The World Transcriptions
The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography And Videography

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Peggy Lee's World Sessions

Peggy Lee is known to have recorded 49 songs for World Records, a company that specialized in the making of recordings for radio airplay only. Those 49 songs were performed over thirteen sessions. For the possibilty that Lee had worked with World Records earlier, when she was a vocalist with The Benny Goodman Orchestra, see Masters notes under studio session dated August 20, 1941.


Decca Records And The World Transcription Service

For an overview of the history of World Records, and for commentary about World's ties to Decca Records, see this page's final notes.


Commercial Issues Of The World Transcriptions

Meant for radio airplay only, World transcriptions were not originally available to the general public. Eventually, however, many World recordings found their way into retail (LP's and CD's), especially from the 1980's onwards.

Peggy Lee's 49 World transcriptions began making commercial appearances in 1985, when Hindsight Records released 6 of them in The Uncollected Peggy Lee, 1948.

Seven years later, in 1992, the British label Avid released the CD Peggy Lee Sings For You, which contains 19 additional World performances not previously available to the public. (A 20th track in the CD, "Just One Of Those Things" had previously appeared in the Hindsight album.)

In other words, 25 of Peggy Lee's 49 World numbers were commercially issued in the last two decades of the last century, leaving the other 24 unavailable, except in the original, non-commercial radio transcription discs.

During the first decade of this new century, in March of 2008, the Public Domain label Flare Records issued 21 of the missing 24 trancriptions, in a CD titled Taking A Chance On Love. (Also found in Flare's CD are 3 World titles that Avid had already released: "Speak Low," "What's New" and "Fools Rush In").

Hence only 3 of Peggy Lee's World transcriptions are currently left to be commercially released: "I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues," "Hard-hearted Hannah" and "My Ideal."

The aforementioned Public Domain record labels (Hindsight, Avid, Flare) are to be thanked for the combined release of these 46 transcriptions, although it should also be noted that the releases' sound quality is not optimal. As for the other record companies whose CDs are listed in this page, they seem to have appropriated the material that was first released by Hindsight and Avid. Those other companies' discs are a mismatch of performances from various decades and from diverse sources (to wit: studio recordings that are currently on the public domain, songs taken from original radio broadcasts, and radio transcriptions made by multiple companies).

In conclusion, Lee's World transcription recordings have yet to receive a complete and proper compact disc issue. For those who want to sample the singer's output in this transcription service, currently the better choice is the Deja Vu / Retro 2-CD set Peggy Lee ("Gold Collection" Series). It includes all 20 World numbers originally released by Avid in the CD Peggy Lee Sings For You, as well as tracks taken from other sources. I'm specifically referring to the second, so-called Deluxe Edition, which substantially improves on the sound quality of this set's first edition.


Personnel

The musicians that accompanied Peggy Lee in her World sessions remain unidentified in the few official sources available. In general, the instrumentation points to a small combo at play. Prominent in a fair portion of the songs is a latinized approach, which obviouly suggests the presence of various Latin-oriented musicians (and re-affirms Lee's long-standing interest in Latin rhythms, from the 1940's till her last years of performing). Furthermore, a harp can be prominently heard in selected numbers, such as "We Kiss In A Shadow" or "I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good." In 2008, harpist Stella Castellucci corroborated that she indeed played in these sessions.

Curiously, a collective personnel is given for these sessions in the notes of the Riff City CD It's A Good Day: Jimmy Rowles, Pete Candoli, Max Wayne and Ed Shaughessy. I believe that Riff, a public domain label, is merely passing off an assumption as truth: because Peggy Lee's World transcriptions and her 1953 album Black Coffee date from roughly the same period, Riff might have automatically assigned the album's personnel to the transcriptions.

I therefore deem Riff's personnel no more than an educated guess, and not a bad one. It may very well be that the musicians heard in the transcriptions are the same ones who were regularly playing with Lee live, in 1953, and who played in the Black Coffee 10" album, too. What's more, the trumpet player heard in the World sessions sounds like Pete Candoli. Nevertheless, there is no hard evidence to identify any World personnel aside from the singer and, in sessions featuring harp, Stella Castellucci.


Dating

The retrieval of recording dates for the World transcription sessions has proved frustratingly elusive. I have chosen an "umbrella date" (between April, 1952 and December, 1956) only as an indication that these transcriptions were probably recorded while Peggy Lee was signed to Decca Records.

The earliest possible recording date for at least one performance is 1951. World disc # 422 contains the song "We Kiss In A Shadow," from the Broadway musical The King And I, which debuted on March 29, 1951.

As of May, 2008, the strongest lead for a more specific dating has been provided by harpist Stella Castellucci, who was a member of the personnel, and who is noted among friends for her very good memory. She remembers the sessions in which she participated as taking place in 1953, shortly after she herself had met Peggy Lee (summer of 1953).

Castellucci's recollection could thus pinpoint to the summer of fall of 1953 as Peggy Lee's earliest recording period for World. One of the songs in which Castellucci plays ("Autumn In New York") appears on World transcription discs 300. Numerically, disc 300 is the first Peggy Lee release by the World Transcription company.

There is another source that dates these World transcriptions. It is, however, a highly suspect source: the booklet of the Flare CD Taking A Chance On Love. Songs released on transcription discs 300, 309 and 314 are given the date 1951. Songs from discs 318, 327, 330, 338, 342, 355, 366 and 389 receive a 1952 dating. Finally, sonfs from discs 422 and 438 are listed as recorded in 1953. I consider this dating false or erroneous, in light of Stella Castellucci's above-mentioned recollection that songs such as "Autumn In New York" were recorded not in 1951 or 1952 but in 1953.

Four or five other arguments in support of the rough 1952-1956 dating could be added, but none of them are conclusive. Suffice it so add that Lee would seem to have recorded for World during the second half of 1953 in particular.


"Artificial" Sessions

Lack of essential discographical information (recording dates, matrix numbers) has posed a dilemma: should all 49 of Peggy Lee's World performances be listed within one single, huge session, or should they be divided in some manner? In the original online version of this discography, I simply listed all performances under one big session.

For this discographical update (completed in 2008), I have sessioned the songs according to the transcription discs in which they can be found. This sessioning method, though obviously artificial, should facilitate the handling and indexing of Lee's World performances. (This pragmatic sessioning will of course be discarded if and when some of the needed information turns up.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Peggy Lee (v)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

Song

1. "What's New" / "So What's New"
Musicbank CD 1183 incorrectly lists the song "So What's New" among its tracks. As shown above, that compact disc contains instead this session's version of "What's New."

Peggy Lee (ldr), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

The World Broadcasting System

Beginnings And Ownership

The World Broadcasting Service was one of the earliest firms to enter the radio transcription business, in 1929. World was also the first company to issue discs that played at 33 r.p.m., the speed which in time became the standard for both commercial LPs and radio transcriptions. As with most other companies that produced transcribed music (e. g. , Associated, Davis & Schwegler, Keystone, Lang-Worth, Standard, Thesaurus, etc.), there is precious little literature about World's evolution and decline.

According to Michel Ruppli, author of The Decca Labels: A Discography, the World catalogue was owned by Decca Records during the Second World War period. Ruppli suggests that Decca originally purchased the catalogue in an effort to refill its vaults, while the Petrillo recording ban was in place.

In 1948, record trade magazines announced that Decca had sold World to Frederick W. Ziv, an impresario whose company (co-owned with John L. Sinn) had been producing radio transcriptions since 1937. (Ziv is nowadays remembered as the largest producer of syndicated radio programming.) His other major business move in 1948 was the creation of Ziv Television Programs, which promptly became the prime brand for (first-run) syndicated TV programming.

Some of Peggy Lee's transcription discs (e. .g. , # 300) bear the legend "World Broadcasting System, Inc., an affiliate of Frederic W. Ziv Co." (Other discs, such as # 309, do not include the identification.)

Given Ziv's ties to television, some World transcriptions might have been used as the soundtrack for selected TV appearances. I'm specifically thinking of televised performances for which a mike would have not picked up a vocal satisfactorily. A prime suspect is Peggy Lee's rendition of "I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues," heard during an episode of the Colgate Comedy Hour that was broadcast on February 20, 1955. The episode was filmed outdoors, primarily at a historic house in New Orleans. The vocal, heard as Lee slowly steps down a staircase, sounds identical to her World transcription version. (Additional details about the show in question will be found in the Guest Appearances section of this discography's TV pages, once those pages open for viewing.)

Ziv retained ownership of his enterprises for nearly the entire decade of the 1950's. In 1959, he sold 80% of his company to various Wall Street investment firms. The other 20%, which involved the Ziv Television Programs branch, was bought by United Artists in 1960. (For more information about the impresario, see my source: a biographical account written by Chris Anderson, available online at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/Z/htmlZ/zivtelevisio/zivtelevisio.htm ).

After 1959, the case of World Records' ownership becomes unclear. Discographer Michel Ruppli states that Decca sold its World catalogue to the New Orleans-based label Circle Records, at a date that he does not specify. Although Ruppli seems to be referring only to the World material that had been sold to Decca during the war years, it must be noted that Circle Records has actually issued a lot of World material from the late 1940's and early 1950's.

Still active at present time, Circle is part of a family of labels (Jazzology) that has been operating since 1949. Owned by George H. Buck, Jr., this roster of labels includes GBH, Progressive, Black Swan and Audiophile. Both Audiophile and Circle have released albums containing World transcriptions. (Circle has concentrated on World transcriptions by big bands, Audiophile on those featuring vocalists.) In the early 1990's, Audiophile was still issuing or reissuing material from the World catalogue (e. g. , the 1994 Dick Haymes CD Imagination and the 1994 Bobby Troup CD In A Class Beyond Compare. Peggy Lee's name was included in some of the publicity ads that accompanied Audiophile LPs, but none of her recordings have ever been issued on the label.

More recently (1999), the Chicago-based label Soundies has released the complete World transcriptions of two vocalists, Helen Forrest and Mel Tormé. The label has also released vocal and big band work from other transcription services, and it was once rumored to be planning a Peggy Lee release.


World's Ties To Decca Records (And To Peggy Lee)

Some transcription companies seem to have had an exclusive association with a given record label. For instance, Thesaurus was affiliated to RCA, MacGregor worked closely with Capitol in 1945 and, more obviously, Capitol's Transcription Service belonged to Capitol Records.

An examination of World's catalogue does not support the possibility of an exclusive association with Decca. It's obvious, however, that Decca and World had, at the very least, an understanding or a contractual agreement that allowed Decca artists to record radio material for the radio service. If we take a look at just a sample of World's transcription discs, both Decca and non-Decca artists can be found among the performers. In addition to Peggy Lee, Dick Haymes (Decca) Doris Day (Columbia), and The Four Freshmen (Capitol) all make appearances in discs numbered in the 300's and 400's.

About a dozen of the 49 songs listed in this page were also recorded by Peggy Lee for Decca Records. This "repeat" practice stands in contrast with Lee's method during her Capitol years. (Very few of her recordings for MacGregor and Capitol transcriptions reappear in her commercial output for Capitol.) Whereas most World transcriptions seem to use head arrangements, the Decca versions boast more complex arrangements, as well as more subtly fine-tuned singing. Oftentimes the Decca versions come off as craftier and more complex, whereas the World versions sound commendably looser, and more experimental. Neither set is inherently preferable to the other, however.

In short: the exact nature of the association between World Records and Decca (or Peggy Lee) remains unclear at the time of this writing.


Location Of World Records

Found in different World discs are three different addresses:

488 Madison Avenue, New York (printed on the label of disc # 300, among other discs)
10 Columbus Circle, New York 10, NY (printed on the label of disc # 309, among other discs)
711 Fifth Avenue, New York 22, NY (printed on the label of a disc with number in the 200 range)

I assume that these addresses point to the World Broadcasting System's (shifting?) headquarters, or to the company's sub-divisions, and not necessarily to a recording location.

According to the booklet of the Audiophile CD Imagination, Dick Haymes' sessions were recorded both in Los Angeles (1949, 1952) and New York (1950). The exact locale is not given.

I have found the precise recording location of only two World sessions, neither one by Peggy Lee. One session featured Mel Tormé, the other Bobby Troup. Hollywood's Radio Recorders is the location. Nevertheless, both of these sessions date from 1958, which is at least a couple of years after Lee is presumed to have recorded for the World service.

In a nutshell: the location on which Peggy Lee recorded her World transcription repertoire remains unknown. My current, vague suspicion is that World did not own but rented recording space (at least until 1954, when owner Frederick Ziv bought his own Hollywood studios).


Issues: The Hindsight Conundrum

The makers of The Uncollected Peggy Lee (Hindsight 220) claim that the album's repertoire was recorded in 1948. They also claim that Lee is accompanied by the Dave Barbour and Billy May bands. Those claims are, at best, partially accurate.

Dating
Only half of the twelve tracks on Hindsight 220 are actually World transcriptions. (The tracks: "'Deed I Do," "Just One of Those Things," "Let There Be Love," "What Is This Thing Called Love," "You," and "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning.") Given my estimated dating period for all World transcriptions (1952-1956), none of those six World tracks would qualify as being from 1948.

Personnel: Dave Barbour
One of the non-World tracks, "Love Is Just Around The Corner," is actually a Capitol transcription. Recorded on May 14, 1946, it does feature Dave Barbour on guitar. This is the track that might have led Hindsight into the assumption that Barbour is also present in other tracks. I do not believe that he is. For one, Barbour's characteristic guitar sound is nowhere to be heard in the album's tracks, with the sole exception of "Love Is Just Around the Corner." Part of Hindsight's confusion must of course stem from the wrong dating given to the rest of the tracks (i. e. , 1948). After his divorce from Lee (1951), Barbour would record with her only on rare occasions.

Personnel: Billy May
The other five tracks issued on Hindsight 220 are not radio transcriptions. They come instead from radio broadcasts, and probably date from the early 1950's. (Tracks: "Riding High," "I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues," "It's A Good Day," "Do I Love You" and "I've Got The World On A String.") Peggy Lee and Billy May were both guests on those radio shows, a fact which apparently led Hindsight to list him as the singer's sole accompaniment (besides Barbour). However, May's involvement on all five tracks is far from certain: while he co-guests the shows with Lee, he is not identified as her accompaniment. (For further details about these five tracks, see also, once it opens for viewing, page for War & Government Transcriptions, 1951.)

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