The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography's Picture Gallery:
Full-Length Video (TV Specials, Concerts, Music Biographies)
by Iván Santiago-Mercado

Generated on Jan 22, 2012

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This page is dedicated to videotaped material (VHS, DVD, laser disc) which concentrates on Peggy Lee and her music. Televised specials, taped concerts, music biographies and other full-length visual items qualify for inclusion. Excluded are certain short forms, such as Lee's Snaders telescriptions (i.e., three-minute-long music videos that she taped in the 1950s for the company of that name). Those telescriptions actually have their own separate page within this pictorial discography. Similarly, Lee's guest appearances in other artists' videos have their own separate page, too.

Please notice that the purpose of this pictorial page (and similar ones) is to display commercially issued material. Peggy Lee made countless TV appearances which have never been released on VHS, DVD, or laser disc. For that reason, they will not be listed below. (Those appearances will be listed instead in this discography's TV page, which is currently under construction.)

I. FEVER: THE MUSIC OF PEGGY LEE




Cover Shown:

Title: Fever; The Music Of Peggy Lee / Format: DVD & VHS / Label: Capitol / Cat. Num.: 72435 99365 9 8 (DVD) & 72435 99365 3 6 (VHS) / Rel. Year: 2004 / Note: This musical documentary is the one commercial videotape that no fan of Peggy Lee should miss. (None of the other videos discussed below measures up.) Twenty Peggy Lee performances are insterspersed throughout a musical biography that features commentary from Grady Tate, kd lang, Margaret Whiting, and many others. Plus 10 bonus performances. Made in coordination with the Peggy Lee estate, it includes home footage from Lee's own collection, as well as comments from Lee's daughter Nicki Lee Foster and Lee's granddaughter Holly Foster Wells. Originally televised on selected PBS networks -- e.g., WNET, channel 13, New York. (Two previously televised segments had to be excised from the DVD when permission for their retail use was not granted. One segment featured Lee and Dean Martin singing "The Doodlin' Song." The other segment, taken from a promotional Disney feature, showed Lee performing one of the numbers from the movie Lady And The Tramp.) Produced by Jim Pierson for JoAnn Young at Young Productions.


II. THE QUINTESSENTIAL PEGGY LEE




Covers Shown:

1. Title: The Quintessential Peggy Lee / Format: VHS / Label: NVC Kultur / Cat. Num.: 1397 / Rel. Year: 1984 / Note: Taped in 1984 and televised by PBS that same year, under the title Peggy Lee Live In Atlantic City. This Kultur video was the original commercial release.

2. Title: The Quintessential Peggy Lee / Format: VHS / Label: Hendring / Cat. Num.: (England) 2149 / Rel. Year: 1989 / Note: British reissue of item #1. PAL format.

3. Title: The Quintessential Peggy Lee / Format: DVD / Label: Warner's NVC Kultur / Cat. Num.: D 1397 / Rel. Year: 2003 (or 2008, according to other sources)






Covers Shown:

4. Title: The Quintessential Peggy Lee / Format: Laser Disc / Label: Warner National Video Corporation's Pioneer / Cat. Num.: Pa 86 153 / Rel. Year: unknown

5 & 6. Title: The Quintessential Peggy Lee / Format: Laser Disc / Label: Warner's NVC / Cat. Num.: (Japan) Sm 058 3004 / Rel. Year: unknown / Note: On display are both the Front (#5) and back (#6) covers of the laser disc's Japanese edition.


General Note:
The Quintessential Peggy Lee is an official, authorized issue. It was taped with Lee's consent, and Kultur released it by during her lifetime. Be aware that the DVD features many more tracks than the VHS tape and the laser disc.

III. SOMETHING SPECIAL; THE BEST OF PEGGY LEE; VIDEO & CD COLLECTION




Covers Shown:

1. Title: The Best Of Peggy Lee; Something Special / Format: VHS / Cat. Num.: Pl 001 / Rel. Year: unknown, posssibly early 1980s / Note: Unauthorized European issue of a TV special that Peggy Lee taped for the American market in 1967.

2. Title: Peggy Lee; Video & Compact Disc Collection / Format: VHS [+ CD] / Label: Fast Forward Music ("under license from Orcan Licensing") / Cat. Num.: Fmp 7100 [DVD] & Ffcd 502 [CD] / Rel. Year: 1996 [CD] or 1998 (according to other sources; perhaps the DVD's date) / Note: This is an unauthorized European video of the aforementioned 1967 TV special. As for the CD, its exact contents is unknown to me, but I do know that the songs included are 1940s numbers which bear little connection to the video.

3. Title: Something Special / Format: DVD / Label: Quantum Leap Group / Cat. Num.: Fmp 7100 (also Qldvd 0266) / Rel. Year: 2001 / Note: Another unauthorized European issue of the 1967 TV special. Includes various extra features (Biography, Discography Songwriter, Grammy Awards, Picture Gallery, Films and TV appearances and Reviews) which seem to have been stolen, without credit, from the website www.peggylee.com . The cover artwork was also swiped from the website.


General Note:
The aforementioned videos and DVDs contain numbers from one of two Peggy Lee shows entitled Something Special With Peggy Lee. Both shows are actually episodes from a syndicated music series entitled "Something Special." The earliest Lee special was televised in 1966, the sequel in 1967. Audio of many of the shows' performances have actually shown up in Public Domain compact discs, where they are invariably mixed with radio material and studio recordings from Lee's early years. The following CDs contain the greater amount of tracks from the Something Special With Peggy Lee shows:





Album Covers Shown:

4. Title: The Peggy Lee Story / Format: CD / Label: Deja Vu - Retro / Cat. Num.: Dvrecd 57 / Rel. Year: 1991 / Tracks: 26 / Note: Contains 8 tracks from the 1966 show (including a long blues medley, which I am counting as one unit) and 12 tracks from the 1967 special.

5 & 6. Title: Peggy Lee ("The Gold Collection" Series) /("Deluxe Edition") / Format: CD / Label: Deja Vu - Retro / Cat. Num.: (EEC) R2cd 94034 / Rel. Year: 1996 (first edition); 2001 (second edition) / Volumes: 2 / Tracks: 40 / Note: Contains all but one of the performances from the 1966 and 1967 TV specials that had been previously issued in item #4. (The exception: "The Clown Medley"). Item #6 is a reissue of item #5. The sound quality of #6 is far better than on #5 and on #4.

7. Title: The New Collection / Format: CS & CD / Label: Kenneth Barnes [Owner] & Carlton [Licensee] / Cat. Num.: (England) 30360 01222 / Rel. Year: 1997 / Tracks: 21 / Note: Contains 3 tracks from the 1966 TV special, and 6 tracks from the 1967 TV special. Also in this collection are rehearsal TV tracks from yet another special, filmed and televised in 1981, plus alternate takes from a 1977 album project.

IV. PEGGY LEE SINGING AT HER BEST / PEGGY LEE ENTERTAINS




Covers Shown:

1. Title: Peggy Lee Singing At Her Best / Format: DVD / Label: Passport / Cat. Num.: Dvd 1586 / Rel. Year: 2004 / Note: Beware of the deceptive title. Poor sound quality and mediocre picture quality overall. Besides, most of the included performances can be accessed via YouTube. Thirteen tracks (including an instrumental performed by The Hollywood Strings Orchestra and a Lee medley that is broken into eight tracks, therefore raising the total track number to 20).

2. Title: Peggy Lee Entertains / Format: DVD / Label: Passport / Cat. Num.: Dvd 1645 / Rel. Year: 2006 / Note: A rip-off that is best to avoid for a variety of reasons. Among them: this item is merely an abbreviated version of #10, with less clips. Some brief bonus (non-singing) footage is included. Ten tracks.

3. Title: Peggy Lee ("In Concert" Series) / Format: DVD / Label: Passport / Cat. Num.: PipDv 1645 / Rel. Year: 2006 / Note: Another rip-off issue, containinng tracks of item #1 yet again, and some bonus (non-singing) material. Since I have not watched this item, I do not know its specific contents. Online, commercial sites list the exact same tracks that are on item #2. The wording of some of those sites suggests that the item might have been recalled and discontinued shortly after its release.

V. NET PRESENTS THE WORLD OF PEGGY LEE




Stills And Artwork Shown:

1. Title: Fever; The Music Of Peggy Lee / Format: VHS & DVD / Label: Capitol / Cat. Num.: 72435 99365 9 8 (DVD) & 72435 99365 3 6 (VHS) / Rel. Year: 2004 / Note: This documentary includes Lee's performance of "Is That All There Is?" from NET Presents The World Of Peggy Lee (images #2, #3, #4). It is the only segment from that 1969 special which has been commercially issued.

2-4. Name Of The Special: NET Presents The World Of Peggy Lee / Note: National Educational Television first aired this documentary on October 16, 1969. The cameras follow Lee and company as she prepares for her first concert performance at the newly opening International Hotel in Las Vegas. We witness home rehearsals with the musicians, discussions with arrangers, conductors and PR people, a preview performance at the Mark Taper Forum in LA, and portions of the rehearsal at the hotel's room.

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