear The Music Now," under session dated December 16, 1952.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters

This session's first master bears a number (6916) which is significantly lower than the other two master numbers (6937-6938). When I first noticed it, I suspected that a typo (i.e., 6936 incorrectly turned into 6916) accounted for the discrepancy. But, after doublechecking Capitol's files, I have corroborated that 6916 is indeed the correct number.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Louis Prima and His Orchestra (acc), Jim Wynn (sax), Peggy Lee (v)

Personnel

1. Louis Prima
2. Jim Wynn
Capitol's session files identify this session's band as "Louis Prima and His Orchestra." On the other hand, a review published on the April 6, 1951 issue of Downbeat magazine states that Capitol single 1428 ("Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and "Rock Me To Sleep") have "backing by a mixed crew headed by Jim Wynn, local saxman & leader". While awaiting for additional information, I have followed my main source, Peggy Lee's Capitol session file. (It could be that, for one reason or another, Prima was unable to participate in the session, leaving the members of his orchestra in need of another leading musician. At any rate, Prima and Lee definitely worked together around this time, when he was a guest in her radio show.)


Masters

1. Doubletracking
In some sections of "That Ol' Devil Won't Get Me," Lee's voice is double-tracked, thereby creating the effect that she is singing and speaking to herself.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sid Feller (con), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Billy May and his Orchestra (acc), Ed Kusby aka Edward Kuczborski (tb), Vincent Terri (g), Don Whitaker (b), Paul Smith (p), Tommy Romersa (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Arrangements

Jack Mirtle's Billy May discography is my source for the Sid Feller arranging credits.


Masters And Dating

1. Suffixes After Take Numbers
Billy May discographer Jack Mirtle lists master number suffixes different from those that I found in Peggy Lee's session files. For "So Far So Good," his suffix is D1 instead of D2. For "Tonight You Belong To Me," Mirtle has N2. The exact meaning of those suffixes is unclear to me, but their relevance seems to be minimal at best.

I am told that there are Capitol 78s which come with the master number etched on them. The taken number is not included, but these suffixes are. I'm further told that they may vary from one 78 disc to another. In other words, there might some 78 copies of "Tonight You Belong To Me" that bear the number 7565-D1 in them, and there might be other copies of the same 78 which bear the number 7565-N2.

2. Dating
For this session, Peggy Lee's Capitol files give the date May 17, which does not agree with the master numbers' sequence. Billy May discographer Jack Mirtle noticed the discrepancy, and discovered that it was an error when he checked the session's contract reports at the American Federation of Musicians. The correct date is May 16.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Billy May and his Orchestra (acc), John Hacker, Jules Jacobs, Jules Kinsler (r), John Graas (frh), Laurindo Almeida, Jose Oliveira (g), Meyer Rubin (b), Don Ferris (p), Kathryn Thompson (hrp), Joe Guerrero (d), Harry Bluestone, Ben Gill, Henry Hill, Lou Raderman, Mischa Russell, Felix Slatkin (vn), Cy Bernard, Eleanor Slatkin (vc), Peggy Lee (v), The Jud Conlon Singers (bkv)

Songs

1. "I Get Ideas" In The Charts
This suggestive bolero was adapted from the Argentine tango "Adiós, muchachos." It entered Billboard's charts on the week of September 8, 1951, and peaked at number 8. Lee's competition, once again all-male, did better. RCA's Tony Martin had a sizable hit with his version, which came out first and went on to spend 30 weeks in the chart, peaking at number 3. Louis Armstrong's saucy-sounding combination of "(When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas and "A Kiss To Build A Dream On" resulted in a dobule-charting Decca hit, with his "Ideas" peaking at number 10.

"I Get Ideas" was Lee's 26th hit for Capitol Records. It was also her last hit for the company, before she moved to Decca Records. (She would, however, return to Capitol five years later, and would continue to have hits on this record label.)


Masters And Takes

1. Suffixes In Master Numbers
Billy May discographer Jack Mirtle lists the suffix of "I Love You But I Don't Like You" as 2D4 and the suffix of "Wandering Swallow" as 10D4.


Arrangements

All arranging credits are taken from Jack Mirtle's Billy May discography. The only exception is
"I Love You But I Don't Like You," which is credited to Sid Feller in Mirtle's discography. I have instead credited May, per a copy of the arrangement that Peggy Lee kept in her sheet music library.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sid Feller (con), Sid Feller and His Orchestra (acc), Buck Clayton, Bernie Privin (t), Warren Covington, Lou McGarity, Buddy Morrow (tb), Barry Galbraith (g), Joe Shulman (b), Joe Lewis (p), William Exiner (d), Peggy Lee, Mel Torme (v)

Personnel

1. Peggy Lee with Mel Tormé
This was one of two Capitol sessions in which the two singers got together to record duets. For the other one, see session dated November 16, 1949. See also November 11, 1949 session.


Songs And Songwriters

1. "Telling Me Yes, Telling Me No"
This song's title can be found written as above, and also as "Telling Me Yes And Telling Me No." A listening of Lee and Tormés vocal supports the use of comma, and the exclusion of the conjunction.

ASCAP is my source for the names of the songwriters credited with this song. I have not been able to inspect the original 78 issue from Capitol. However, a blurry photo seen online leads me to believe that the credits in the 78 might not be the same ones as in ASCAP. In the online reproduction, Barbaro and Ellioot seemed to be credited, yet the third name looked like "Joseph" rather than Shayne.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sid Feller and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Songwriters

1. "Would You Dance With A Stranger"
Capitol single 1926 credits "Would You Dance With A Stranger" to Miller and D'Anzi only. ASCAP credits a third person, lyricist Alfredo Bracchi. I assume that Bracchi, known for his partnership with D'Anzi in Italy, was responsible for an original set of Italian lyrics, and otherwise has no claim to the English version.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sid Feller and His Orchestra (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters

The relatively high number of masters recorded during this session could be an indication that Lee was trying to fulfill a contractual quote, before leaving the label.

Issues And Dating

1. The CD Set The Singles Collection At The Grammys
Four of the six songs from this session were included in The Singles Collection, a 4CD set that was nominated for two Grammys in 2004. One nomination, for Best Historical Album, went to producers Cy Godfrey and Steve Woof. The other nomination, for Best Album Notes, went to music writer Will Friedwald. Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey was the set that won in both categories.

2. 'Goin' On A Hayride"
Sepia's CD Songs From The Jazz Singer inadvertently assigns to this song the date December 17, 1951, which instead belongs to "Shame On You," a song also in the CD, from Lee's previous session.

GENERAL NOTES

Capitol Records And Peggy Lee, 1948-1952

This period of Peggy Lee's career starts with a musicians' ban that prevented recording activity for nearly a year, and ends with her departure from the record label at which she had been recording for eight years, Capitol.

The American Federation of Musicians' ban went into effect on January 1, 1948. According to music historian David Ewen, the ban forbade the participation of AFM musicians in any commercial sessions, and sought the payment of a royalty "to be used for the benefit of unemployed members." Ewen adds that, "[t]o meet this new crisis, the major record companies had spent the preceding six months on a feverish twenty-four-hour-a-day recording schedule to create a huge stockpile ... to satisfy the market until a new compromise was finally arrived at fifteen months later." One obvious instance of this heightened schedule is Lee's own recording activity during the last two months of 1947.

Singers were actually exempt from the ban. Hence record companies continued to record them in a variety of ways that circumvented the ban. Labels such as Columbia and Decca resorted to an a capella strategy, in which vocal groups were hired to back the singers. The method succeeded well enough, generating hits for acts such as Frank Sinatra with The Jeff Alexander Choir, and Dick Haymes with The Song Spinners. At Capitol, producer Alan Livingston resorted to overdubbing and accompaniment from abroad. He would first record the company's vocalist, and would then take the resulting masters to Paris, where he would hire bands whose music he dubbed to the vocals.

Peggy Lee was among the very few vocalists who abstained from any studio recording during the entire period, out of solidarity with the musicians. The ban lasted nearly a full year. Finally, a settlement was formally signed on December 13, 1948. On the very next day, Peggy Lee was back in the recording studio.

Post-ban Capitol distinguished itself for innovative, forward thinking in the more technological areas of recording. During the ban, the company bought and installed an Ampex tape recorder. In December of 1948, the label was the first to regularly record its masters on magnetic tape, which would become the industry's standard practice in the ensuing decades. (Decca might have recorded the odd session on tape as early as 1947, but it did not make it a regular practice until after Capitol did so.) Capitol actually made simultaneous recording of its masters on all three available methods to them ("live" to 78 disc, on 16" transcription disc, and on Ampex tape) until about 1952, when it settled on tape only.

Moreover, in 1949 the company became the first to release records in all three speeds: 78, 45, and the then-emerging 33.3 rpm. In this page, such a multiple-configuration approach can be seen at play in Capitol's release of the "cast" album South Pacific (see sessions dated March 11 and April 18, 1949; see also session dated November 11, 1949).

These were also the year in which Capitol went international. In November and December of 1948, Glenn Wallichs signed contracts with Germany's Telefunken and with England's Decca, for the manufacturing and release of Capitol product in Europe and Africa. Capitol's Canadian branch was established in 1949, too.

Another significant event during this period was Capitol's acquisition of its own recording studio. Previously, the label had been leasing space (from 1942 to 1945, the primary location was MacGregor Studios; from 1945 to 1947, Radio Recorders). In 1949, Capitol bought the facilities of KHJ Radio Studio on Melrose Avenue, and turned it into Melrose Capitol Studios. The facilities are described by Capitol engineer John Palladino, in Charles Granata's excellent book Sessions With Sinatra (which is my own main sources for these paragraphs): "Studio A was on the upper story and was the original radio theater with audience and stage facilities. Downstairs there were two smaller studios and the control room. For a long time, Studio C was the key studio and was perfect for smaller groups ... [...] .... studio A ... was better suited for larger orchestras." Palladino also talks about Capitol's optimal reputation at the time, for obtaining state-of-the art microphones, speakers, and tape machines.

Operationally, the company kept on growing. According to Geoffrey Wheeler in his book Jazz by Mai Capitol released 630 singles and 130 albums in 1951. Compare those figures to the ones from 1944 (39 singles, 6 albums) and 1945 (48 singles, 14 albums).

A less savory aspect of this period pertains to Capitol's catalogue. As Lee's sessions amply show, the label was pushing mostly brand new ditties of the day on its artists. The company's orientation toward commercial material is of course understandable (Capitol was, after all, a business). But hindsight would have recommended the continuation of the label's previous, more balanced approach to song selection, with its inclusion of old, superior numbers from the American songbook to allow for a balance. Instead, recording of standards was relegated to radio transcription recording. According to singer Kay Starr, there was a song pecking order at te label as well - an order which probably allowed Margaret Whiting, in particular, to take hold of the classier numbers. (Even the few standards and superior numbers in this page were actually brand new at the time, and came mostly from the Broadway shows whose songs all recorded labels were competing to cover.) Still, Lee's sense of humor, innate musicality and care for lyrics typically elevates most of this period's material. She continued to hit the charts, and to try self-penned compositions, although not as frequently as she had done from 1946 to the first half of 1948.

For the reasons that led to Pegy Lee's departure from Capitol to Decca in 1952, see General Notes at the bottom of the Decca Records page.


Popularity: Peggy In The Polls

In previous years, Peggy Lee had placed at no. 1 (1946) and no. 2 (1947) in Downbeat's poll for female solo singers.

In 1948, Peggy Lee placed at no. 4, with 495 votes. Ahead of her, with 511 votes, was Doris Day, who had made her chart debut the previous year, at no. 10. The no. 2 position belonged to Dinah Shore, who had climbed from no. 7. Below Peggy Lee et al were former chartoppers Jo Stafford (no. 8) and Billlie Holiday (no. 10). Ella Fitzgerald, previously at no. 4, was at no. 7 this year. The top spot was kept by Sarah Vaughan, who remained in this position from 1947 to 1952.

In 1949, Fitzgerald climbed to no. 2, where she too remained until 1952, bested only by Sarah Vaughan. Both Peggy Lee and Dinah Shore dropped this year, Lee from no. 4 to no. 8, Shore from no. 2 to no. 10. Anita O'Day also dropped, from no. 5 to no. 9. Ahead of them were Doris Day, Kay Starr, Fran Warren, Billie Holiday, and Jo Stafford.

In 1950, Peggy Lee was the only one of the formerly dropping singers who climbed the charts. She went up from the no. 8 to the no. 6 slot. She kept the same position in 1951.

In 1952, Peggy Lee went down, again to no. 8. Behind her in the top 10 were Jo Stafford and Billie Holiday. Among those ahead were Rosemary Clooney (no. 3), Patti Page, Kay Starr, Doris Day, and June Christy (no. 7).

During her upcoming years on Decca, Lee's name would again rise in the polls.


Statistics: Total Number Of Masters

This discographical page shows a total of 74 masters, all of them recorded for Capitol Records between late 1948 and early 1952. Only one master is listed in Capitol's files as rejected: "Sunshine Cake," from May 25, 1949 (re-recorded on October 7, 1949). All other 73 masters have been commercially issued during the digital era. Five of the masters are guest vocals done, under a pseudonym, for another singer's project (see session dated November 11, 1949). There are also five duet vocals, one with Dean Martin (December 14, 1948), the others with Mel Tormé (November 16, 1949 and July 10, 1951).

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