Peggy Lee - Essential Works : 1941 - 1960

Peggy Lee had an unhappy childhood, which seems a commonplace in show-business success stories. Born Norma Deloris Egström, she lost her mother at the age of four and was raised by a cruel woman who treated her like a slave. Aged seven, Peggy was cooking meals, cleaning house, baking bread, milking cows, churning butter and doing the washing. At eight she never left the house, and when she wasn’t minding a newborn baby she suffered beatings for not doing the chores correctly. But she did have some respite: whenever possible she joined her father at work, and when he was too drunk to stand up, she did his job as well. And then Roosevelt declared war on Germany… Peggy’s previous life had given her a capacity for revolt and a strong character, just what she needed to take her to the top. Every one of these 28 titles is simply a masterpiece, and here she’s accompanied by orchestras led by Benny Goodman and Dave Barbour, and by the likes of Pete Candoli or George Shearing.