The Later Years
The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography And Videography

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After long tenures exclusively on two record labels (Capitol from 1945 to 1952, Decca from 1952 to 1956, and Capitol again, from 1957 to 1972), the next three decades of Peggy Lee's recording career find the singer signing shorter record deals, with eight labels. Here is a timetable of her recording activity during this period:

1974: Atlantic Records (one album and a handful of songs)
1975: A&M Records (one album and another handful of songs)
1977: Polydor Records (two albums) & Ken Barnes Productions (taped concert)
1979: DRG Records (one album)
1988: Harbinger Records (one album)
1988-1990: MusicMasters Records (two albums, plus a single)
1992: Chesky Records (one album); also two guest vocals on two other labels
1995: a guest vocal for MusicMasters

For additional record negotiations (which do not seem to have resulted in any commercial releases), see bottom of this page.

In Peggy Lee's professional career, this last period is notable not merely for the many record deals signed by the artist but also for the important awards that she collected. Those included ASCAP's Pied Piper Award for Lifetime Achievement, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Songwriters' Guild of America President Award, and two honorary doctorates, not to say anything of Lee and her side's victory on three music-related, precedent-setting lawsuits.


Recording Activity, Or Lack Thereof, In 1973

Two years would elapse between Peggy Lee's last session for Capitol (April 28, 1972) and her first session for Atlantic (April 23, 1974). In that interim, some additional recording activity might (or might have not) taken place. (See note at bottom of this page.)

At any rate, Peggy Lee did remain professionally active between record contracts, singing on both television (about a dozen guest appearances) and at live venues. Twice-a-year engagements in New York's Waldorf-Astoria were part of her annual concert activity at the time. Also in New York, Lee uncharacteristically gave three outdoors concerts, for the Schaefer Music Summer Festival in Central Park, one per year, from 1972 to 1974. During this same period, there were additional concert appearances in Chicago, Florida, Las Vegas, London, Ohio, San Francisco, St. Louis, Toronto, Wisconsin, etc.


Statistics: Total Number Of Masters & Titles Still Unissued

For the period of 1974 to 1995, this discographical page shows that Peggy Lee recorded a total of 163 masters. In addition to those studio recordings, it should be noted that numerous concert and televised performances are extant, too. Various rehearsal performances are preserved as well, including some that Ken Barnes Productions has already released on CD. (This discography will eventually itemize that material, in a series of pages that are currently under construction.)

For the period of 1974 to 1995, the following 7 titles remain unissued: "Squatty Watty Do" (May 27, 1975), "Crazy Life" (May 29, 1975), "The Best Thing" (May 29, 1975), "Love Me Or Leave Me" (May 30, 1975), "Saved" (first week of June, 1975), "Since I Fell For You" (February 8, 1988) and "How Long Has This Been Going On" (February 8, 1988). Although I have no knowledge of any other unissued songs from this period, their existence is certainly a possibility, especially on MusicMasters. For more on the topic of unissued or unknown recordings, see this page's final note, titled "Peggy Lee's Unfullfilled Record Deals (1973-1995)."


A Note On Recommended CDs and LPs

The most recent, ongoing version of this discography (summer 2007) contains a few new features. One of them constitutes an effort to recommend superior CD or LP issues, for every Peggy Lee studio number that has been released. Recommended items differ from all other issues because their titles are in capitalized and bold lettering. For instance, the following is the recommended issue throughout Lee's 1975 A&M sessions: PEGGY LEE SINGS LEIBER & STOLLER.

Recommendations are based primarily on above-average sound quality and overall production: design, liner notes, track information. When the quality of the recommended item is average, but there is no better choice, I have indicated so in the notes. (n. b. : When this discography is completed, a page listing all recommendations will be found among its indexes.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Grusin (pdr, p), Peggy Lee (pdr, v), Phil Schier (eng), unknown (acc)

Session Note: A Singles Date

The purpose of this session seems to have been the production of a single. However, no single was ever issued, nor were Lee's versions of "I Wanna Be Seduced" and "I Am His Lady" released until the CD era. The songs became known instead through versions by other singers. (In 1975, "I Am His Lady" became a minor, #82 Billboard chart hit for r&b singer Melba Moore, who recorded the song for Buddha Records. The song made another appearance in 1976, as a track from Ernestine Anderson's first Concord Jazz album. "I Wanna Be Seduced" was recorded by Leon Redbone for the soundtrack of Richard Dreyfuss' 1978 movie The Big Fix, then sung live by Dreyfuss himself in a televised Saturday Night Live appearance. Redbone re-recorded it for his 1981 album From Branch To Branch. In more recent times, singer Mary Coughlan has also recorded and performed it.)


Songs: I Am His Lady

Atlantic's record files incorrectly list "I Am His Lady" under the title "Runnin' Like A River," which is actually the first line of the lyrics.


Songwriters: I Wanna Be Seduced

A few sources mistakenly credit Peggy Lee as the songwriter of "I Wanna Be Seduced." Gary Tigerman, the actual songwriter, was a staff writer for Warner at the time of this session. The error has made its way into the otherwise excellent CD Rhino Handmade 7853.


Dating: Let's Love

This version of "Let's Love" (the earliest of three) is not listed in Michel Ruppli's catalogue of Atlantic masters, which is one of my main sources for Lee's Atlantic sessions. Information about the number comes only from Paul Grein's liner notes for Rhino Handmade CD 7853: 'Lee and Grusin also produced a version of "Let's Love" that is slower and more languid than the one that [Paul] McCartney oversaw. They recorded it in April, before they were sure that McCartney would be able to find time to produce the song.'

Notice that Grein's quote gives the month, but does not give the exact day on which the song was recorded. Until more specific information comes along, and thus as a temporary measure, I have incorporated this Lee-Grusin version of "Let's Love" in this April 23 session. (For the other two versions of "Let's Love," see session dated ca. June 1, 1974.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Grusin (con, pdr, p, fen, snt, per), Peggy Lee (pdr, v), Phil Schier (eng), Erno Neufeld (s-a), Pete Christlieb (f, ts), Jerome Richardson (ss, as, bar), Chuck Findley (t), Frank Rosolino (tb), Vincent De Rosa (frh), Gene Cipriano (o), Dennis Budimir, Dan Ferguson, Lee Ritenour, David T. Walker (g), Chuck Rainey (b), unknown (str), George Gaffney (p), Dick Borden (d), Harvey Mason (d, per), Bobbye Hall (cng), Jim Gilstrap, Joe Green, Marti McCall, Jackie Ward, Edna Wright (bkv)

Dating

The sources at my reach give two different dates for the nine songs listed in this session.

July 17, 1974: the one date assigned to the entire album in the files, according to Michel Ruppli's book Atlantic Records: A Discography (Greenwood Press, 1979). Lee's recording of so many songs on the same day is highly unlikely. Instead, the 17th may have been the day on which all songs were assigned a master, and/or were sequenced for the album. (Another possibility, albeit an unlikelier one: July 17 could have been one of various consecutive days during which the sessions took place.)

April, 1974: the date found in the discographical notes of Rhino Handmade CD 7853. In the absence of any further specifics, I have chosen this date over the album date found in the label's files. My choice is therefore a tentative one.


Location

This session's performances were recorded at the Record Plant Studio, then remixed at Westlake Studio.


Personnel

Dick Borden and George Gaffney only on "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" and "Always."

Erno Neufeld arranger and conductor of strings only.

Background vocals on "He Is The One," "You Make Me Feel Brand New," and "Sweet Lov'liness" only. On "Sweet Talk," and on the main, titular line of "Easy Evil," the female serving as background vocalist seems to be Peggy Lee herself, her voice overdubbed.


Arrangements

"Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" adapted by Peggy Lee and Dave Grusin from an arrangement by Artie Butler.


Collectors' Notes

1. Amemos (LP)
This is a Spanish pressing of the album Let's Love. The same front cover photo is featured on both the American and the Spanish pressings. Catalogue number: Gemma Gx 01 750.

2. 3215 (45, made in America)
This Atlantic 45 comes with a collectible front cover. The photo is actually the same one featured on the album Let's Love, but there is a difference: this is a cropped and closer version of Lee's photo, giving us a closer look of her face, and of the microphone she is holding.

I have also inspected the French and German equivalents of this 45. The sleeve of the German issue (Atlantic 105727) shows no significant variations.

3. 10545 (45, made in France)
Contrary to my policy elsewhere, I have listed a foreign 45 issue in this original American session. The exception was made because this French single features two noteworthy divergences from its counterpart in the United States. For one, its B side contains a different song from the American issue (Rather than "Always," the French were offered "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter.") Second, a different sleeve was used. On the sleeve's front, there's a blue background (no photo), with the singer's name in white and the words "let's love" in pink. The back includes the same photo used on the front cover of the LP, though reprinted in very small size. (For a look at a reproduction of this French sleeve, front and back, see the booklet of Rhino Handmade CD 7853.)

4. P-1347A (45, made in Japan)
This issue of "Let's Love" and "Always" deserves mention because it qualifies as a collectibe. Its front cover is the same one as that of the LP, except for the words (title, singer's name, etc.) that are in Japanese. Its back cover shows a photo of Peggy Lee and Paul McCartney, at the piano.

Paul McCartney (pdr, p), Alan Parsons, Pat Stapley (eng), unknown (str, wds), Peggy Lee (v)

Dating

Available sources offer two possible choices for this session's masters (and also for all masters on Atlantic LP 18108): early June 1974 or July 17, 1974. My choice of the June dating relies on a statement made by Paul Grein in his liner notes for Rhino Handmade CD 7853. (For details about the date not chosen, July 17, see notes under session dated April, 1974.) Here is Grein's statement:

'[Paul] McCartney produced the backing track for "Let's Love" at Abbey Road studios in London on May 18. The first week of June, he recorded Lee's vocal at the Record Plant. Atlantic invited some press people to a photo and playback session.'

The discographical notes in the Rhino CD reiterate the same information given by Grein.

One of Grein's sources is clearly an article titled "The Generation Bridge," published by Zoo World magazine on July 18, 1974. Len Epand, the article's writer, mentions that Lee & McCartney were producing the song "one day the first week of June." After a day's work, Epand continues, "[they] held a mini press conference/photo session around Studio C's grand piano. In high spirits, they casually sang a couple of songs together, elaborated on their surprising collaboration and then took the small mob into the control room to hear the finished track."

If the above-quoted comment was Grein's only source of information, it should be noted that the first week of June is mentioned as the date of production, which may or may have not coincided with the date on which Lee recorded the vocal.


Songs

1. "Let's Love" In The Charts
On the week of November 2, 1974, the song "Let's Love" peaked at number 22 in Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. For an earlier version of "Let's Love," see session dated April 23, 1974, including notes.

2. Let's Love (Reprise)
This so-called reprise, actually an edit of 29425, contains a couple of choruses and Lee's closing line.


Songwriters: Paul & Linda McCartney

All issues containing the song "Let's Love" list Paul McCartney as its sole author. However, ASCAP lists both Paul and his late, first wife, Linda.

The aforementioned article by Epand indicates that the song was originally brought by the couple, as a dinner present, to Lee, while she was in London. In another article ("Peggy Lee: A Consummate Artist," published by Record World Magazine on December 27, 1975), Lee retells the story, but links the writing specifically to Paul: "When he got to the hotel he said that rather than bring champagne or roses, he was writing a song for me. And it was almost complete, maybe two bars left to write. Then they [i.e., Linda and Paul] came to California and they were at my house for dinner, so he played it for me."

Despite errors previously found in its online database, I am momentarily trusting ASCAP in this instance. (I'd rather err not on the side of omission, but on the side of addition).

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Grusin (pdr, p), Peggy Lee (pdr, v, spk)

Songs: The Nickel Ride

This song comes from the 1974 Twentieth Century-Fox movie The Nickel Ride, which was scored by Dave Grusin. However, Lee's lyrics are not heard in the movie soundtrack, and might have not been intended for it.


Dating

As is the case with previously entered Atlantic sessions, two possible recording dates are in contention.

June 7, 1974: the date found in Michel Ruppli's Atlantic Records: A Discography.

April 1974: the month on which, according to Rhino Handmade CD 7853, Lee recorded all her Atlantic numbers (with the one exception of the McCartney-produced song "Let's Love").

Until further information becomes available, I am choosing the more specific date (June 7, 1974) over the collective one (April, 1974). Let's keep in mind, however, that the specific date could refer to something other than the actual day of recording, such as the day in which this session's song was mastered.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller (pdr), Peggy Lee (v)

Acknowledgment

Peter Stoller, remix producer of Hip-O Select cd B0004169-02, has kindly supplied much of my discographical information for this and all subsequent A&M sessions.


Masters & Songs

1. Preservation
Most of Peggy Lee's A&M performances are currently preserved in various reel tapes at Universal's tape library. Not preserved at the library are this session's performances, believed to be her earliest at A&M Records.

These performances were preserved instead in the form of reference tapes (reel and cassette). Originally made for the benefit and use of the session's participants, some of those reference tapes have ended up in the hands of fans, who have made transfers to other audio configurations.

Given the absence of any master tapes at the Universal library, a commercial release of these performances is highly unlikely.

2. Squatty Watty Do
Lee changes the words of the title, singing instead "Daddy Wah Dah Do." This song was originally recorded--and shelved--as "The Slime," then re-recorded and released as "The Climb," by the r&b vocal group The Coasters in 1962. (A parody of dance crazes, it was curiously popular in France, where it was covered by numerous artists as "Le Climb," having apparently been taken as a real dance craze.)

2. I Ain't Here
For the commercially released version of "I Ain't Here," see session dated May 30, 1975.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller (pdr), Pete Romano (eng), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters

Preservation
The original master tapes of these performances have not been preserved. Fortunately, a safety tape is extant at the Universal tape library. It is dated June 9, 1975. In addition to the safety tapes, the performances were also preserved in reference tapes, made for some of the sessions' participants. (See notes under session dated May 27, 1975.)


Songs

1. "Don Juan"
The identification of the first performance of "Don Juan" as the same take released on the Hip-O CD is tentative. I am relying on my own listening and comparison of the two available sources. Some perceived minor differences could be deemed the result of mixing.


Songwriters: Ralph Palladino

Songwriter Ralph Palladino is also listed under the name Ralph Dino at ASCAP; he and co-writer John Sembello recorded an album as Dino & Sembello with Leiber & Stoller producing in 1974, which included the original version of "The Best Thing."


Arrangements: "Crazy Life"

Peggy Lee's music library contains two arrangements of "Crazy Life," one by Perry Botkin, Jr. and the other by Mickey Ingalls.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller (pdr), Hank Cicalo, Pete Romano, Carmen Rubino (eng), Meco Monardo (s-a), George Young (f), unknown (str), Peggy Lee (v)

Masters & Songs

1. Love Me Or Leave Me
This unreleased performance of "Love Me Or Leave Me" features the same upbeat, neo-samba arrangement heard on Lee's other performances of the song around this time, in concert and on television. See page for Guest TV Appearances, 1975.

2. Some Cats Know
The master box containing this session's performances also includes false starts of "Some Cats Know" (none of them entered in this discography.)


Dating: Some Cats Know

The inclusion of "Some Cats Know" in this session is tentative. The first generation tapes contain the other three performances ("Love Me Or Leave Me," "I Ain't Here," and the alternate of "I Ain't Here") and the aforementioned false starts of "Some Cats Know," but not a complete "Cats" take.

"Some Cats Know" is found instead in safety tapes dated June 9. Because those safety tapes also include the performances from the May 29 session, it is possible that "Some Cats Know" was recorded on that date. Then again, any safety tape could include performances recorded over various days.

Ultimately, I have chosen to enter "Some Cats Know" in this session because of the aforementioned false starts of the song, clearly dated May 30.


Arrangements

All numbers were originally recorded with head arrangements, performed by vocalist and rhythm section only. However, other instruments were added to "Some Cats Know" during an overdub session, (see below, under Location & Personnel).


Location & Personnel: Overdub of "Some Cats Know"

Originally, "Some Cats Know" was not conceived as an orchestral number. Later, after Lee, Leiber & Stoller, and A&M had agreed on a direction for the album, other instruments (strings, flute) were added to make it fit in with the rest of Mirrors. The strings were arranged and conducted by Meco Monardo. This overdub session is known to have taken place at The Record Plant (New York), presumably in August 1975, or perhaps as early as July. Rubino and Monardo were present on this overdub session only. Peggy Lee is not likely to have been present.


Personnel: Engineers

Pete Romano engineer on "Some Cats Know." Carmine Rubino engineer for the overdub session of "Some Cats Know." Hank Cicalo or Pete Romano engineer on "I Ain't Here" and "Love Me Or Leave Me." Hank Cicalo, remix engineer on "Some Cats Know" (original Mirrors version.)

The remix engineer for these and all other tracks on Peggy Lee Sings Leiber & Stoller is Brian Blackburn.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Johnny Mandel (con), Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller (pdr), Hank Cicalo (eng), Peggy Lee (v, spk)

Masters & Issues: Universal CD 3333 and The Case of M. J.

The edited version of "The Case of M. J." (found only on Universal cd 3333) was produced by Leiber & Stoller around 1978, as one of the seminal steps for a reissue of Mirrors (A&M LP 4547). (See Peggy Lee Sings The Cabaret Songs Of Leiber & Stoller: The LP That Never Was, below.) Most noticeable in this edit is the absence of the line that Lee murmurs throughout the song ("how old were you when your father went away?")

I have not listened to Universal CD 3333. The disc could well contain additional remixes, produced by Leiber & Stoller for their abandoned project. If so, other listeners have not noticed any significant differences between mixes. They have complained, however, about the cd's sub-par audio quality ("heavy digital ambience," audible "tape edits").


Personnel

As with previous A&M sessions, the musicians remain unknown to me at present time (July, 2007). For the personnel collectively assigned to all songs released in the LP Mirrors, see sessions dated ca. June 6 & August 1, 1975.


Dating

These performances are found in an undated and unnumbered master box. It is reasonable to assign them a date before June 6, because they are preserved on 16-track tape. (24-track tape was used on all Lee's performances that date from June 6 and thereafter; previous performances are all on 16-track tape.) My thanks to Peter Stoller for pointing out this relevant detail to me.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Perry Botkin, Jr., Johnny Mandel (con), Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller (pdr), Hank Cicalo (eng), Georgia Alwan, Norman Benno, Gene Cipriano, Harry Klee, Ronald Langinger, Abe Most, John Neufield, Jack Nimitz, Bill Perkins, Jerome Richardson, Tom Scott, Bud Shank, George Young (r), Joe Burnett, Marion "Buddy" Childers, Chuck Findley, Paul Hubinon, Malcolm McNab, Anthony Terran (t), Charlie Loper, Richard Nash, Kenny Shroyer, Phillip Tule, Mike Vlatkovich, Chauncey Welsch (tb), Vincent De Rosa, Alan Robinson, Marilyn Robinson (hrn), John Johnson, Bill Masonheimer (tu), Dennis Budimir, John Pisano, Tommy Tedesco (g, bj), Ray Brown, Joe Mondragon (b), Fred Seykora (b, vc), Clare Fischer, Dave Grusin, Artie Kane, Michael Lang, Mike Melvoin, Varda Ullman (key), Stephen Paietta (pac), Corky Hale (hrp), Larry Bunker, Gene Estes, John Guerin, Ken Park, Joe Porcaro, Emil Radocchia, Jack Ranelli, Mark Stevens, Alvin Stoller, Kenneth Watson (d, per), Victor Feldman (per), Arnold Belnick, Blanche Belnick, Harry Bluestone, Norman Carr, Harold Dicterow, Assa Drori, Irving Geller, William "Bill" Kurasch, Betty Lamagna, Carl Lamagna, Guy Lumia, Erno Neufeld, Wilbert Nuttycombe, John Pintavalle, Tony Posk, Elliot Rosoff, Bob Sanov, Paul Shure, Richard Sortomme, Mari Tsumura, Gerald Vinci, Shari Zippert (vn), Julien Barber, Allan Harshman, Virginia Majewski, Barbara Thomason (vl), Anne Goodman, Dennis Karmazyn, Jess Levy, Edgar Lustgarten, Jackie Lustgarten (vc), Peggy Lee (v, spk)

Songs

Tango
"Tango" consists of three parts: an instrumental intro, a recitative by Lee, and Lee's sung vocal. Only the sung vocal and the recitative were recorded during this session. Furthermore, the recitative seems to be a composite of various takes, including those from the session dated August 1, 1975. (For the instrumental intro, not recorded on this date, see comments under session dated August 1, 1975.)


Conducting

Perry Botkin, Jr. conductor and arranger of "Ready To Begin Again (Manya's Song)" only. Johnny Mandel arranged and conducted the session's other performances.


A Note About Audio Engineering

These are the earliest extant performances from these sessions recorded on a 24-track machine. The previous ones had been recorded on a 16-track machine. (Presumably, A&M had only recently acquired a 24-track machine, which was first made available to Leiber & Stoller on this date.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Johnny Mandel (con), Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller (pdr), Hank Cicalo (eng), Georgia Alwan, Norman Benno, Gene Cipriano, Harry Klee, Ronald Langinger, Abe Most, John Neufield, Jack Nimitz, Bill Perkins, Jerome Richardson, Tom Scott, Bud Shank, George Young (r), Joe Burnett, Marion "Buddy" Childers, Chuck Findley, Paul Hubinon, Malcolm McNab, Anthony Terran (t), Charlie Loper, Richard Nash, Kenny Shroyer, Phillip Tule, Mike Vlatkovich, Chauncey Welsch (tb), Vincent De Rosa, Alan Robinson, Marilyn Robinson (hrn), John Johnson, Bill Masonheimer (tu), Dennis Budimir, John Pisano, Tommy Tedesco (g, bj), Ray Brown, Joe Mondragon (b), Fred Seykora (b, vc), Clare Fischer, Dave Grusin, Artie Kane, Michael Lang, Mike Melvoin, Varda Ullman (key), Stephen Paietta (pac), Corky Hale (hrp), Larry Bunker, Gene Estes, John Guerin, Ken Park, Joe Porcaro, Emil Radocchia, Jack Ranelli, Mark Stevens, Alvin Stoller, Kenneth Watson (d, per), Victor Feldman (per), Arnold Belnick, Blanche Belnick, Harry Bluestone, Norman Carr, Harold Dicterow, Assa Drori, Irving Geller, William "Bill" Kurasch, Betty Lamagna, Carl Lamagna, Guy Lumia, Erno Neufeld, Wilbert Nuttycombe, John Pintavalle, Tony Posk, Elliot Rosoff, Bob Sanov, Paul Shure, Richard Sortomme, Mari Tsumura, Gerald Vinci, Shari Zippert (vn), Julien Barber, Allan Harshman, Virginia Majewski, Barbara Thomason (vl), Anne Goodman, Dennis Karmazyn, Jess Levy, Edgar Lustgarten, Jackie Lustgarten (vc), Peggy Lee (v, spk)

Songs & Masters

1. Professor Hauptmann's Performing Dogs
Mike Stoller has composed two numbers that bear the title "Professor Hauptmann's Performing Dogs." The first was an instrumental piece, issued on the B-side of the 1968 single, "Silver Sea Horse," by Mike Stoller & The Stoller System (Amy 11027). The second, the number recorded in this session, began life as a lyric by Jerry Leiber, to which Stoller then wrote music. The two numbers are entirely different from one another, sharing only their title. (The title is one favored by Leiber, who first suggested it for Stoller's 1968 instrumental, and then re-used it for his own 1975 lyric.) ASCAP lists the title only once, and lists both Peggy Lee and Mike Stoller as performers.

2. Tango & Little Tango
For the take of "Tango" that has been issued, see session dated June 6, 1975. Also recorded during this session was the instrumental intro of the song, known as "Little Tango." Also known as "Tango Del Fuego," this instrumental has had a separate life of its own; director Paul Mazursky used it in his film The Tempest. (Because Lee was not an active participant in its recording, I have not entered "Little Tango" in this discography's database.)


A General Note About The Dating Of The A&M Sessions

The majority of this discography's A&M sessions bear the date found in the performances' master boxes. The possibility remains that, instead of the actual recording day, the dating on those boxes may refer to any other part of the production process.

I. Peggy Lee Sings The Cabaret Songs Of Leiber & Stoller: The Unreleased LP

Listed in A&M's log files is an album titled Peggy Lee Sings The Cabaret Songs Of Leiber & Stoller. Producers Leiber & Stoller conceived the album around 1978, and planned it to be both a reissue and an expansion of their earlier LP, Mirrors (A&M 4547). The record company proceeded to assemble a complete LP master, and assigned the album a catalogue number (A&M 4734). The cover art was designed, too. But the project was eventually shelved.

Had it come to fruition, Peggy Lee Sings The Cabaret Songs Of Leiber & Stoller would have contained new remixes of various songs from Mirrors, and also songs newly recorded by Peggy Lee. Some remixing was actually carried out, but there's no evidence of new recording activity.

Essentially, the 2005 CD Peggy Lee Sings Leiber & Stoller (A&M B0004169) is a modern-day reincarnation of the abandoned 1978 project. A far more advanced reincarnation. (Among the significant advantages of the CD are its superior remix and also the welcome inclusion of previously unreleased numbers from the 1975 sessions.)


ll. Mirrors / Is That All There Is: The Unreleased CD

In 2004, word of mouth began to spread about an upcoming Peggy Lee CD. The work in progress was to be a twofer, which would contain the albums Mirrors and Is That All There Is. The Australian label Raven Records was preparing it. By 2005, additional word came about the completion of the liner notes and some remixes, too.

When Raven found out about the upcoming release of Peggy Lee Sings Leiber & Stoller in 2005, the record label graciously held off releasing its twofer. As of July 2007, plans to release the project seem to have been abandoned, perhaps due to two competing CDs already in the market (Peggy Lee Sings Leiber & Stoller, on A&M / Hip-O, and A Natural Woman / Is That All There Is, on EMI.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Ken Barnes (pdr), Steve Taylor (eng), The Pete Moore Orchestra (acc), Pete Moore (snt), Peggy Lee (v, spk, bkv), Joan Baxter, Maggie Stredder, Clare Torrey (bkv)

Songs

1. Lover
This version of "Lover" contains lyrics that are almost entirely different from those in Lee's bestselling, 1952 hit version of the song. The lyrics sung by Lee in 1977 date back to 1932 and are actually the original ones, as heard in Love Me Tonight, the movie that premiered the song. (The suggestion to use the 1932 lyrics came from Dick Vosburgh, the American-born, London-based lyricist, broadcaster, and writer of special material.)

2. Here Now
The original LP Peggy gives the title of this song as "Here And Now." However, Lee's singing of the lyrics does not support the inclusion of the conjunction "and." The song is also extant in a rehearsal version that was issued in the CD At Her Best. In that disc, the title is given as "Here, Now." There's yet another release of the song, this one sung by a r&b singer, whose 1996 CD gives the title as "Here Now" (no comma included). I have chosen this third variant over the others, chiefly because it is the spelling used by EMI Music Publishing, which holds copyright control of the number.


Arrangements: Lover

Over the years, Peggy Lee tried different arrangements on "Lover." Each arrangement updated the song, presenting it in a more contemporaneous musical style. This session's performance constitutes the third update in the series. Barnes, Lee, and Moore turn the song into a disco-oriented anthem. (For Lee's initial update of this song, originally written as a waltz, see sessions dated April 28 and May 1, 1952. For the second update, see Peggy Lee's Television Specials, 1967.)


Personnel

Background vocals on "Here Now" and "Switchin' Channels" only.

Peggy Lee's speaking voice is heard only in portions of "Courage Madame."


Issues / Collectors' Corner

1. CD (You Give Me) Fever: Two Different Pressings
This 1993 Spectrum CD was reissued in 1998 by the same label, under the simpler title Fever. The track sequencing is the same in the reissue, but the artwork differs. Specifically, this 1998 reissue uses an iconic b&w Peggy Lee publicity photo, whereas the 1993 issue features a b&w publicity photo of Lee taken ca. 1955. (A curious minor detail: the 1998 reissue is the only instance in which the much-used, iconic photo is reproduced with its original backdrop or staging. That photo dates from ca. 1960.)

2. LP/Cass Peggy
The catalogue number of this LP begins with the word "super," which I do not know to be part of the cassette version. (n.b. : 3170 458 is the number of the cassette; Super 2383 458 is the number of the LP. )

Peggy Lee (ldr), Pete Moore, Jack Parnell (con), Ken Barnes (pdr), Steve Taylor (eng), Pete Moore & Jack Parnell Orchestras (acc), Bob Burns (as), Duncan Lamont, Tommy Whittle (ts), Kenny Baker (t), Richard Edwards, Don Lusher (tb), Tony Fisher (fh), Judd Proctor (g), unknown (str), Ronnie Price (key), Ronnie Verrell (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Concert & Repertoire: The London Live Sessions

On the evening of March 13, Lee gave two full shows, singing the same 17 songs on both, though adding 3 more songs during the second show. While preparing the lp Live In London, Polydor Records and producer Ken Barnes probably made choices from both shows held that evening. Thanks to Tony Nesbit, who attended both concerts and has kept notes about the repertoire, I can offer the running order of each show.

Running order of the evening's first concert:
1. Love For Sale /2. Everything Must Change /3. You Gotta Know How /4. The Folks Who Live On The Hill /5. I Go To Rio /6. I'm Not In Love /7. Lover /8. Have A Good Time /9. Touch Me In The Morning /10. Make Believe 11. Fever /12. Why Don't You Do Right? /13. Is That All There Is /14. Sing A Rainbow /15. Mr. Wonderful /16. Mack The Knife /17. Here's To You

Running order of the evening's second concert:
1. Love For Sale /2. Everything Must Change /3. You Gotta Know How
/4. The Folks Who Live On The Hill /5. I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard /6. I Go To Rio /7. I'm Not In Love /8. Lover /9. Have A Good Time /10. Touch Me In The Morning /11. Make Believe /12. Rodgers & Hart Medley
/13. Fever /14. Why Don't You Do Right? /15. Is That All There Is /16. Sing A Rainbow /17. Mr. Wonderful /18. Mack the Knife /19. Dreams Of Summer /20. Here's To You

The following songs, all of them issued in the Polydor LP, were sung only once on March 13, during the second show: "I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard" and "Dreams Of Summer." (Also sung only once, during the second show, but not included in the Polydor LP: the "Rodgers & Hart Medley.")

The following vocals were sung during both concerts, but excluded from the Polydor live LP: "I Go To Rio," "I'm Not In Love," and "Lover." (However, studio versions of all 3 numbers were released in the Polydor LP Peggy. See sessions dated March 7, 8, 9, 1977.)

For the third (and more extensively issued) concert in Peggy Lee's London Palladium series, see session dated March 20, 1977.

Incidentally (and naturally), rehearsals for this Palladium show had taken place on the previous week. Those were three-hour afternoon rehearsals in London's Dorchester Hotel Ballroom. Then, on the afternoon before this evening concert, a three-hour orchestra rehearsal took place; Peggy Lee was present and rehearsing with the orchestra during this event's second half.

Personnel

See notes under session dated March 20, 1977.


Songs

1. You Gotta Know How
Avoiding the colloquial contraction gotta, Peggy Lee sings this title as "You Got To Know How." Accordingly, the track listing of her Polydor LP calls the song "You Got To Know How."

In this discography, I have instead opted to list the song as "You Gotta Know How," which is the spelling used on songwriter Sippie Wallace's own albums, and also the spelling adopted by the Library of Congress.

More importantly, the original LP (Polydor 2383 448) wrongly credits this song not to Sippie Wallace but to Walter Donaldson. There is indeed a song titled "You Got To Know How" that was co-written by Donaldson (in collaboration with Ernie Erdman). However, the vocal performed by Peggy Lee is not the song by Donaldson, but the one by blues songstress Sippie Wallace. My thanks to Allen Bardin for pointing out to me who the correct songwriter was.


Songwriters

1. Yutaka Kokokura
The name of the composer of "Dreams Of Summer" receives different spellings in the sources at my reach. The sleeve of the Polydor LP credits him as "KokAkura." Some article print his first name as "Utaka" or "Utakaka." The Library of Congress identifies him as Yutaka Kokakura, a producer, remixer and vocalist whose credits extent to the current, first decade of the twenty-first century.


Issues / Collectors' Corner

1. Mercury LP Live In London
The original issue of Live In London is the LP that was released by Polydor Records in England. In the United States, the LP was briefly released by Mercury, in an abbreviated, 10-track version. Mercury's files actually list the album as canceled. It presumably was, though not before some copies made it to a few chain stores. In fact, Peggy Lee fan and collector Wayne Brasler reports that he bought this Mercury LP in the late 1970's, at a store in Chicago (Sam Goody's or Montgomery Ward, he surmises).

Brasler's LP has the same front and back cover as the British original, differing only in the sequencing of the selected tracks. On side A, both the Polydor and the Mercury versions start with the same two songs ("Love For Sale," "Everything Must Change") and finish with the same two songs ("The Folks Who Live On The Hill," "Touch Me In The Morning"). But the central portions differ. The Mercuy LP has inserted "Fever" in the middle of side A. (In the original British version, it is on side B, track 1.) The five aforementioned songs are the entire repertoire on side A of the Mercury LP. On side B, the Mercury album contains only the following numbers: "Mack The Knife," "Is That All There Is," "Make Believe," "Dreams of Summer," and "Here's To You."

The Canadian version of the album follows the same track listing as the Mercury version. It is on Polydor (catalogue number 2482 415).

The album versions on American Mercury and Canadian Polydor thus contain only 10 of the 16 original tracks. The following six songs were omitted: "You Got To Know How," "I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard," "Have A Good Time," "Why Don't You Do Right," "Sing A Rainbow" and "Mr. Wonderful."

2. LP/Cassette Live In London
The catalogue number of this LP begins with the word "super," which I do not know to be part of the cassette version. (n.b. 3170 448 is the number of the cassette; 2383 448 is the number of the LP.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Pete Moore, Jack Parnell (con), Ken Barnes (pdr), Steve Taylor (eng), Pete Moore & Jack Parnell Orchestras (acc), Bob Burns (as), Duncan Lamont, Tommy Whittle (ts), Kenny Baker (t), Richard Edwards, Don Lusher (tb), Tony Fisher (fh), Judd Proctor (g), unknown (str), Ronnie Price (key), Ronnie Verrell (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Dating

1. When and how many concerts?
Over the years, some concertgoers who attended Peggy Lee's London Palladium shows have expressed confusion over the number of dates that she did at this venue. Ken Barnes, producer of Lee's concerts at the Palladium, has corroborated that concerts took place on both March 13 and March 20.

Specific about this March 20 concert remain fuzzy. Some fans who attended the March 13 shows insist that no other concerts were scheduled. It could be that the March 20 concert was given to an invited-audience only, and that there was no advertisement. (Producer Ken Barnes recalls that, after the show, Ava Gardner visited Peggy Lee, in her dressing room.

It could also be a case of last-minute scheduling, resulting in no time for advertising. I have been told that the March 20 concert was a belated request, made by Peggy Lee after the March 13 concerts. She was not entirely happy with the performances that she had given on that evening, and wanted to have another opportunity to do a show to her satisfaction.

If such was the case, then lack of general knowledge about this last Palladium concert would be understandable. Published interviews and press releases from the time do not mention it. Witness, for instance, the interview that appeared in the March 19, 1977 issue of Melody Maker. The interview had obviously taken place before the night of March 13, and thus before the new concert was even proposed. Interviewer Max Jones states that Lee "is playing only one concert date, which seems short ration in view of the length of time which separates her occasional visits." Lee is then quoted as having said: "I know, but I'm doing two shows so you might as well say I'm doing two nights ..."

As with the earlier, March 13 concerts, a three-hour orchestra rehearsal for this third Palladium show was held on the afternoon. Peggy Lee was again present and rehearsing with the orchestra during this event's second half.


2. Did Lee also sang at the London Palladium in 1997??
She did not. "March 20, 1997" is a date wrongly assigned to the third London Palladium concert in Pulse/Castle CD 543. The error is merely typographical; the second 9 in "1997" should have been a 7.


Ownership Of The Masters

In 1977, this March 20 concert was offered for commercial release to Polydor, too. Nevertheless, the company passed, because it already owned the concert material from March 13. The concert is thus owned not by Polydor, but by the producer and associates.


Personnel

Lee's shows at the London Palladium were divided into two segments. The first segment was conducted by Jack Parnell. The second segment was conducted by Pete Moore. Curiously, Melody Maker's reviewer Ray Coleman refers to Parnell's presence onstage, but neglects to mention Moore's. (For what is worth, the reviewer must have attended either both shows on March 13, or just the second, since he mentions songs that were not included in the first show. Specifically: "I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard" and the "Rodgers & Hart Medley.")

My information about personnel on the March 13 and 20 dates comes from two sources. Those two sources do not list the exact same personnel. The first source is Pulse/Kaz CD 144, containing the March 20 concert. In addition to the vocalist, the producer, and the conductor, the CD names five musicians, under the rubric "featured soloists:" Richard Edwards, Tony Fisher, Duncan Lamont, Ronnie Price, and Judd Proctor. The Pete Moore Orchestra is also credited. The second source is the aforementioned review of the March 13, 1977 concert, published by Melody Maker magazine on March 19, 1977. Reviewer Ray Coleman lists Bob Burns (alto), Don Lusher (trombone), Kenny Baker (trumpet), Tommy Whittle (tenor) and Ronnie Verrell (drums) as part of the Jack Parnell Orchestra, which he further describes as "augmented by strings."


Songs

1. Rodgers & Hart Medley
The Rodgers & Hart Medley consists of 4 vocals by Peggy Lee and two instrumentals by the orchestra, for a total timing of 10:19. The vocals, with their respective timings, are: "Who Are You?" (02:14), "Glad To Be Unhappy" (01:32), "It Never Entered My Mind" (02:59), and "Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered" (04:20). The instrumental "Where Or When" follows Lee's first vocal ("Who Are You?"), whereas the instrumental "Falling In Love With Love" precedes her last vocal ("Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered").


Issues / Collectors' Corner

1. Issues Recommended By Default
I have highlighted the issue At Her Best only because it is the least wanting of the choices available. Otherwise the disc does not merit special recommendation. A finer issue of these performances is needed.

2. CD Fever! The Best Of Peggy Lee: Two Different Pressings
Originally issued in 1996, Pulse/Kaz CD144 was later reprinted with a different cover and a partially different title (Fever! Live At The London Palladium). The cover of the earlier version shows a b&w drawing (or rather, a photo negative) of Lee, as she looked in the mid-1970's. The reprint shows three color photos of Lee in performance, as she looked in the mid-1960's.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Pete Moore, Jack Parnell (con), Ken Barnes (pdr), Steve Taylor (eng), Pete Moore & Jack Parnell Orchestras (acc), Bob Burns (as), Duncan Lamont, Tommy Whittle (ts), Kenny Baker (t), Richard Edwards, Don Lusher (tb), Tony Fisher (fh), Judd Proctor (g), unknown (str), Ronnie Price (key), Ronnie Verrell (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

I have created this "sub-session" for three songs that seem to be part of the aforementioned, March 20, 1977 date, yet were released separately from the rest of the concert. Producer Ken Barnes has confirmed that the above-listed version of "Is That All There Is" belongs to the March 20 concert, and that its release in 1997 was possible thanks to further and more extensive work on the master. Barnes explains that, during its decades in storage, the master tape suffered such heavy drop-out that some performances could not be initially included in 1996, when the concert was first issued.

As for the other two performances in this session, at present time (August 2007) I do not have full corroboration of their dating. Their inclusion in the March 20 concert should thus be deemed tentative.


Issues / Collectors' Corner

1. Issues Recommended by Default
I have highlighted the issue At Her Best only because it is the least wanting of the choices available. Similarly, I highlighted The New Collection because it contains performances not available elsewhere. It is worth noting that the track organization of The New Collection is too haphazard. (Tracks recorded in the 1960's alternate with tracks recorded in the 1970's.) Finer issues of those CDs' tracks are needed.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dick Hazard (con), Hugh Fordin (pdr), Tchad Blake, Geoff Howe (eng), Dennis Budimir, John Chiodini, John Pisano (elg), Max Bennett (eb), Ian Underwood (elp), John Guerin (d, per), Peggy Lee (v)

Issues: European CD Versions of Close Enough For Love

DRG appears to have licensed the masters of this album to various European labels. I am aware of the following European issues:

- Le Chante du Monde / Diffusion CD: (France) Ldj 274 953 - Close Enough For Love ("Radio Nights" Series) (1991)
- Success/Elap/Pickwick CD: (England) 16130cd - Close Enough For Love (1992)
- Tring International CD: (England) Jhd 067 - Close Enough For Love ("Freestyle" Series)

See also below, Collectors' Corner, #3.


Collectors' Notes

1. The Souvenir Book Companion to the LP Close Enough For Love
When originally released, the LP Close Enough For Love included an advertisement for a 20-page pamphlet, described as "an ideal companion to the LP," and titled The Life Story Of Peggy Lee. (The ad was a typed sheet, found inside the record's jacket.)

The pamphlet, actually titled Miss Peggy Lee was in reality Lee's 1979 souvenir tour book. Contents: three pages of biographical material, divided into "The Professional Side," "The Creative Side," and "The Personal Side;" a couple of poems by the singer, a list of her original American LPs up to 1975, a few acknowledgments, and more photos, many of them featuring Lee with other celebrities (Jimmy Dorsey, Alice Faye, Jackie Gleason, Woody Herman, Liberace, Robert Preston, Ronald Reagan, etc., etc.). The front and back covers
show a total of four large photos of the singer, and are in color. The rest of the (12" by 9") booklet is in black & white.

2. The DBX Edition Of Close Enough For Love
The LP Close Enough For Love has been released in both its "regular" version (1979) and, years later, in a dbx special edition. There are no significant visual or numerical differences between both versions, except for the dbx identification in the special edition of the LP. (A noise reduction system used for professional recording, dbx requires special audio equipment to be appreciated.)

3. Success (Pickwick) CD Close Enough For Love
At least one of the European CD reissues of Close Enough For Love features a cover different from the one that graces the original DRG LP (1979) and DRG CD (1998). The reissue in question is the aforementioned Success/Elap/Pickwick CD (see notes about Issues) above). This cover can be viewed online at the following address:
http://www.peggylee.com/digital/digital_cd_discography_5.html

I have also inspected the cover of the Chante du Monde CD. It shows the same photo as the American DRG original, but in a drastically reduced coin size. Making the Chante du Monde cover even less appealing is the simple, basic design, consisting of just dark background & lettering.

I have not been able to inspect the covers of any of the other European issues
of Close Enough For Love.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Gregory K. Squires (pdr), John Chiodini (g), Jay Leonhart (b), Mike Renzi (p), Grady Tate (d), Mark Sherman (per), Peggy Lee (v)

Dating

This session's dating is based on information gleaned from various periodicals. On Sunday, January 31, 1988, a Newsday article reported that Peggy Lee was "recording an album this weekend, for MusicMasters." Two days later (February 2, 1988), a New York Post article quoted Lee as having said that "[I] will do part of it before I'm in the Ballroom, and the rest after." Lee's engagement at The Ballroom (NY) had started on that very Tuesday (February 2, 1988). The last scheduled day of the two-week engagement was February 13. (Some of Lee's various engagements at the Ballroom were extended, however.)

If the aforementioned reports accurately reflect the actual events, then the recording of the album would have begun over the last weekend of January (Friday the 28th to Sunday the 31st). Completion would have happened some time in mid-to-late February.

There are actually a couple of outtakes dated February 8, 1988. (See below, under that date.) It stands to reason that February 8 was one of the days in which Leee also recorded some of songs actually used for the album, but it is not known which ones, nor how many.


Issues

1. MusicMasters' Various Pressings of Miss Peggy Lee Sings The Blues
In 1992, four years after issuing Miss Peggy Lee Sings The Blues for the first time, MusicMasters did a second pressing of the album, and assigned it new catalogue numbers. Moreover, the album was also reissued by MusicMasters' sister company, Music Heritage, in 1990.

Although the aforementioned pressings of the album are the only ones known to me, I do not discard the possibility of others, which could also bear entirely different catalogue numbers. In fact, my own CD copy of this album bears two catalogue numbers. One number is among those listed above (5005-2-C). The other catalogue number, D 143661, is accompanied by the legend "Mfd. for BMG Direct Marketing, Inc. under License," etc. I am assuming that my copy is a special markets reprint, licensed to BMG.

In a record guide, I have seen yet another catalogue number for the CD: 8208092. This number is linked to S&R, which I presume to be another licensee or distributor.

It is also worth noting that some record guides show a 1989 release date for the CD. However, the CD was actually released (along with the LP and the cassette) in November of 1988, as proven by reviews that were published that year, and which specifically mention the compact disc.

To find catalogue information about non-USA pressings of Miss Peggy Lee Sings The Blues (on labels such as Limelight, Polygram, and Phonogram), the Foreign Pressings Index can be consulted [once it is finished; currently it is under construction].


Collectors' Corner

1. Different Album Covers (MusicMasters, Music Heritage)
The sister labels Music Heritage and MusicMasters used different covers for their respective CD releases of Miss Peggy Lee Sings The Blues. Both covers show photos of Lee, credited to Hans Albers, and taken in 1988. Lee wears the same coiffure but different attire in these two photos, of which only one (MusicMasters') is in color.

There is a third photo, used by MusicMasters for the cassette version of this album. This photo is similar to the one used for the other two (CD, LP) MusicMasters issues. (In the cassette's photo, a bespectacled Peggy is looking in the photographer's direction. In the LP & CD photo, she is looking down.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Gregory K. Squires (pdr), John Chiodini (g), Jay Leonhart (b), Mike Renzi (p), Grady Tate (d), Mark Sherman (per), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

Both vocals are outtakes from the Miss Peggy Lee Sings The Blues sessions.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Keith Ingham (con, pdr, p), Ken Bloom, Bill Rudman (pdr), Phil Bodner (f, as), Ken Peplowski (ts), Glenn Zottola (t, fh), George Masso (tb), John Chiodini (g), Jay Leonhart (b), Mark Sherman (vib, per), Grady Tate (d), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

1. Happy With The Blues
Peggy Lee originally wrote lyrics to "Happy With The Blues" in 1961. Those original lyrics were commissioned for -- and used on -- a television special in honor of songwriter Harold Arlen, broadcast on September, 1961. (Details about that special will be found in this discography's Television pages once those pages are finished and ready for viewing.) For the 1988 dates under discussion, Lee felt compelled to re-write the lyrics, because she was not satisfied with the earlier ones. ("Of all people," Lee told an interviewer, "I admired Harold so much, and I wanted them to be really good. I suppose that's what kept me from writing my best.")

2. "Unrecorded" Songs
Ajthough no unissued recordings from the Harbinger dates are known to exist, there is knowledge of at least two other Arlen songs that were slated to be recorded: "I'm Off The Downbeat," and "Green Light Ahead."


Labels: Angel Records

This session was recorded by Harbinger Productions in 1988, and eventually released by Angel Records, a New York-based branch of Capitol. (The release was thus Peggy Lee's return of sorts to her mother label.)


Issues

1. CD Labels: Angel Versus Harbinger
Harbinger 2401 is a reissue of Angel/Harbinger 54798. Its artwork is slightly (not significantly) different from the original, but its contents are richer than those of the Angel issue. In addition to the original two essays, one by Will Friedwald and the other by Edward Jablonski, Harbinger includes a third essay, which was newly written in 2006 by producers Rudman and Bloom.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sanford Allen (con, vn), Mike Renzi (con, p), John Chiodini (pdr, g, elg, bkv), Peggy Lee (pdr, v), John Snyder (pdr), Jay Leonhart (b), William Galison (hps), Peter Grant (d), Mark Sherman (per), Robert Fuchs, Winterton Garvey, Stanley Hunter, Regis Iandiorio, Louann Montesi, Dale Stuckenbruck (vn), Diane Barere, Melissa Meell (vc), Milt Grayson (bkv)

Conducting & Arrangements

Contrary to what the album's notes seem to suggest, Gordon Jenkins, Johnny Mandel, and Victor Young did not participate in these sessions. Instead, their respective arrangements of previous Peggy Lee recordings were used by Lee and company.

"Fever" arranged by Peggy Lee, with additional lyrics, newly written by Lee for this version.

John Chiodini conductor of "I Just Want To Dance All Night," "I'll Give It All To You," "Sans Souci," "Boomerang," "Things Are Swingin'," and "Over The Wheel." (Chiodini arranger of the same numbers, except "Sans Souci," which follows the arrangement done by Gordon Jenkins for Lee's 1952 recording of the song.)

Mike Renzi conductor of "Circle In The Sky," "He's A Tramp," "There'll Be Another Spring," "Where Can I Go Without You," and "The Shining Sea." (Renzi arranger of the same numbers, except "The Shining Sea," which follows the arrangement originally done by Johnny Mandel for Lee's 1967 recording of the song.)

The liner notes of There'll Be Another Spring correctly identify Victor Young as the original arranger of "Johnny Guitar," but wrongly credit the long-deceased composer (1900-1956) with conducting this 1989 version. The conductor is instead presumed to have been either Chiodini or Renzi.


Personnel

Sanford Allen conductor of strings only.

Milton Grayson's background vocal on "Sans Souci" only.


Issues

MusicMasters' Pressings and Re-Pressings of The Peggy Lee Songbook
MusicMasters did a second pressing of this album, and assigned it a new catalogue number. (MusicMasters' sister company, Music Heritage, reissued the album as well.)

Although the above-listed pressings of the album are the only ones known to me, I do not discard the possibility of others (which could also bear entirely different catalogue numbers). In fact, I have seen yet another catalogue number for the CD: S&R 8208212, with release year 1990. (I presume S&R to be a licensee or a distributor.)

To find catalogue information about non-USA pressings of There'll Be Another Spring: The Peggy Lee Songbook (on labels such as Limelight, Polygram, and Phonogram), the Foreign Pressings Index can be consulted. (This index is not currently viewable, however, because it is under contruction.)


Collectors' Corner

1. Different Album Covers (MusicMasters, Music Heritage)
Gracing the cover of There'll Be Another Spring is a drawing of the Peggy Lee Rose, named after the singer by the American Rose Society (circa 1983).

The MusicMasters and Music Heritage albums use the same drawing of this rose, but the Music Heritage photo is in black & white, whereas the MusicMasters photo is in color. (This detail has been corroborated only for the LP format. I have not been able to inspect Music Heritage's issues in other formats.)

The cover of the Jazz Heritage CD is also in color, and differs from the MusicMasters cover by the addition of a pink framing around all four sides of the drawing.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Wendy Raksin (dir), John Chiodini (pdr), unknown (afp), Dom DeLuise (v), Peggy Lee (v, spk), The Carpenter Avenue Elementary School Chorus (bkv)

Dating

The exact day on which these two songs were recorded is not known. The year itself could have been either 1989 or 1990. Released in 1990, the cassette single that contains these songs gives two copyright years for its words and music (1989, 1990). It is clear that "We Be Friends" had already been written early in 1989, because Lee was singing it in concert that year (at the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, April 18-30, 1989).

In 2004, Julena Stinson, once a member of the Carpenter Avenue Elementary School chorus, shared with me details that she remembered about this session. She recalls rehearsing along with Peggy Lee and John Chiodini, but believes that only Chiodini was present during the chorus' actual recording of the vocal. Julena's understandably vague recollection is that Lee had become ill, and could not be present. She further recalls that the session had been scheduled to be recorded at Stagg Street Studio, but plans had to be canceled when the permits for bus transportation could not get processed in time. Instead, the chorus recorded its vocal at the school's auditorium. A 22-year-old in 2004, Julena believes that she was about 7 at the time of the recording session, a detail which (if accurate) would point to 1989 as the recording year for this session.

However, the year 1990 is also a strong possibility, given an article published by Interview Magazine on December, 1990. The article's interviewer states that Peggy Lee and Dom DeLuise were planning to work together around that time. Moreover, Peggy Lee is quoted, reporting that she was "writing a Christmas special called The Legend of Christmas .... Dom DeLuise is going to be one of the Santa Clauses. Won't that be perfect? We're trying to get Jonathan Winters. I have written a song for it: "Everybody Needs A Santa Claus'."

(I have found no further details about this prospective TV special, which probably did not come to fruition.)


Personnel

Dom DeLuise in "Everybody Needs A Santa Claus" only.

Peggy Lee's speaking voice heard only in portions of "Everybody Needs A Santa Claus."

Wendy Raskin musical director of The Carpenter Avenue Elementary School Chorus only.

Gilbert O'Sullivan (ldr), Geoff Whitehorn (g), Bob Skeat (b), Gilbert O'Sullivan (key, v), Mick Parker (pac), Roly Kerridge (per), Peggy Lee (v, spk)

Dating & At The Session

Judging from an Associated Press article published on September 14, 1992, Peggy Lee's vocal was recorded in late July or in August of that year, in New York. (Lee was in the Big Apple for an engagement at Club 53, which lasted five weeks, from late July throughout August, 1992.) The quote: "[w]hile in New York, [Peggy Lee] sang a duet and made a video with Gilbert O'Sullivan and also recorded with Michael Franks, at their request, songs each of them wrote."

(Details about the video, once shown in the TV magazine Entertainment Weekly, will be found in this discography's television pages, when those pages are completed.)

In a recent BBC radio interview (July, 2007), O'Sullivan himself confirmed that he was present in the studio during Lee's recording of her part. (O'Sullivan's confirmed presence in the studio does not necessarily mean that he re-recorded his part of the vocal. See below, under Masters, for the reasons why the session's engineer could have incorporated Lee's vocal to O'Sullivan's 1991 recording of the song.)


Personnel

Park CD 19 lists a collective personnel for all songs included in the CD. In that collective listing, Laurie Holloway is credited as orchestra conductor, and as one of the arrangers of the album's choir. Because no choir and no orchestra are featured on the duet performance by Peggy Lee and Gilbert O'Sullivan, I have not entered Holloway's name in this session's database.


Songwriters: Raymond O'Sullivan

Raymond O'Sullivan is the birth name of Gilbert O'Sullivan, and the one under which BMI lists his compositions.


Masters: The Many Female Faces Of "Can't Think Straight"

"Can't Think Straight" has been issued in at least four versions, each featuring O'Sullivan with a different partner, and each seemingly meant for a different international market (Japan: Takao Kisugi / English-speaking countries: Peggy Lee / Scandinavian countries: Kirsten Sigaard / Spain: Sylvia ). This multiplicity of versions has elicited confusion.

O'Sullivan's CD Sounds Of The Loop was initially released by Toshiba EMI in Japan. The songs in the disc were recorded between June 24 and September 12, 1991. That original version of the CD does not feature Lee; it instead contains the Gilbert O'Sullivan and Takao Tisugi version of "Can't Think Straight."

The duet with Peggy Lee was initially released by the British label Park in 1992, as part of a CD single. (See below, under Collectors' Corner.) One year later (1993), this record label also released its own edition of the Japanese CD Sounds Of The Loop. (For a significant difference between the Toshiba EMI and the Park CDs, see Collectors' Corner.)

The song versions with Kirsten Siggaard and Silvia Tortosa were both issued in 1993 European editions of the album Sounds Of The Loop.


Collectors' Corner

1. Park's CD Single "Can't Think Straight"
This disc single actually contains three songs: "Can't Think Straight," "Sometimes," and "Divorce Irish Style." On the front cover, "Gilbert O'Sullivan & Peggy Lee" are jointly identified as the featured artist, and the two artists are photographed together. (Or rather, they seem to be photographed together. Upon closer inspection, the artwork appears to be a composite of two separate photos.) The more accurate billing for Lee would have been guest star, since the single's other two songs feature O'Sullivan alone (naturally).

2. Park's CD Sounds Of The Loop
The Park edition of this CD (originally released by Toshiba EMI in Japan) contains two versions of "Can't Think Straight:" the duet with Takao Tisugi (track # 12, and part of the original Japanese CD) and the duet with Peggy Lee (track #6, not in the original Japanese CD).

3. Rhino's CD The Best Of Gilbert O'Sullivan [Reissue of 1994 Version] 
Rhino CD R2 70560 has been issued in two pressings, the first in 1991, the second in 1997. Only the second pressing contains Lee's vocal. The 1991 pressing features instead Kirsten Sigaard's vocal, which is erroneously identified as Lee's. (According to unverified reports found in the internet, a dissatisfied O'Sullivan demanded Rhino to use Lee's vocal for the 1997 CD re-pressing.)

4. Kitty CD: (Japan) Ktcm 1132 Love Songs (1998)
Various sources erroneously report that the Japanese CD Love Songs (Kitty Ktcm 1132), a compilation of O'Sullivan ballads, includes the duet version by Peggy Lee and O'Sullivan. It does not.

Michael Franks (ldr), Ben Sidran (pdr), Chris Hunter (as), John Pisano (g), John Patitucci (b), Warren Bernhardt (p), Alex Acuna (d, per), Michael Franks, Peggy Lee (v)

Dating

The dating is primarily based on a July 25, 1993 San Francisco Chronicle article, in which Lee Hildebrand reports that Michael Franks and Peggy Lee recorded their duet "in New York last August."


At The Recording Session

Interviewed over the phone for the aforementioned article, Michael Franks shared some impressions about the two voices heard in the duet:

"Considering the feminine voice and the male voice, there were moments I thought they were so close. And she came up with all those really pretty harmony parts at the end. She ad-libbed that. It was amazing to be there with her and just to observe at such close range how she worked."

A more casual mention of Peggy Lee appears in the liner notes of Franks' CD Rendezvous In Rio (2007). Talking about his growing-up days in the 1960's, he states that his "parents' taste leaned toward vocalists of the day like June Christy and Peggy Lee."

Less gracious comments are offered by producer Ben Sidran in his biography On The Rim Of The Well: A Life In The Music. Sidran states that the session took place in the summer of 1992, when Lee arrived at the studio "in wheelchair, in such fragile health that she clearly could not sing the way she would have liked."

Sidran adds that Lee "insisted she wanted to sing the duet with Michael live," an idea that Sidran did not find worthwhile. He remembers telling Franks(presumably outside of Lee's listening range): "We are going to have to spend a lot of time getting her parts right, and Michael, you can do yours later. So I'm going to go out there and tell her I have some technical problem in here and that it isn't possible to do both vocals at once." Sidran then approached Lee, and allegedly told her: "Miss Lee, that was lovely but could I ask you to sing that live again because we're still having problems in here." The producer says that he kept repeating the same words "for an hour."

Sidran continues: "she was a real trooper and when it was over, we had the makings of a very poignant vocal track." He professes to have spent "the rest of the day [after lunch] sampling, timing and editing each of her words, syllables, and phonemes, taking extra care that none of the sutures would show, giving her vocal the greatest facelift known to man or woman. It was a prime example of what the technology was for: creating a new reality." The producer concludes this rather self-congratulatory account by calling the end result "tragic and bittersweet."


Personnel

My only source of information for this session's personnel is Reprise CD 9452274, which collectively lists the musicians for the two duets in Michael Franks' album. (Duetting with Franks in the other vocal duet is Dan Hicks.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), David Chesky (pdr), Gerry Niewood (f, ss, ts), Jay Berliner (acg, elg), Steve LaSpina, Jay Leonhart (b), Mike Renzi (p), Tony Monte (snt), Peter Grant (d), Peggy Lee (v)