The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography And Videography:
The Decca Years
by Iván Santiago-Mercado

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Peggy Lee's Recording Career, 1952-1957

Peggy Lee (ldr), Gordon Jenkins (con), Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), Unknown (bkv)

The Lover Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Peggy Lee's earliest Decca masters were originally issued on singles, in 1952. Twelve years later, Decca also included them in a Peggy Lee LP entitled Lover.

Prepared for release long after Lee had left the label, Lover is not an original album, but neither is it a thoughtlessly assembled compilation. Almost none of its twelve numbers had appeared on 12" vinyl before 1964. (Most had come out on singles, a few on EP or on 10" LP.)

Lending cohesiveness to this record company project is the participation of conductor-arranger Gordon Jenkins on all chosen tracks. The tracks come from five sessions that had taken place within a one-year span: April 23, April 28/May 1, July 31, November 28, and December 16, 1952.

Lover was released in both mono and "hi-fi stereophonic" sound. The latter was Decca's name for its brand of simulated stereo.


Songs

1. "Be Anything (But Be Mine)" In The Music Charts
Peggy Lee's very first single on Decca (#28142, consisting of "Be Anything" and "Forgive Me") garnered favorable reviews and enjoyed a fair amount of airplay. The single's "Be Anything (But Be Mine") made its debut in the Billboard charts during the week of May 24, 1952 and peaked at #21, according to Joel Whitburn's estimates in his book Pop Memories, 1890-1954. Lee's rendition was one out of four competing versions that made the charts. Renditions by Champ Butler and Helen O'Connell placed lower than Peggy Lee's, at #26 and #27, respectively. Mercury's Eddy Howard, with His Orchestra and Chorus, placed the highest in Whitburn's estimate, at #7. (Howard's hit also peaked at #13 in the Bestseller Chart, according to another book by Whitburn, Top Pop Records 1940-1955.)

"Be Anything (But Be Mine)" was Peggy Lee's 27th solo hit. If we also include her 10 chart hits while she was working as vocalist with The Benny Goodman Orchestra, then "Be Anything" becomes her 37th entry in the Billboard charts.

Although "Be Anything" was Lee's very first hit on Decca, her subsequent big hit single "Lover" has been frequently misidentified as her earliest. The ultimate source of the error might have been Peggy Lee herself, who made comments to that effect in various oral interviews. Since those interviews took place three and four decades after her tenure with Decca, it is possible that she had forgotten all about "Be Anything." Or she might have never been well-informed on the matter. (Chances are that, back in the early 1950s, artists were not well-schooled on the topic of recordings that qualified as hits -- unless those recordings were major sellers, or unless their record companies and managers notified them.)


Arrangements

1. Gordon Jenkins
According to the notes in the back cover of the Decca LP Lover, Gordon Jenkins arranged that album's twelve performances. This claim strikes me as likely to be correct. However, I have generally abstained from trusting collective arrangement credits unless I have some additional evidence, because such type of credits often prove to be inflated or partially false.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Milt Gabler, Morty Palitz (pdr), Gordon Jenkins (con), Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra (acc), Art Drellinger, Jack Greenberg, Tom Parshley, Milt Yaner (sax), Art Ryerson (g), Jack Lesberg (b), Bernie Leighton (p), Unknown (d), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs And Cross-references

1. Peggy Lee's Fight For Her "Lover"
Among the reasons for Peggy Lee's switch of labels in 1952 was her desire to record the song "Lover," and the disappointment that she felt when Capitol refused to let her do so. Details can be found in this supplementary page.

2. "Lover" In The Charts And In Peggy Lee's Discography
Peggy Lee's recording of "Lover" became her second chart hit on Decca; its chart position and other specifics can be found in the notes under this page's May 1, 1952 session.

3. "Just One Of Those Things" In The Music Charts
"Just One Of Those Things" was Peggy Lee's fourth hit while on Decca Records. (For her second and third chart hits, see next two sessions, dated May 1 and May 16, 1952.) The song appeared in both Cashbox's and Billboard's charts, although its peak position differed from one magazine to the other. According to data computed by Joel Whitburn primarily from the Billboard charts, Lee's take on ""Just One Of Those Things" peaked at #14 during the week of August 2, 1952. According to Cashbox's charts, it reached #23 in the Best Selling Singles chart. It was, at any rate, the standard's second time in the charts, following a top 10 version that dated back to 1935, by Richard Himber And His Orchestra. There were no subsequent hit versions.


Personnel

In his notes for The Best Of Peggy Lee (Decca LP Dxsb 7164), Leonard Feather reports that over 36 musicians participated in this recording session, not including the unidentified voices in charge of the background vocals.


At The Recording Session

Such a large portion of this session was dedicated to the recording of "Lover" that plans to do other songs had to be abandoned. The hours of trying were to no avail: this session's master of "Lover" ended up being rejected. According to Peggy Lee, the attempts at recording her voice in unison with eight percussionists failed because the acoustics of Liederkranz Hall was "a bit live." For additional comments about the experience, consult this supplementary page.


The Lover Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Dates: April 3 and 28, May 1, July 31, November 28, and December 16, 1952. For further commentary about the album, see notes under April 3, 1952 session.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Milt Gabler, Morty Palitz (pdr), Gordon Jenkins (con), Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra (acc), Art Drellinger, Jack Greenberg, Tom Parshley, Milt Yaner (sax), Art Ryerson (g), Jack Lesberg (b), Bernie Leighton (p), Harry Jaeger (d), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

Arrangements And Cross-references (Film)

1. "Lover"
2. La Bandera
3. Peggy Lee And Gordon Jenkins
The original arrangement of "Lover" was conceived by Peggy Lee herself. Gordon Jenkins did the orchestration of the studio recording. Lee's inspiration for the arrangement came from watching a French film; read more about the film and about her conception in the supplementary Decca page.


Songwriters And Cross-references (Film)

1. "Lover"
2. Love Me Tonight
3. Richard Rodgers
Not surprisingly, Peggy Lee's radical re-thinking of the melody met with the displeasure of the original composer, who had written the number as a waltz. However, Rodgers overt displeasure was not long-lasting. In later years, he voiced appreciation for the re-conception, and even used it to make a point, in lectures, about the need to keep songs current rather than risking having them fall into oblivion. For specifics, and for comments about an early movie (Love Me Tonight) that featured the song in its original waltz conception, check the supplementary Decca page.


At The Recording Session

Lee's first attempt at recording "Lover," on April 28, had failed, to her great disappointment. Amidst a 36-piece orchestra that included eight percussionists, the microphones had not picked up the vocal to her satisfaction. During this session's renewed attempt at recording "Lover," Lee was placed in an isolation booth. The success of this idea, never previously attempted by Lee, might have led her to favor this method in later years, particularly when recording ballads, which required a greater feel of intimacy and concentration from her.


Songs

1. "Lover" In The Music Charts
"Lover" was Peggy Lee's second hit for Decca Records. According to Joel Whitburn's estimates in his book Pop Memories, 1890-1954, Lee's recording peaked at #3 after debuting during the week of June 7, 1952. Peggy Lee's version of "Lover" was also a hit in Cashbox's Best Selling Singles chart, where it reached a #10 peak.

Furthermore, Lee's version of "Lover" is said to have sold a quarter of a million in its first two weeks, and to have reached the million mark eventually. ("Lover" thus became Lee's second or arguably third million seller, following her 1948 Capitol hit "Mañana" and the 1942 Benny Goodman version of "Why Don't You Do Right?").

This was the standard's fourth time in the charts. Two versions had run their course back when the song was brand new (1933). The third version was the innovative multi-track recording by Les Paul, which peaked at #21 in 1948.

Notice that Lee kept reprising this song in concerts, on television, and also in the recording studio, where she dressed it anew with different arrangements. (See, for instance, sessions dated February 9, 1961 and March 8, 1977. Once this discography's page for television specials opens for viewing, see also her 1967 version from Something Special With Peggy Lee.)


Personnel

1. Milt Gabler
2. Morty Palitz
There is some discrepancy about the identity of the A&R man who presided over the "Lover" session(s). Lee's autobiography makes passing reference to Morty Palitz, and other texts have followed suit. However, Milt Gabler is given credit in literature about him. (Gabler and Sonny Burke are also mentioned among the executives who signed Lee to Decca Records after they saw her rendition of "Lover" at The Copacabana.)

It seems that both Gabler and Palitz were present during these New York sessions, and shared duties during the production of the number. Indeed, Lee made mention of both men during a 1977 discussion of the "Lover" sessions. "Gabler said to me that he couldn't pick me up," she told to the interviewer. Lee then recounted how, after leaving the date in tears and going to bed, she received a call from Palitz in the middle of the night. Palitz wanted to let her know that he and the session's chief engineer had kept working on finding a solution, eventually coming up with the idea of an isolation booth. The news made Lee ecstatic. (Her earlier tears had been the result of deep disappointment. As already explained, her desire to record this version of "Lover" had been among the chief reasons that had driven her to sign with Decca. By April of 1952, she had been performing the number onstage to enthusiastic audience responses, for about a year, and she was now eager to record the elaborate arrangement that had been commissioned from Gordon Jenkins. Moreover, Lee herself was probably expected to pay for these expensive dates, since record companies operated on the notion that "compensation" for their recording artists needed to come from the earnings made by the artist's released records.)


The Lover Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Dates: April 3 and 28, May 1, July 31, November 28, and December 16, 1952. For further commentary about the album, see notes under April 3, 1952 session.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Vic Schoen And His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

1. "Watermelon Weather" In The Music Charts
The duet "Watermelon Weather" became Peggy Lee's third hit on Decca Records. The song charted during the week of July 26, 1952 and, according to Joel Whitburn's chart estimates, peaked at #28. Competing against this duet version by Crosby and Lee was another duet pairing: Perry Como and Eddie Fisher, on RCA Victor. The chart battle was won by RCA, whose duet peaked at #19.


Cross-references (Radio As Source)

A Bing Crosby-Peggy Lee version of "Watermelon Weather" was first heard on the June 18, 1952 episode of "[Chesterfield Presents] The Bing Crosby Show." In the show's next episode, a version of "The Moon Came Up With A Great Idea Last Night" was heard, too. Both duets were thus promoted on the radio while the single was in circulation.

The possibility exists that Decca single #28238 contains the actual radio numbers is worth pondering. Crosby's Chesterfield broadcasts were usually pre-taped; occasionally, songs taken from those broadcasts were indeed released on Decca singles.

That possibility notwithstanding, the chronology of events makes it likelier that Crosby and Lee recorded the songs for Decca first, and later reprised them on his radio show. My own listening leads me to believe that the radio versions are different from those on the 78 and 45, though they are very similar.

For other Lee studio recordings associated with Crosby's radio shows, see also notes under sessions dated November 17, 1952 and November 22, 1955.

Axel Stordahl (con), Axel Stordahl And His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

The Road To Bali Sessions (Cross-references: Film)

1. Peggy Lee At The Movies
During her Decca years, Peggy Lee actively cultivated an association with the world of film. The effects of such an association are reflected in the many film-related masters that grace this discographical page. Some of those masters were meant for inclusion in the film soundtracks; others were part of company projects "inspired" by contemporaneous movies.

In two or three of the movies in question, Peggy Lee had acting or voiceover roles. In others, she co-wrote and sang the soundtrack's numbers.

There is yet a third category, exemplified by the present session, in which Peggy Lee recorded songs from a movie with which she had had no involvement whatsoever. Lee's participation in sessions such as this one might be partially explained by her active pursuit of film-related work during these years. Another factor to weigh in is Lee's friendship with the star of films like Road To Bali and Irving Berlin's White Christmas. (Crosby was probably the person who arranged for her to have a cameo in one of his movies, back while she was still at Capitol. The movie: Mr. Music, released in 1950.)

2. Peggy Lee In Road to Bali
In 1952, three of Bing Crosby's Decca sessions were dedicated to recording songs from the Paramount movie Road To Bali. Peggy Lee participated in two of the three dates (June 20 and 24). The remaining session (June 23) featured Crosby solos only. The film would not be released until the following year (1953).

The stars of Road To Bali were Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. All three actors sing in the film's soundtrack, and all three seem to have been under contract with Decca Records during the early 1950s, too. Yet Lamour did not participate in the soundtrack-inspired album that Decca put together. According to one unconfirmed report, the reason for Lamour's exclusion was her asking fee, which was deemed too high. Hence Bing Crosby and company asked Peggy Lee to record some of the numbers that Dorothy Lamour had sung for the movie's soundtrack. Since Crosby had a long-established professional rapport with Lee -- due to the numerous radio shows that they had done together -- and since she was now on his record label, her recruitment for these sessions is not surprising.

For other instances in which Peggy Lee fulfilled a similar role, see sessions dated September 16, 1953, and April 10, 1954, both of them dedicated to songs from the movie Irving Berlin's White Christmas.


Session's Masters

1. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this session was master L6817 ("To See You Is To Love You"), sung by Bing Crosby sans Peggy Lee. The session was thus shared by Crosby and Lee.

Bing Crosby (ldr), Sonny Burke And His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Peggy Lee (v)

The Road To Bali Sessions (Cross-references: Film)

For details about the Road To Bali sessions, see previous session, dated June 20, 1952.


Session's Masters

1. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this session was master #6821 ("The Road To Bali"), a vocal duet by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, sans Lee.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), The Gordon Jenkins Chorus (bkv)

The Lover Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Dates: April 3 and 28, May 1, July 31, November 28, and December 16, 1952. For further commentary about the album, see notes under April 3, 1952 session.


Songs

1. "Sans Souci"
2. "Cyprus"
Mysteriously, the song "Sans Souci" receives the alternate title "Cyprus" in some sources, including ASCAP. It's worth noting that the lyrics of this song seem to allude to a specific story -- to a character who may be an illegal alien or an exile. I suspect that the song, co-written by Lee, was originally intended for a specific project (a movie or, otherwise, a show on Broadway), but I have yet to find any evidence that such was the case.

It is also worth noting that Peggy Lee & Sonny Burke are not the only American songwriters who have given the title "Sans Souci" to a composition. So did Count Basie, among others. Johnny Mercer, too. (Mercer's "Sans Souci" was actually contemporaneous with Lee's. He wrote it for the musical Top Banana, which debuted on November 1, 1951.)

3. "River, River" In The Charts
This song was Peggy Lee's fifth hit on Decca Records. According to Joel Whitburn, "River, River" made its debut during the week of November 22, 1952. It peaked at #23.


Arrangements

1. Gordon Jenkins
The arranging credit for "Sans Souci" is found in Peggy Lee's 1990 album There'll Be Another Spring: The Peggy Lee Songbook. The arranger of "River River" is also believed to have been Jenkins, although any factual corroboration has yet to come forth.

Bing Crosby (ldr), Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires, John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee (v)

Masters And Issues

1. Non-Lee Masters
At this Bing Crosby session, the Old Groaner also recorded masters #6894 ("Fatherly Advice"), #6895 ("Sleigh Ride"), and #6896 ("I Love My Baby"), none of them with Peggy Lee.


Cross-references (Radio As Source)

Bing Crosby discographer Timothy A. Morgereth asserts that all four titles from this session were actually test pressings transcribed from radio broadcasts. Indeed, Bing Crosby and Peggy Lee sang "Little Jack Frost Get Lost" on a January 11, 1950 broadcast of Chesterfield Presents The Bing Crosby Show. In further support of his assertion, Morgereth notes that the matrical numbers for this Decca session do not follow the numerical sequence to which Decca "religiously adhered."

Aural comparison of the radio and studio versions suggests that they might be one and the same. (There is always the possibility that the test pressing in question contained a rehearsal of the broadcast, rather than the broadcast version itself.) I detect only one obvious difference between the studio version and the radio performance: the audience's final applause, absent from the Decca master -- or edited from it, if Morgereth's assertions are correct.

To locate issues which contain the "Little Jack Frost Get Lost" performance as heard on the radio, consult this discography's radio pages once they are complete and available for viewing. See also notes under Decca sessions dated May 16, 1952 and November 22, 1955.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra, The Gordon Jenkins Chorus (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

The Lover Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Dates: April 3 and 28, May 1, July 31, November 28, and December 16, 1952. For further commentary about the album, see notes under April 3, 1952 session.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra, The Gordon Jenkins Chorus (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

The Jazz Singer Session (Cross-references: Film)

Peggy Lee co-wrote the songs "I Hear The Music Now" and "This Is A Very Special Day" for the 1953 Warner Brothers movie The Jazz Singer, starring Danny Thomas and Peggy Lee. The masters listed in this session were recorded specifically for release as a Decca single; they are not the same performances heard in the movie soundtrack. (For the soundtrack versions, see this discography's film page, once it opens for viewing.)


Songs

1. "I Hear The Music Now"
The melody of "I Hear The Music Now" is based on a theme by the French composer Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896), best remembered for his opera Mignon. My thanks to Michael J. White for first alerting me to the connection. Thomas receives credit in the sheet music for this number, too. See also notes about the song "Once In A Lifetime," under Capitol session dated September 14, 1950.


Issues

1. Songs From The Jazz Singer [10" LP]
RCA Victor, the company which had Danny Thomas under contract in 1953, released an album titled Songs From The Jazz Singer (RCA Victor Lpm 3118). It contains numbers such as "This Is A Very Special Day," sung by Thomas. Peggy Lee is not heard in that LP.


The Lover Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Dates: April 3 and 28, May 1, July 31, November 28, and December 16, 1952. For further commentary about the album, see notes under April 3, 1952 session.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Victor Young (con), Victor Young And His Singing Strings (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), Unknown (bkv)

Songs, Songwriters And Cross-references (Film)

1. The Bullfighter And The Lady
2. "How Strange"
"How Strange" was the love theme of The Bullfighter And The Lady, a Republic film starring Robert Stack. Its score was written by Victor Young.

An instrumental version of "How Strange" is heard throughout the movie. A vocal version in Spanish is also heard during a very early scene. The scene in question takes place at a Mexican night club, in which the protagonists meet. The voice of a female vocalist is barely audible in the background, singing Spanish lyrics that seem to concentrate on sorrow and romantic longing ("me hablas de tu dolor ... el dolor de tu amor ... quisiera tenerte en mis brazos"). The melody is definitely that of "How Strange," but the Spanish lyrics bear no connection to the ones written by Peggy Lee. The singer heard in this scene is not Lee, either.

In a later scene, a female vocalist is in fact seen, dressed in full traditional Mexican regalia and singing another song, again in Spanish. Sorrow and unrequited love are the themes of the second performance, too. Presumably, this is the same vocalist that had been only heard earlier. The movie credit do not identify her.

The Bullfighter And The Lady was released in 1951 -- i.e., two years before this studio session took place. Most probably, Peggy Lee belatedly added English lyrics to the instrumental at the suggestion of Victor Young himself, with whom she was collaborating in other projects around the time of this session.

My thanks to George McGhee for his very kind assistance during the labor of researching this movie.

For another film in which Robert Stack also happens to star, and in which the film's theme is actually sung by Peggy Lee in the movie soundtrack, see session dated January 19, 1955.

3. "Where Can I Go Without You?" In The Music Charts
Peggy Lee's ballad "Where Can I Go Without You?" became her eighth Decca hit. Joel Whitburn's tabulations show that Lee's version peaked at #28 after making its debut during the week of March 13, 1954.

Curiously, Decca waited almost a year before issuing "Where Can I Go Without You?" as a single. A plausible explanation is that, initially, Decca did not see potential in releasing the song. But after Peggy Lee's chart success with her version of the romantic show tune "Baubles, Bangles And Beads" in late 1953, Decca might have wanted to further capitalize through the release of another suitably romantic number.

4. Peggy Lee, As Songwriter, In The Music Charts
"Where Can I Go Without You?" was the eighth self-penned chart entry of Peggy Lee's career. For her seventh entry, which was recorded later but released before this one, see next session. During the next 13 years, no other performance written by Lee made the charts. And yet Lee actually recorded a steady number of self-penned songs from 1953 to 1966. What's more, some of them would prove popular enough to be recorded by many other artists (e.g., "I Love Being Here With You," "I'm Gonna Go Fishin'," "Things Are Swingin'," etc.) The reason why none of those potential hits made even a dent in the charts lies not with Lee or with the songs themselves, but with contemporaneous standards in the music industry. The songs were adversely affected by Billboard's lack of interest in tabulating, at that point in time, airplay from adult contemporary radio stations. Hence Lee's compositions did not make any chart appearances until 1966; by that time, Billboard had created a chart for adult contemporary music. (See Capitol session dated February 1, 1966. Consider also the hit "Fever," which featured uncredited lyrics by Lee, and which was recorded for Capitol on August 19, 1958.)


Personnel

1. Dave Barbour
My discographical sources give conflicting information about this session's accompaniment. Decca's files name Dave Barbour & His Orchestra. On the other hand, the Decca EP Songs In An Intimate Style identifies Victor Young & His Singing Strings as the accompaniment, and so do later issues of the song. Close listening strongly suggests the presence of Young, who is on record as the composer this session's songs. Since I hear no indication of Barbour's presence, I have tentatively chosen to give credit to Victor Young alone.

2. Background Voices
Unknown "vapor voices" on "How Strange" only.


Arrangements

1. Hal Mooney
Peggy Lee kept two arrangements of "Where Can I Go Without You?" in her music library. One of them is by Hal Mooney, with whom she worked during her Decca years. I have tentatively credited him with this session's arrangement.


Issues

1. Classics And Collectibles [CD]
2. Miss Peggy Lee ("Some Of The Best" Series) [CD]
3. "How Strange"
Three or four tracks in the otherwise superior set Classics And Collectibles fail to live to expectations. "How Strange" is one of them. Apparently, the performance was newly remixed for this release. Or, otherwise, a previously unreleased mix was used. The vibrant audio fidelity heard in Songs In An Intimate Style (the original vinyl issue) is clearly missing from this inferior mix. Lee sounds remote, as if she were at considerable distance from the mike.

Some of the vibrancy of the original LP version can be heard in another digital release: Miss Peggy Lee from Laserlight's "Some Of The Best" series. Nevertheless, despite its vibrant quality, this CD's transfer is also unsatisfactory. It suffers from background noise, and from a general wobbliness in its sound quality. (I am left to wonder if such defects stem not from the transfer but from the original master. Problems with the quality and preservation of the master would explain why a new or different mix was used for Classics And Collectibles.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour And His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

Songs

1. "Who's Gonna Pay The Check?" In The Music Charts
Peggy Lee had her sixth hit on Decca Records with "Who's Gonna Pay The Check?," a tongue-in-cheek novelty sung in a mock, pseudo-Italian accent. According to Joel Whitburn, the song peaked at #22 after debuting during the week of May 22, 1953. In Cashbox's Top 100 Singles chart, it reached #26.

"Who's Gonna Pay The Check? also became Lee's seventh time to climb the charts with a number that she herself had authored. (Her other six self-penned chart entries had happened while she was a Capitol artist. On this seventh occasion, she was responsible not only for the lyrics, but also for the music. For Lee's eighth self-penned hit, see preceding session, dated February 13, 1953.)

Arrangements

1. Joe Lipman
Peggy Lee kept a Joe Lipman arrangement of "Who's Gonna Pay The Check?" in her music library. It is not known if Lipman's arrangement was written exclusively for Lee's live shows, or if it was (also) used for this session's performance.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Milt Gabler (pdr), Walter "Pete" Candoli (t), Max Wayne (b), James "Jimmy" Rowles (p), Ed Shaughnessy (d), Peggy Lee (v)

The Black Coffee Album Sessions (Cross-references)

This is the first of four sessions dedicated to the jazz-oriented LP Black Coffee. For a complete look at the album sessions, see also the next two dates (May 1, May 4) and a later one, dated April 3, 1956.

Little is known about the genesis of Peggy Lee's most acclaimed LP. It might have been conceived as a representation of her nightclub work, for which Lee had been receiving ecstatic reviews. To wit: "Peggy gave the greatest performance we have seen delivered by any singer in a Manhattan club in the last five years." "... [A]n electric singer with a driving beat on some songs and a sensual appeal on torcheroos ... one of those shows that happen rarely. Only a top-flight act could follow her ..." "She rides, slides and glides over a flock of songs that run out the string, encasing her versatility, pace and handling." "Peggy Lee ... proved that you can entertain an audience without falling back on either this week's Hit Parade or special material."

Some of the standards that Lee performed on those highly praised concerts were also recorded for the album under discussion. For instance, a review of an engagement at New York's Copacabana shows that she was singing "A Woman Alone With The Blues" as early as 1951. "I've Got You Under My Skin," "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" and "Easy Living" were all heard at another New York engagement that took place merely a month before this recording date. Appearing with Lee at that March 1953 La Vie En Rose gig were three of the four musicians who participated in the Black Coffee sessions: Pete Candoli, Jimmy Rowles, and Ed Shaughnessy.

As for producer Milt Gabler's involvement in the album's creative process, it appears to have been minimal at best. Or so I gather from a comment that Pete Candoli made during an interview with Lee's biographer. Candoli characterized Decca's head of A&R as a "nice guy" whose only comment to Lee and her musicians was: " '[y]ou guys do what you want. It's your show.' " In short, the album's artistic direction was ostensibly dictated by Peggy Lee and her musicians.


Arrangements

1. Jimmy Rowles
2. Head Arrangements,
3. "I've Got You Under My Skin"
This session featured head arrangements. They were set to paper by Jimmy Rowles, with input from Peggy Lee and, presumably, the session's other musicians.

In addition to this date's arrangement of "I've Got You Under My Skin," Peggy Lee's sheet music library contains a second one, credited to Dick Hazard. Perhaps Hazard's arrangement was used at Lee's concert performances from a later time -- the late 1950s or the early 1960s.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Milt Gabler (pdr), Walter "Pete" Candoli (t), Max Wayne (b), James "Jimmy" Rowles (p), Ed Shaughnessy (d), Peggy Lee (v)

The Black Coffee Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Dates: April 30, 1953. May 1 and 4, 1953. April 3, 1956.


Arrangements

1. Jimmy Rowles
The earliest Black Coffee dates (April 30, May 1 and May 4 , 1953) consist of songs mostly from Peggy Lee's nightclub repertoire. In all likelihood, the original live performances used head arrangements which pianist Jimmy Rowles had put together with substantial input from Lee and the rest of her rhythm section. General corroboration on this matter comes from Lee herself. About a year after these sessions took place, she explained that Rowles was indeed writing most of her arrangements, "though we work out a lot of head things" (Downbeat article, July 14, 1954). Her autobiography also contains a comment on the subject of Rowles' contributions. Apparently referring to her Decca years, Lee writes that "Jimmy Rowles and Marty Paich did a lot of arranging for me -- and Jimmy! He's a champ."

For the Black Coffee album, Rowles probably continued to refine the arrangements that the group had been singing in concert. "Jimmy Rowles did all those arrangements;" asserted Lee during an interview published by Goldmine on May 26, 1995, "[t]he figures in there are all Jimmy's ..."

2. "A Woman Alone With The Blues"
Peggy Lee's sheet music library holds two arrangements of this song, one by Dave Grusin, the other by Bob Ross. Given the arrangers involved, both arrangements were presumably written year after this recording date took place.


Personnel And Cross-references (Errors In A Lee Biography)

1. Pete Candoli
2. Cootie Chesterfield
Probably because he was under contract with another record label, Pete Candoli is listed under the pseudonym Cootie Chesterfield in the back cover of the Black Coffee album.

3. Joe Mondragon
In the biography Fever: The Life And Music Of Peggy Lee, Pete Candoli is quoted as having casually said that Joe Mondragon was the bassist of the album Black Coffee. This erroneous comment is left uncorrected in the biography. The bassist listed in the album's back cover (and elsewhere) is not Joe Mondragon but Max Wayne. Candoli's misattribution probably stems from the fact that Mondragon was Peggy Lee's regular bassist during much of the 1950s; hence, about 50 years after these sessions took place, Candoli's memory might have automatically pictured Mondragon in the studio.

In the same biography, the album is tied to the month of August. Since there is no clarification, readers could wrongly assume that Black Coffee was recorded in August, when that is instead the month on which the 10" LP was released.

4. Jimmy Rowles, Vocalist
For a vocal duet by Peggy Lee and Jimmy Rowles, see session dated May 24, 1954.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Milt Gabler (pdr), Walter "Pete" Candoli (t), Max Wayne (b), James "Jimmy" Rowles (p), Ed Shaughnessy (d), Peggy Lee (v)

The Black Coffee Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Dates: April 30, 1953. May 1 and 4, 1953. April 3, 1956.


Songs And Songwriters

1. "Black Coffee"
2. Sonny Burke
3. Mary Lou Williams
4. W. C. Handy
The song "Black Coffee" (1948) was composed by Sonny Burke, who had to settle a minor dispute over its authorship. Mary Lou Williams argued that the tune was musically similar to "What's The Story, Morning Glory?," which she had composed back in the 1930s. Although Burke allegedly ended up paying a fee to Williams, there is a good chance that neither composer deserves original credit. The musical phrase at the center of the dispute seems to date farther back in time. In the 1920s, it was heard as part of the song "Aunt Hagar's Blues," co-written and published by W. C. Handy. Known nowadays as the father of the blues, Handy was in turn heavily inspired by the Southern black oral tradition of blues and spirituals. The melodies of all three aforementioned songs ("Aunt Hagar's Blues," "What's Your Story, Morning Glory?," "Black Coffee") might thus contain variations on a traditional blues riff.


Collectors' Corner And Cross-references (Issues)

1. The 10" and 12" LP Covers Of Black Coffee
The 1953 and 1956 versions of the album Black Coffee feature different covers which for many decades were highly priced by record collectors. In order to see the two covers, click here and here. For information about the songs that were added to the 12" version of the album, see session dated April 3, 1956.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sy Oliver (con), Unknown (acc), Marty Paich (p), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), Session Musicians (bkv)

The Album Songs In An Intimate Style (Cross-references)

1. Genesis
Songs In An Intimate Style was the successor to the 10" vinyl version of Black Coffee. The promotional note in the back cover of the Intimate LP states that "Peggy's preceding album, Black Coffee, was acclaimed by her fans and was immediately followed by demands for a new group of Peggy Lee songs. This collection is the answer to that demand."

The primary force behind the conception of Songs In An Intimate Style is unknown. Considering the substance of the above-quoted promotional remark, I'm inclined to believe that the album was conceived by a Decca producer, rather than by Lee. (Of course, Lee's input might have been taken into consideration. Perhaps the song selection was at least partially dictated by her.) In the trade press, the isue was listed among a batch of over 50 EP and LP releases that Decca released during the second half of 1954, in commemoration of its 20th anniversary

Chosen as Songs In An Intimate Style's opening track, "Baubles, Bangles And Beads" might have also determined the production and direction of the EP. Decca probably wanted to capitalize on the commercial success of that recent chart single -- and, as previosuly mentioned, on the critical success of Lee's previous album.

2. Classification And Contents
The word "collection" describes Songs In An Intimate Style fairly well. Unlike Black Coffee, this album is not comprised of masters conceived for one single project and recorded back-to-back. Instead, Intimate's eight tracks come from sessions led by three different conductors (Victor Young, Sy Oliver, Gordon Jenkins) and held months apart (November 28, 1952; February 13, 1953; September 14 and 16, 1953).

And yet, thanks to its uniformly romantic mood, Songs In An Intimate Style still manages to come off as a cohesive collection of beautifully sung numbers. Of the 8 tracks, no less than 7 are ballads which Peggy Lee renders with a deep sense of intimacy. Only the charming "Apples, Peaches And Cherries" would seem to break the mold. On first listening, this particular number might seem lacking in the wistful, slow and mellow feel which the word 'ballad' conveys in modern times. But after careful consideration (or after a second listening), it becomes evident that "Apples, Peaches And Cherries" is also a ballad -- though one in a different mold: this love story about a peddler's daughter and her suitor is evidently inspired by the folk ballads of olden days.

The core of the album lies in the session under discussion (September 14, 1953). Three of the session's four masters were included. Of the remaining five masters, two are from the next session (September 16), which was also dedicated to the recording of a holiday single. To fill the rest of Songs In An Intimate Style, Decca searched for suitably intimate ballads from Peggy Lee's back catalogue, and found them in sessions dated February 13, 1953 and November 28, 1952.

3. Release Date
The 10" LP version of Songs In An Intimate Style was released on August 9, 1954. Curiously, I have also come across a 1953 release date for the album. Since I have corroborated that August 9, 1954 is the correct date for the 10" LP version, a 1953 date could be correct only if it applied to another album configuration. Before the CD era, the only other configuration in which this album came out was as an EP (viewable here). I do not know the EP's release date, but I find it unlikely that Decca would have issued it a year in advance of the 10" LP. (That said, there is some room for such a possibility. There is also room for the possibility that, after all, my sources have an erroneous date for the 10" LP. Since the youngest songs in the album date from September 1953, Songs In An Intimate Style could have been hypothticallly issued between October and December of that year.)


Songs & Cross-references (Film)

1. "Love You So" Versus "I Love You So"
2. About Mrs. Leslie
The Decca EP Songs In An Intimate Style credits "Love You So" to Bill Walker. Curiously, Peggy Lee and Victor Young are credited with writing a song which has a similar title: "I Love You So."

Lee and Young's song was copyrighted one year later. It is listed as the theme of the 1954 Paramount movie About Mrs. Leslie -- a film which I have not yet watched. There are no known recordings of the Lee-Young song.


Personnel

1. Gordon Jenkins
2. Sy Oliver
3. Victor Young
The sources at my reach are in disagreement on the matter of this session's conductor. Decca's session files credit Sy Oliver. There is no mention of Oliver, however, in the back cover of the album Songs In An Intimate Style. Instead, the back cover's notes indicate that Gordon Jenkins and Victor Young alternately conducted all the performances heard in the album. Aural inspection of the tracks indeed points to the presence of one man or the other in most of the performances.

Should we conclude, then, that Oliver was wrongly credited in Decca's master file? Not necessarily. Since Oliver was an in-house conductor at Decca, he could have been asked to act as the nominal conductor of a session that did not actually need one, except for paperwork purposes.

Or maybe he was one out of two session conductors. Given his in-house role, Oliver might have been at hand to take over when the style of a main conductor did not suit one or more masters from a given session. For this date,
Oliver could have conducted the livelier tracks ("Apples, Peaches and Cherries," in particular), whereas Victor Young could have been in charge of the strings-laden numbers.

For the time being, I feel that it is more prudent to incorporate to this discography only the credit given in the more concrete of the two sources: the Decca master file. If ever possible in the future, an inspection of the session's AFM report should full solve this matter.

To look into another session with more than one conductor in the run, see under February 11, 1955 date.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Victor Young (con), Victor Young And His Orchestra (acc), Marty Paich (p), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires (bkv)

Songs

1. "Baubles, Bangles And Beads" In The Music Charts
The song "Baubles, Bangles And Beads" comes from the Broadway musical Kismet, which premiered to popular success on December 3, 1953. The Broadway cast album was released by Columbia soon afterwards (1954). Meanwhile, the other record labels rushed to release competing versions of the show's songs, as recorded by their respective artist rosters. At Decca, Danny Kaye, Peggy Lee and The Four Aces were enlisted for this purpose. In adddition to singles, an EP with these artists' interpretations of four Kismet numbers was issued by the company.

Peggy Lee's version of "Baubles, Bangles And Beads" entered the charts on the same week that the musical opened. In Joel Whitburn's estimation, Lee's seventh hit recording for Decca peaked at #30. (For her eight chart entry, scroll back to session dated February 13, 1953.) Whitburn shows no other charting versions of the song. Cashbox's Best Selling Singles shows two versions: Peggy Lee's and, on Columbia, Lu Ann Simms'. They are given a combined #34 peak, and a four-week stay.


Songwriters

1. Alexander Borodin
The music of Kismet was adapted from the works of Russian composer Alexander Borodin. Like most of the other selections in Kismet, "Baubles, Bangles And Beads" borrows from Borodin's opera Prince Igor -- and also from his second string quartet.


Arrangers And Arrangements

1. Marty Paich
2. "Baubles, Bangles And Beads"
3. "That's What A Woman Is For"
Marty Paich is the probable arranger of both "Baubles, Bangles And Beads" and "That's What A Woman Is For."

In the case of "Baubles, Bangles And Beads," confirmation for the Paich credit comes from an interview in which Peggy Lee made the identification. Paich is also identified as the arranger in Leonard Feather's notes for the Decca LP The Best Of Peggy Lee.

The source for the "That's What A Woman Is For" credit is Peggy Lee's own sheet music library, in which a Paich arrangement of the song is kept. This credit should be deemed tentative, because the library's arrangement has yet to be compared with the arrangement heard in the recording.

Lee also kept a second arrangement of "Baubles, Bangles And Beads," credited to Benny Carter. Perhaps Carter's arrangement was the one used by Lee for a televised, 1959 version of the song, listed in this discography's TV pages. (n.b.: Those pages are expected to open for viewing in late 2010.)


Personnel

1. Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires
This vocal group is heard on "It's Christmas Time" and "Ring Those Christmas Bells" only.


The Songs In An Intimate Style Album Sessions (Cross-references)

See album note under session dated September 14, 1953.


Collectors' Corner

1. Around The Christmas Tree [LP]
Curiously, Decca released at least two versions of this Decca LP, both with the same title and cover but each with different track listing. Perhaps they were part of series, in which case there could be many more. Only Dl 9056 includes Lee's "Ring Those Christmas Bells"; the other version (Dl 38170) does not feature Lee at all. For links to the covers and to bloggers' discussions about them, look up this entry in the LP index.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Victor Young (con), Victor Young And His Singing Strings (acc), Vicente Gomez (g), Unknown (b, p), Peggy Lee (v)

Cross-references (Film)

1. A Date Dedicated To Movie Themes
2. Johnny Guitar
3. Terminal Station
This session was dedicated to studio versions of two 1954 movie themes.

Peggy Lee sang "Johnny Guitar" both for this session and for the movie's soundtrack. (In other words, this Decca recording features a vocal different from the one heard in the soundtrack. More details on this matter will be found in this discography's film page, once that page opens for viewing.)

"Autumn In Rome" is the love theme of the movie Indiscretion Of An American Wife [aka Terminal Station], which was first released in Italy (1953) and then, two months after this session, in the United States (1954). Lee is responsible only for this date's studio recording; she is not heard on the film soundtrack. (The soundtrack's vocalist is Patti Page.)


Songs

1. "Johnny Guitar" In The Foreign Music Charts
Although "Johnny Guitar" is often cited as one of Peggy Lee's most beloved and memorable songs, it does not seem to have made much of an initial impression in the United States. There is no trace of "Johnny Guitar" in the American charts. The song achieved its greatest impact abroad, especially in Europe and in Japan. (Perhaps the success of the song -- or lack thereof -- was dependent on the movie's own reception. Although nowadays widely deemed a cult classic, the film Johnny Guitar was poorly received and critically panned in the United States, yet applauded and highly admired in France, Spain, and other countries.)

Italians proved especially receptive to the song: five versions were released to the market in 1955. The online project HitParadeItalia ranks three of those versions in its top 30 of bestsellers for that year. Two are covers sung in Italian, and placing at #8 and #14. The third, at #28, is Peggy Lee's original in English. In HitParadeItalia's more subjective list of best interpretations of the year, Lee's version receives the further honor of being ranked at #7 and described as "una splendida ballata egregiamente interpretata da Peggy Lee."


Personnel

1. Vicente Gómez
In connection to the song "Johnny Guitar," Peggy Lee's autobiography contains the following statement: "Vincent Gomez played the guitar, Victor Young conducted." I am assuming that she is referring to Vicente Gómez, a Madrid-born classical and flamenco guitarist who had recorded for Decca in the late 1930s and had become a movie music performer during the 1940s and 1950s. Some time after or before this session took place, Gómez added another phase to his distinguished career: he opened, in LA, his Academy of Spanish Arts.


Arrangements

1. Victor Young
The arranging credit for "Johnny Guitar" is found in Peggy Lee's 1990 album There'll Be Another Spring: The Peggy Lee Songbook. The credit for "Autumn In Rome" should be deemed tentative but highly likely; it is based on the fact that Peggy Lee kept a Young arrangement of the song in her sheet music library.


Masters And Issues

1. The Fabulous Peggy Lee [LP]
This album was released by Decca in 1964, eight years after Peggy Lee had left the label. It collects mostly numbers that had not been previously released on LP. Naturally, those songs come from a variety of sessions. Two are from this date and two others are from a session dated June 8, 1956. The remaining eight songs come from dates held in 1953 (February 18 and September 14), 1954 (May 24 and 26), 1955 (January 19, February 11, June 3) and 1956 (April 3). The Fabulous Peggy Lee was released both in mono and in "hi-fi stereophonic," which was Decca's name for its brand of simulated stereo.

2. "Autumn In Rome" [Edit]
The originally issued version of "Autumn In Rome" opens with the sound of chirping birds. Derided as "corny" by music critics in 1954, the overdub was edited out of the 2003 Universal/MCA CD Love Songs. That same year, the bird-less version was also licensed by Marks & Spencer for a Peggy Lee disc in the company's CD series.

3. "Johnny Guitar": The Two Studio Takes And Their Distribution
Close listening of the two above-listed takes of "Johnny Guitar" makes the differences between them readily apparent. As aptly summarized by Steve Dodd, who first alerted me to the existence of not one but two issued takes, the earlier take is permeated by a more emotional approach, the alternate by a more declamatory style. Moreover, Lee tends to hold the notes longer in the alternate. For other points of comparison, listen to the guitar playing throughout, and to Lee's intonation of the final line. Also notice, around 1:52, the way in which Lee pronounces, the final r of the word "guitar."

Over the years, these two "Johnny Guitar" takes have had a fairly specific distribution. The alternate take is found on CD only. The master take has appeared on LP and also on CDs which have a LP counterpart, such as Perfect-Lee!. I have encountered only three exceptions to this distribution:

a) Classics And Collectibles (official CD From Universal Records)
This CD, which does not have a LP counterpart, contains the master take of "Johnny Guitar." (So far, the Classics And Collectibles is the one and only CD project for which the master has been retrieved from Decca's vaults.)

b) Miss Wonderful (Public Domain compilation from Proper Records)
c) Why Don't You Do Right (bootleg from Joker Records)
These CDs also contain the master take, and do not have LP counterparts. Since neither company had access to Decca's vaults, both CDs must have used old LP copies to copy or 'toast' their "Johnny Guitar" tracks.

Bear also in mind the existence of three CDs and one LP which contain the movie soundtrack version of "Johnny Guitar," rather than either of this session's takes. (Details will be listed in this discography's page for soundtracks, once that page opens for viewing.)


Collectors' Corner

1. The Many Japanese Sleeves Of "Johnny Guitar" [45]
Apparently a perennial favorite in Japanese land, over the years the 45 that contains "Johnny Guitar" and "Autumn In Rome" has been released with different cover artwork there. I have tracked down five different covers, listed below as versions A, B, C, D, and E. (I would not be surprised if I were to eventually find more.)

Version A
Catalogue number Decca Ds 98. A Peggy Lee head shot is prominently featured next to a still of Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden. Both movie stars are seen lying down (perhaps in hiding during a gunfight?). Hayden on one knee. Yellow background. Connoisseurs will recognize the Peggy Lee head shot: it is a drawing based on a mid-1950s photo of Lee. (That photo, probably a publicity shot, was used for the cover of a Lee LP released by Camay Records, and also for a collectible card.)

Version B
Catalogue number Decca Ds 98. Two stills from the movie, both showing Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden. In one they are by a canteen. The other is a head shot in which Hayden is seen consoling Crawford. Green background. No Peggy Lee.

Version C
Catalogue number Decca Ds 98. One still from the movie, showing Joan Crawford (in shirt and cowboy pants) and Sterling Hayden, who is facing another actor. Blue background. Surrounding the photos, and thus functioning as ornamental frame, is the semblance of a film roll. No Peggy Lee.

Version D
Catalogue number Decca Ds 98 : As #3, but the background is blue-green. Another difference is that the chosen still is not the one seen in cover #3 but the one used for cover #1.

Version E
Catalogue number Decca D 237: Still from the movie, showing Joan Crawford, with arms crossed, looking at Sterling Hayden, guitar in hand. The background is three quarters green, one quarter red. No Peggy Lee.

Joseph J. Lilley Orchestra And Chorus (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Peggy Lee, Trudy Stevens (v)

The White Christmas Album Sessions (Cross-references)

Decca dedicated various dates to the making of Selections From Irving Berlin's White Christmas, an album 'inspired' by the 1954 Paramount movie Irving Berlin's White Christmas. Bing Crosby, the film's top star, was the main performer in three of those sessions, including this one. His other two dates took place on May 21 and September 9, 1954; neither featured Peggy Lee. There was also a session for Danny Kaye, another of the movies' stars, in which Lee was not involved either. A fifth session, for Peggy Lee sans Crosby or Kaye, took place on May 24, 1954; see additional details in the notes under that date.


Masters

1. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this April 10 date was "The Old Man / Gee, I Wish I Was Back In The Army," sung by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, without Peggy Lee.


Issues

1. Selections From Irving Berlin's White Christmas [LP] In The Music Charts
From 1945 to 1954, Billboard Magazine did not publish its album chart on a weekly basis. Besides being periodic, the chart was also very small: only 5 positions. In 1955, the chart finally became a regular biweekly feature, and the number of covered slots increased to 15.

Selections From Irving Berlin's White Christmas entered Billboard's Best-Selling Popular Albums chart during the week of January 1, 1955. It peaked at #2.

Joseph Lilley (con), Benny Carter (as), James "Jimmy" Rowles (p, v), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

The White Christmas Album Sessions (Cross-references: Film)

The songs "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me" and "Sisters" were originally written for the Paramount film Irving Berlin's White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. In the soundtrack of this cinematic musical, all four stars are heard singing. (In Vera Ellen's case, her singing was actually dubbed by Trudi Stevens.)

Taking advantage of the fact that both Crosby and Kaye were under contract, Decca decided to release its own version of the soundtrack. Titled Selections From Irving Berlin's White Christmas, the Decca album features Crosby, Kaye, and Trudi Stevens, but not Rosemary Clooney, whose record contract was with Columbia. Hence Decca and Crosby asked Peggy Lee to interpret the numbers that Clooney sings in the movie. (Meanwhile, Clooney's label had the opposite dilemma: no male stars under contract. Hence, in June 1954, Clooney wounded up recording for Columbia not only her own numbers, but also those that Crosby and Kaye sang in the film.)

Peggy Lee did not appear in the Paramount film, nor is she heard in its soundtrack. Notice that this session also includes a third song ("It's Because We're In Love") which has no relation to the movie. See also note under session dated April 10, 1954.


Songs

1. "Sisters"
In the movie soundtrack, "Sisters" is sung by Rosemary Clooney and Trudi Stevens. In Columbia's album version of the soundtrack, it is performed as a duet between Rosemary Clooney and her real-life sister, Betty Clooney.

At Decca, Peggy Lee duetted with herself, playing the roles of both titular sisters. Lee humorously gives each sibling a different personality, mainly through the use of intonation. Intermittently, the "two Lees" are even heard in unison, thanks to the technique of doubletrack taping.

Lest listeners might become confused, it is necessary to stress the fact that Decca's version of "Sisters" is sung only by Peggy Lee. Various secondary sources have wrongly asserted that Trudi Stevens is heard in the track, too (see, for instance, below, under Issues). Stevens is certainly heard in some of the album's other numbers, but not in "Sisters."


Personnel (And Non-Lee Issues)

1. Jimmy Rowles, vocalist
2. Kinda Groovy! [LP]
Peggy Lee shares vocal duties with Jimmy Rowles on "It's Because We're In Love" only. This duet appears to have been the pianist's very first vocal on record. It predates, by eight years, Rowles' one all-vocals album, Kinda Groovy!.

Made for Capitol, the Rowles album has ties to Peggy Lee, too. According to its liner notes, Lee was the person who told producer Dave Cavanaugh about the pianist's singing ability and who urged Cavanaugh to give a listen to Rowles' voice. "Who says that I can sing?," Rowles asked, probably startled by the producer's unexpected request. "Peggy Lee," answered Cavanaugh.

(n.b.: Kinda Groovy! was recorded on October 23, 24 and 26 of 1962. For the rest of the 1960s, Rowles confined his own recording activity to instrumental playing, but from the 1970s onwards he sprinkled many of his piano albums with selected vocal tracks. He's estimated to have recorded as many as 60 vocals.)

2. Joseph Lilley
Although the credit "orchestra directed by Joseph Lilley" is found in the Decca single that contains the songs "Love, You Didn't Right By Me" and "Sisters," I have my doubts about the involvement of Lilley in this particular session. It is very possible that he is credited only because those two songs are also part of the Decca album, whose others numbers he conducted. At any rate, I have circumscribed my doubts to this note. Since Lilley is listed in both the Decca single and the master file, I have entered his name in this session.


Issues

1. The Ultimate White Christmas [CD]
In Castle Pulse's compact disc The Ultimate White Christmas, this session's version of "Sisters" is wrongly called a duet sung by Peggy Lee and Trudy Stevens. As already explained above, Lee plays in song the roles of both titulat sisters.

Incidentally, this Public Domain compact disc combines Decca's Selections From Irving Berlin's White Christmas with Rosemary Clooney's equivalent material for Columbia.

2. Classics And Collectibles [CD]
3. "Sisters"
Regrettably, two of the 52 tracks in the excellent CD set Classics And Collectibles suffer from significant mastering defects. Both defects occur in doubletracked numbers for which Peggy Lee overdubbed her voice, thereby duetting with herself: "The Siamese Cat Song" and this session's "Sisters."

For each of these numbers, only one of Lee's two voices is heard in the CD. Music fills the spots where the other voice is expected to come in. Perhaps this defect may actually prove a welcome curiosity among Peggy Lee collectors who already own the correct vocals in other albums. More casual listeners in search of those two songs are advised to track down other CDs which contain them. (For additional comments about Classics And Collectibles, see also notes under session dated December 6, 1954.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), The Sy Oliver Orchestra (acc), Benny Carter (as), Laurindo Almeida (g), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Sammy Davis, Jr., Peggy Lee (v)

Cross-references (Film)

1. "The Gypsy With Fire In His Shoes"
2. The Rawhide Years
Composed by Laurindo Almeida and written by Peggy Lee, "The Gypsy With Fire In His Shoes" was featured in the Universal western The Rawhide Years, which was released in 1956. At the time of writing, Almeida was probably Lee's regular guitar player.


Personnel (And Musical Instruments)

1. Sammy Davis, Jr.
2. Dan Dailey
Sammy Davis, Jr.'s heel dancing and spoken asides on "The Gypsy With Fire In His Shoes" only. His asides are spoken in Spanish. (Davis, Jr. does not sing in this master.)

In her autobiography, Lee reports that "Dan Dailey tried to do a flamenco dance on the recording, but somehow it didn't work. Sammy Davis, Jr. came in, danced on a wooden platform, overdubbing, and this time it was perfect. Like he is."

3. Laurindo Almeida
4. Guitars
Five guitarists are known to have played in this session's master of "Love Letters." Unfortunately, their identities remain unknown. A near-certain candidate is Laurindo Almeida. He is known to have worked with Lee during her Decca years, and he shares a songwriting credit for another master from this date ("The Gypsy With Fire In His Shoes"). Hence I have tentatively included him in this session's personnel.


Arrangements

1. "Bouquet Of Blues"
The source for the "Bouquet Of Blues" arranging credit is the second edition of Ed Berger's text Benny Carter: A Life in American Music, co-written with Morroe Berger and James Patrick.

2. "Love Letters"
3. Mickey Ingalls
In addition to this arrangement by Victor Young, Peggy Lee's music sheet library contains a later one, by Mickey Ingalls.

Peggy Lee, The Mills Brothers (ldr), Sy Oliver (con), Gene DiNovi (p), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee, Donald Mills, Harry Mills, Herbert Mills, John Mills (v)

Cross-references (Photography)

1. The Mills Brothers With Peggy Lee
An extant photo from this session captures the female vocalist and the male group in the act of singing. See Robert Strom's book Miss Peggy Lee: A Career Chronicle, page 63.


Issues

1. Decca #29359 [A Holiday Single?]
Because this song were initially released on a single #29359 that came out in December (1953), I am left to wonder if "Straight Ahead" and "It Must Be So" were meant to be seasonal offerings. Albeit not holiday numbers in the strict sense of the term, they are imbued in the season's spirit of sharing, caring, and having hope. "It Must Be So" unrelentingly celebrates the joys of living and loving. The gospel-styled "Straight Ahead" is a fast and fervent hand clapper. Perhaps tellingly, "Straight Ahead" was also included in a charity benefit (a March Of Dimes campaign show) which has been preserved in a various-artists 16" ET.



Arrangements

1. Gene DiNovi
2. "Straight Ahead"
I have credited Gene DiNovi as the arranger of "Straight Ahead" because Peggy Lee kept a DiNovi arrangement of "Straight Ahead" in her music library. Since the arrangement has not been inspected and compared to this session's performance, the credit must be deemed tentative, though very likely.

3. Dave Barbour & Peggy Lee
4. "It Must Be So"
Capitol's library of music scores holds an arrangement of "It Must Be So" which is credited to Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee. That arrangement is indeed the one used for the Decca recording -- or so states a music score master list that was prepared when Capitol's collection of scores was donated to an institution.

These are altogether odd, head-scratching circumstances: the arrangement is at Capitol but the song was recorded for Decca. As a possible explanation, I am wondering if "It Must Be So" was written back in the mid- or late 1940s, when Lee was working for Capitol, and if it was attempted then but ultimately abandoned and left unrecorded until Peggy Lee went to Decca and resurrected it. (To go further into the realm of speculation, could it be that both song and arrangement were originally written for the movie Tom Thumb, which began its development in the 1940s, and for which Barbour and Lee were enlisted to compose songs?)

In short, the arranging credit for "It Must be So" should be deemed tentative.


Location

1. Source
My source for the recording location is Stella Castellucci, who remembered that "Straight Ahead" was recorded there.


Personnel

1. Stella Castellucci
2. Gene DiNovi
The participation of Stella Castellucci in this session was casually corroborated by the musician herself. I believe that I hear her harp, playing a relatively fast beat, in "Straight Ahead." Gene DiNovi was Lee's regular pianist on the road at this point in time. His participation in this session is still not fully corroborated, but I deem it highly likely. (Notice that he is also credited with one of the performances' arrangements.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), Unknown (bkv)

Songs And Songwriters

1. "Let Me Go, Devil"
2. "Al Hill"
The original title of Jeannie Lou Carson's "Let Me Go, Lover" was "Let Me Go, Devil." Under that title, it was recorded by country artist Tex Ritter.

In 1954, permission was requested from Carson for the writing of new lyrics to the melody of "Let Me Go, Devil." The man who made the request was Mitch Miller, then Artists Chief at Columbia Records. Permission was granted. Newly dressed with lyrics by an Al Hill, the song became "Let Me Go, Lover!". In reality, "Al Hill" was not a person but a blanket pseudonym for the 4 men involved in writing the new lyrics: Kay Twomey, Bernie Weisman, Fred Wise, and Mitch Miller himself. To premiere the lyrics, Miller chose a then-unknown 19-year-old discovery of his, named Joan Weber.


Cross-references (Television)

Mitch Miller convinced the producers of CBS' TV show Studio One to plug Joan Weber's recording of "Let Me Go, Lover." It was played six times during one episode of the then-popular TV series. At a time when TV was still emerging as mass-consumed media, the schlocky number's meteoric rise to the top of the charts suggested the huge potential of television as music advertisement.

A frenzy of cover versions resulted from record labels which were in a rush to compete while the number was hot. At Lee's former label (Capitol), Dean Martin was designated as the "cover boy." At Decca, Lee was asked to be the "cover girl."


Songs

1. "Let Me Go, Lover" In The Music Charts
"Let Me Go, Lover" was Peggy Lee' ninth hit for Decca Records. According to Joel Whitburn's chart estimates, the song peaked at #26 after debuting in the charts during the week of December 18, 1954. Four competing versions by up-and-coming female vocalists placed higher: Weber's chart-topper (Columbia), Teresa Brewer's (#3, Coral), Patti Page's (#8, Mercury), and Sunny Gale's (#17, RCA). Dean Martin's version (on Capitol) is not known to have charted.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Victor Young (con), Victor Young And His Singing Strings (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), Unknown (bkv)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Victor Young And His Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), The Walt Disney Chorus (bkv)

Cross-references: Film

1. Lady And The Tramp
Though long in the making, the 1955 Disney classic Lady And The Tramp began production in 1952. Enrolled to compose the film's score, Sonny Burke promptly co-enlisted Peggy Lee in her capacity as lyricist. Together, Burke and Lee wrote ten songs inspired by the movie. But Lee ended up doing a lot more. She played four of the movie's animated characters (a human, a dog, a pair of cats). Under those characters' guise, she also sang three of the Burke-Lee numbers.

At the time of this movie's premiere, Disney was strictly a film company; it had yet to launch its own record label. Hence commercial issues of Disney's music (45s, EPs, LPs) were released through arrangements with the major record companies of the time. Generally, the music was recorded in Disney's studios but its pressing and distribution was done by Capitol, Columbia, Decca, and RCA Victor. The issues bear the names of the record labels, not that of the film company.

(Disney terminated most of these deals after the creation, in 1956, of Disneyland Records -- and of Buena Vista Records, later on. Some distribution deals are still ongoing, however. For instance, Universal is the current distributor of Disney's music in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the same role has been served by EMI, owner of Capitol's catalogue.)

Not surprisingly, the music from the film Lady And The Tramp was originally (1955) released by Decca, the label that had both Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee under contract. Subsequently, the music was (re-)released by Disneyland and Buena Vista, too.


The Lady And The Tramp Sessions

Peggy Lee participated in five sessions dedicated to numbers from Lady And The Tramp. Some of those sessions aimed at recording numbers mainly for the film soundtrack, whereas others aimed at supplying additional numbers for an expanded, 12" version of Decca's original, 10" album. (That expanded version was released two years after the movie's premiere.) There was also one singles session (February 11, 1955), at which Lee recorded new versions of two songs that had been originally heard in the film's soundtrack.

Lee's five Lady And The Tramp sessions took place on December 6 and 20, 1954; February 11, 1955; December 20, 1956; and January 10, 1957. (A sixth session, dated November 5, 1955, has not been entered in this discography. For the reasons why I have omitted it, see immediately below, under Songs & Masters, point #3.)


Songs

1. "La La Lu" In The Italian Music Charts
According to tabulations made by the online project HitParadeItalia, Peggy Lee's version of "La La Lu" ranks 86th among Italy's bestselling songs of 1956. Though those tabulations were made in current times, they do rely on 1956 data. At the very least, they point to a measure of international interest in "La La Lu" during that year. The success of the movie Lady And The Tramp must account for some of the attention given to the song. There might have also been awareness of -- or interest in -- Lee's singing, because two other singles of hers had enjoyed chart action during the previous year. (See sessions dated March 1, 1954 and January 19, 1955.) Meanwhile, in the United States, "La La Lu" did not make the charts.


Masters

1. Location Of The Masters
The master tapes for this and all Lady And The Tramp sessions are kept in the vaults at Universal, current owner of the Decca catalogue. (Or rather, they were kept in there, until a devastating fire in 2008 destroyed an untold portion of Universal's film and music tape library. Of the entire contents, a portion had already digitally safeguarded and another portion survived in dupes, but there must have also been a portion that is now lost forever.)

Presumably, Disney also keeps copies of these master tapes -- or at least, it must keep edited versions of the Peggy Lee masters that were used in the film soundtrack ("La La Lu," "He's A Tramp," "The Siamese Cat Song"). See also note about masters, multitracking and editing, under session dated December 20, 1954.

2. "Peace On Earth/Silent Night"
In master L 8041, the Burke-Lee composition "Peace On Earth" and the holiday classic "Silent Night" are performed together, as a conceptually clever medley. The first chorus of "Silent Night" is interspersed amidst single lines from "Peace On Earth." The meter of "Silent Night" has also undergone a suitable modification from its original 6/8 to 4/4. Lee is backed by the so-called Walt Disney Chorus, which takes over some of the lines, but she does sing lyrics from both songs.

3. "La La Lu"
"La La Lu" exists in two masters, L 8042 and number 87455. The latter is an edited, shortened version of the former.

The longer master (L 8042) is the one heard in the original Decca LP. The version heard in the movie is, on the other hand, the edit. The 78 and 45 issues use the edit, too. Since the original master clocks in at over four minutes, it must have been deemed unsuitable for release on single.

Besides their respective timings, the original and its edit have other differences, such as a musical interlude that is present in the master, absent in the edit. The vocal coda also differs. In the master, Peggy Lee finishes with the spoken line "good night, little star sweeper." In the edit, she instead utters the line "there now, little star sleeper, dream on."

Aside from the aforementioned differences, masters L 8042 and 87455 seem to contain the exact same vocal.

In Decca's master files, both versions are given the same date, yet a different location. The 4:10 version is found among Decca's LA masters; the edit among the label's NY masters.

Despite the files' assignation of the same date in both cases, I find it likelier that the edit was made at a different time, possibly in 1955 rather than in 1954. Pointing to that year is the positioning of the edit in the New York files: between masters that are dated February 15, 1955 and February 16, 1955. (n.b.: Those February 15 and February 16 masters are not by Lee, but by other Decca artists.)

Perhaps the edit was made as part of the final preparations for the release of the movie, which premiered in New York on June 23, 1955. As previously mentioned, an edit of "La La Lu" is heard in the movie, but that statement needs further fine-tuning. The movie features not exactly the edit under discussion, but rather a more severe edit, which further cuts the original master's timing (4:10) from 2:57 to 1:34.

4. "What Is A Baby?"
According to Decca's files, "What Is A Baby?" exists in two masters, L 8043 and number 88894. I have not listened to the latter, which I am assuming to be an edited version.

[My handling of master #88894 is highly subjective and, therefore, subject to change. I believe it to be an edit primarily because of its similarities with master #87455 ("La La Lu"), which is clearly identified as an edit in the files. However, the files do not make a similar identification in the case of "What Is A Baby?".]

[I have also taken liberties with the sessioning of master #88894, by incorporating to this session. Decca's files list it not on this session but under a November 7, 1955 date. By including both the original master and the presumed edit in the same session, I'm just duplicating the procedure that the Decca files followed for "La La Lu." It also worth mentioning that the only master listed under the November 7, 1955 date is "What Is A Baby?" The absence of any other titles
further arises suspicions that #88894 is a special case.]

If we are truly dealing with an edit, it could have been intended for release on a single. Indeed, master L 8043 would have been too long to fit in a 45 or 78. (If this hypothetical single was really scheduled, plans must have been abandoned. See below, under notes about issues, point #1.)

Alternatively, the edit could have been intended for inclusion in the film's soundtrack. As a matter of fact, the movie does featured only a short, 8-bar version of "What Is A Baby?". (Again, a similar case to "La La Lu.")

Adding to the mysteries about master #88894 is its physical location. Before the fire at Universal, efforts to find any traces of it in Decca's vaults proved fruitless. Still further, there is a secondary source that lists it not among New York but among Los Angeles masters.


Personnel

1. The Walt Disney Chorus
The chorus performs on "Peace On Earth/Silent Night" only.


Issues

1. Decca #38005 [Single]
This mysterious single is not listed in Peggy Lee's session files, nor have I ever come across it. My information about its existence comes instead from two other sources: Michel Ruppli's The Decca Labels: A Discography and Charles Garrod's Decca New York Masters, Volume 7 (8700-8999). Garrod states that this master was "not used" -- i.e., not issued at all.

2. Decca #29433 [Single]
On one side of this single, Victor Young And His Singing Strings play "The Medic." The song on the flip side is "Bella Notte," its performer unknown to me. Since I have not listened to Decca #29433, I am only assuming that both sides are instrumentals by Victor Young and that no vocal by Peggy Lee is included.

3. Classics And Collectibles [CD]
Although the excellent 2-CD set Classics And Collectibles officially contains 52 tracks, some early pressings feature only 50. Missing are "Bella Notte" and the medley of "Peace On Earth/Silent Night." Prospective buyers of the CD are advised to ask vendors about the number of tracks in the copies for sale. (Also worth noting: all pressings of the set contain a mixing defect that affects two tracks, "The Siamese Cat Song" and "Sisters." For details about that defect, see notes about Issues under the sessions dated May 24, 1954 and December 6, 1954.)


Arrangements

1. Marty Paich
Marty Paich might have been involved in the arranging and playing of some of these songs. According to the biographical account in Paich's website (run by his estate), "[a]fter finishing his formal studies, Paich took a series of jobs in the Los Angeles music and recording industry. These included arranging (and playing) the score for the Disney Studio's full length cartoon film The Lady and The Tramp [sic], working as accompanist for vocalist Peggy Lee" ... Although the choice of sequencing in that write-up might suggest that the jobs for Lady And The Tramp and for Peggy Lee were separate events, they are likelier to have gone hand in hand. Paich might have owed his involvement in the score to the fact that Lee was asked to participate, and would have brought him in because he was her pianist at the time. (Notice, however, that these comments are speculative. I will be researching thie point more deeply in months to come, and will hopefully find a definitive answer on the matter then.)


Acknowledgments

I want to especially thank two fellow fans of Peggy Lee, Lucas Tuinstra and Steve Dodd, for the invaluable help that they provided during my research of the Lady And The Tramp sessions. In addition to discussing those sessions with me, Lucas taped various versions of each song in succession, so that I could more easily compare them. Steve Dodd clarified some significant details pertaining to the issues of "He's A Tramp" and "The Siamese Cat Song."

Oliver Wallace (con), Unknown (b, d, cym), Sonny Burke (p, chi, mar), Peggy Lee (gng, bel, v), The Mellomen's Bill Lee, The Mellomen's Thurl Ravenscroft, The Mellomen's Max Smith, The Mellomen's Bob Stevens (bkv)

The Lady And The Tramp Sessions (Cross-references)

1. Sessions
This was the second of five Peggy Lee dates dedicated to songs written for the Disney movie Lady And The Tramp. A list of the other dates can be found under the previous session, dated December 6, 1954.

2. Other Decca Versions Of "He's A Tramp" And "The Siamese Cat Song"
Peggy Lee re-recorded this date's songs on February 7, 1955 and Decca released the newer recordings on a single. See under that 1955 date, where I discuss some differences between this session's vocals and the ones issued by Decca.


Personnel

1. Oliver Wallace And Cast
Credited as this date's leader is conductor Oliver Wallace. The session was actually shared by the members of the Lady And The Tramp cast, headed by Wallace.

Decca's master files also list Wallace as sharing vocal duties with Peggy Lee in "The Siamese Cat Song," but no such Wallace vocal has been located in either the issues or the movie's soundtrack. In all versions, the only voice who sings the parts of both cats is Lee's. (Perhaps the files point to an original plan to have Wallace sing one of the roles -- a plan later discarded?)

2. The Disney Chorus And Orchestra
Decca's files also indicate that The Orchestra accompanies the cast on all of this session's masters. Nevertheless, no orchestra is audible in Peggy Lee's numbers. I have thus abstained from including The Orchestra as part of the personnel of Lee's masters.

3. The Mellomen/The Pound Hounds
In Decca's files, The Mellomen are not identified by their stage name, but are instead billed as The Pound Hounds, which is a reference to the animated characters whose roles the men sing in the movie. This session's edition of The Mellomen featured Bill Lee, Thurl Ravenscroft, Max Smith, and Bob Stevens. They perform on "He's A Tramp" only, not on "The Siamese Cat Song."


Musical Instruments

1. "He's A Tramp"
"He's A Tramp" features unknown rhythm accompaniment, and also cymbals.

2. "The Siamese Cat Song"
"The Siamese Cat Song" features gong, bells, chimes, and marimba, borrowed from Disney's sound effects department. Peggy Lee and Sonny Burke are seen playing those instruments in the show Walt Disney's Cavalcade Of Song, televised in 1955. The TV show gave viewers a recreation of the recording session. (See also page for Television Broadcasts, once it opens for viewing.)


Masters

1. "He's A Tramp": Decca's 2:10 Variant
In the film soundtrack of the movie Lady And The Tramp, the song "He's A Tramp" clocks in at 1 minute and 35 seconds. Yet it lasts 2 minutes and 10 seconds in Decca's original album release of the soundtrack (Ed 728). The longer duration is the result of duplication and splicing: during the last minute of the album version, the same bridge and the same last verse (from the first minute and 35 seconds of the song) is heard for a second time. In other words, the exact same performance is heard in the two "He's A Tramp" masters listed in this session, but in the longer master the performance has been duplicated.

2. Multitracking And Editing
This session's recordings of "He's A Tramp" and "The Siamese Cat Song" are the ones heard in the movie soundtrack of Lady And The Tramp (and in the Decca LP Songs From Walt Disney's Lady And The Tramp). In his notes for Walt Disney CD #60951, Randy Thornton explains that these are multi-track recordings: the various tracks or components (vocal, chorus, sound effects, music cues) exist separately from one another at Disney's reel library. Hence engineers and producers of Disney records have the option of excluding any of those components, if so inclined. Various components have indeed been edited out from a few LP and CD tracks. For instance, the spoken line "what a dog!," which the movie character Peg utters twice as she starts singing "He's A Tramp," is heard only once in the above-listed EMI and Disky CDs. (It is heard twice in the Disney CD.) Those EMI and Disky discs have also omitted the spoken utterances made -- right after Peg's aforementioned exclamations -- by one of the Pound Hounds ("Tell us about it, Peg!" "Peg used to be in the dog and pony follies"). The dog's utterances have been kept intact, on the other hand, in issues that contain the longer, 2:10 version of "He's A Tramp."

3. Overdubbing
To sing the role of the two felines in "The Siamese Cat Song," Lee overdubbed her own voice one fifth apart. In the aforementioned TV show Walt Disney's Cavalcade Of Song, she re-enacts the process with the help of two home recorders.

4. Non-Lee Masters
Three of this session's five masters did not include Peggy Lee. Master #87266 ("Lady") is an instrumental featuring The Walt Disney Studio Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Oliver Wallace. George Givot sings "Bella Notte And Finale" on master #87267. The Mellomen's canine version of "Home, Sweet Home" (in which they bark the melody all the way through) can be found in master #87269.


Issues

1. "The Siamese Cat Song" In Stereo
2. "He's A Tramp In 'Stereo'
3. Walt Disney's Lady And The Tramp [Disney CD]
4. [Various Artists] Disney's Lady And The Tramp And Friends [Disney CD]
5. The Very Best Of Peggy Lee [EMI CD]
6. Walt Disney's Lady And The Tramp [Buena Vista LP]
7. {He's A Tramp / Home, Sweet Home} [Buena Vista 45]

The Lady and the Tramp soundtrack sessions were recorded in mono only. However, a stereo version of "The Siamese Cat Song" was newly created in 1997 by Randy Thornton, producer of the CD Walt Disney's Lady And The Tramp. Once Thornton discovered that the song's two feline vocals had been recorded in different tapes, he was able to create a stereo effect by keeping the vocals separate.

Thornton's stereo tracks are also heard in the EMI CD The Very Best Of Peggy Lee and in the compilation CD Disney's Lady And The Tramp And Friends.

Issues on Disney's Buena Vista label are supposedly in stereo as well, but those are in reality 'fake' or mock stereo releases.

8. Lady And The Tramp [Disneyland LP Dq 1231]
9. Walt Disney Presents The Story And Songs From Lady And The Tramp (Disneyland LP #3917; Includes 12-page color booklet)
10. Walt Disney's Lady And The Tramp ... Plus Walt Disney's Mr. Toad And Rob Roy [Capitol LP J 3260]

Contrary to what some sources suggest, the three LPs that I just listed do not feature Peggy Lee on vocals. All three do contain songs from the movie, but they are sung by singers other than Lee: Teri York along with Bob Grabeau (Dq 1231), Ginny Tyler (3917), and in the case of the Capitol LP, by an unidentified vocalist.

11. Two Versions Of Decca #29427 [Single]
For specifics about this particular topic, see Masters And Isues, note #2, under session dated February 11, 1955.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Alfred Newman (con), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

Cross-references (Film)

1. The Racers
"I Belong To You" was written for the 20th Century Fox film The Racers (1955). For more details, consult this discography's film page, once it is finished and available for viewing.


Songs

1. "I Belong To You" In The Italian Music Charts
According to tabulations made by the HitParadeItalia online project, Peggy Lee's version of "I Belong To You" ranks 83rd among the bestselling songs of 1955 in Italy. Though made in current times, these tabulations rely on 1955 data, and are thus indicative of a measure of interest in Lee's recording at the time. The inclusion of "You Belong To Me" in the aforementioned film soundtrack must have contributed to requests for Lee's performance. Another contributing factor: the vocalist's own success with another song that also made the Italian charts. (See session dated March 1, 1954.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Tom Mack (pdr), Gene DiNovi (hps), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

Sea Shells

1. Genesis Of The Album
The following quote comes from an article titled "John Whitcomb Visits Peggy Lee," which Cosmopolitan magazine published in February 1955: One day, Peggy sat on a sofa in her California house, a taxi waiting outside, airline tickets to Boston in her purse. The taxi honked, but Peggy couldn’t get up. "There I sat," she says, "mink coat on, all ready to go. My musicians were on the way. We had fifty thousand dollars worth of nightclub bookings, beginning in Boston. And me, I couldn’t hoist myself off that sofa." She giggled. "My secretary had left. She had to stop in Chicago to get her fur coat out of storage. Well, when the doctor came, he took one look at me and said I’d had it. Absolute rest, or else, he said. I spent four months just lying in the desert, recharging the old batteries." Whitcomb continues: I met Peggy shortly after her return from the desert. She was already at work on Lady and the Tramp. She had moved into an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard, glad to be rid of her big house in Bel Air ... She looked around the small apartment, at the grand piano flanking a record player and a harp (Peggy can’t play one, but she’s crazy about harps).

Lee's resting period was probably one of the main inspirations for Sea Shells, an album which was begun during the same month in which the aforementioned Cosmopolitan interview was published. Set to harp and harpsichord, the evocative album consists of Chinese poems, folk airs and other unorthodox pieces, all of them delivered in a relaxed, gentle and lyrical manner.

2. The Album Sessions
In Decca's official paperwork, the Sea Shells material is divided into five sessions:

Peggy Lee session, masters L8158 to L8161 (recorded on February 7, 1955)
Nickie [sic] Barbour session, master L8162 (recorded on February 7, 1955)
Stella Castellucci session, masters L8163 to L8165 (recorded on February 7, 1955)
Peggy Lee session, masters L8166 to L8170 (recorded on February 7, 1955)
Peggy Lee session, masters L8271 to L8275 (recorded on March 31, 1955)

For further specifics on masters L8162 to L8170, see notes under the next session.

3. The Release Of The Original Album
Curiously, Decca did not see fit to release Sea Shells right away. Four years elapsed before the album finally came out, in June 1958. By that time, Peggy Lee had already been back with Capitol for two years. (Her Capitol single "Fever" was also issued in June 1958.)

Furthermore, no singles from the Sea Shells sessions came out at the time. Only many years later did one of the songs turn up on a single. In 1982, MCA issued a 45 that included "I Don't Want To Play In Your Back Yard" (recorded during the next session). The 45 in question was released in England only.


Masters & Literary Sources

1. Chinese Love Poems From Most Ancient To Modern Times
2. Translators
Of the above listed performances, "The Fisherman," "Autumn Evening," "Going Rowing," "Like The Moon," and "The Musicians" are actually poems which Peggy Lee does not sing, but recites. For ease of reference, I have listed each poem separately, but in Decca's master files they are actually listed together, as medleys. The files identify master L 8159 as "Chinese Love Poems, Part 1" and master L 8160 as "Chinese Love Poems, Part 2." Part 1 consists of "The Fisherman" and "Autumn Evening." Part 2 contains the other poems.

Those poetic pieces were culled from the book Chinese Love Poems From Most Ancient To Modern Times (Peter Pauper Press, 1942). They were originally written by Oriental authors born between the seventh and ninth centuries. They are not identified in Decca's original LP or in subsequent albums, but, after doing some research and after inspecting a copy of the book, I have entered their names in this discography (i.e., Li Po, Tu Fu, Tu Mu, and Wu-Hao).

British and American translators from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries rendered the poems into English. "Like The Moon" and "Going Rowing" were both translated by Gertrude Laughlin Joerissen. "The Fisherman" was translated by Peter Rudolph. "Autumn Evening" was possibly translated by Soame Jennings. "The Musicians" is actually the book's epigraph, and bears no title, author, or translator.

As for this session's two other vocals ("The Riddle Song," "Sea Fever"), they are not Chinese poems but folk-oriented numbers of American origin, as described in more detail below.

3. Music Of Many Lands And Peoples
4. "Sea Fever"
During the preparation for the Sea Shells sessions, Peggy Lee's manager Ed Kelly found for her a book entitled Music Of Many Lands And Peoples, which Silver, Burdett and Company had originally published in 1932. This is an extensive text (268 pages) that includes both lyrics and music. Although Peggy Lee picked only one song from the book, it was an important one: "Sea Fever," the number that opens Sea Shells and which presumably inspired the album's title as well. My thanks to Stella Castellucci for telling me about the book and about how Lee became acquainted with it.


Songs, Songwriters, And Cross-references (Television)

1. "The Riddle Song"
A folk lullaby of Irish origin, "The Riddle Song" is believed to be over 300 years old. In America, it probably became better known thanks to a version heard in the 1949 movie The Walking Hills. That film version was sung by blues & folk artist Josh White.

2. "Sea Fever"
3. Eleanor Alletta Chaffee
4. Friedrich Silcher
5. Jane Bowers
In Decca's original Sea Shells issue (Dl 8591), the song "Sea Fever" bears no songwriter credits. No later issues feature a credit, either.

The song's authors remained unknown to me until June 2010, when Stella Castellucci kindly revealed that their names can be found in Music Of Many Lands And Peoples, the book that was one of Lee's sources for these Sea Shells sessions. American author Eleanor Alletta Chaffee wrote poems and children's stories which were frequently published in national magazines during the first half of the twentieth century. German composer Friedrich Silcher is best-known for his contributions to the craft of choir singing, and also for setting to music folk songs and poems such as Heinrich Heine's "Die Lorelei". Since Silcher (1789-1860) lived centuries earlier than Chaffee, "Sea Fever" was not an actual collaboration between the two. Most probably, the song was originally conceived as a lyrical poem, with no music attached to it. When the poem was picked for inclusion in the 1932 songbook, Chaffee or the editors (McConathy, Beattie & Morgan) must have searched for a suitable piece of music to accompany the lyrics.

In 1960, The Kingston Trio recorded a version of "Sea Fever" that remained unreleased until its inclusion in their set The Capitol Years (1995). The Trio sings the same lyrics as Lee, but there is more to their version: a short verse, not found in Lee's recording, which they repeat often ("sea fever my mother called it, see fever she knew that I had").

The Kingston Trio's version is credited not to Chaffee and Silcher but to Jane Bowers. A frequent writer of material for the Trio, Ms. Bowers presumably first heard the song in Lee's Sea Shells LP (released in 1958) and then proceeded to write the additional refrain for the Trio version that was recorded in 1960. Since Lee's LP credited "Sea Fever" to no one, Bowers and Capitol might have assumed it to be an anonymous, traditional folk song.

6. "The Musicians" [Television]
As previously noted, "The Musicians" serves as the epigraph of the book from which Peggy Lee selected the Chinese poems recorded during this session. Unfortunately, the book does not identify the author of this short poem. So far, I have not come across any source that reveals who he or she was. Help in this pursuit would be appreciated.

Peggy Lee also recited "The Musicians" on television, at the end of a 1967 special. (Consult this discography's TV page, once it is available for viewing.)

7. "Autumn Evening"
Tu Mu's authorship of this poem should be deemed tentative.


Location

There have been some doubts about the exact locale in which the Sea Shells sessions were recorded. The liner notes of the MCA CD Black Coffee/Sea Shells state that "[t]hese titles are unaccounted for in the Los Angeles sessions and may have been recorded elsewhere."

For his part, the late Peggy Lee bio-discographer Ron Towe asserted that the album was "put together in Peggy's recording studio at home." Since Lee changed residences around this time, it is not clear which home that would be. In the mid-1950s, Lee sold the house that she then owned in Bel Air, and temporarily moved to an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard. (The move is mentioned in the above-quoted interview from a Cosmopolitan issue published in February 1955. Notice that the interviewer reports the conspicuous presence of a harp and a piano at the Wilshire Boulevard apartment.) But soon thereafter, in April 1955, Lee was living in "an eight-room contemporary-style house atop a mountain overlooking Beverly Hills," according to another article, published by Redbook.

There is a third and more reliable source of information on this matter: harp player Stella Castellucci, who was therefore a main presence at the actual sessions. Castellucci recalled in 2008 that the dates took place in Decca's studios. (As for Towe's assertion that the album was recorded at Lee's home, perhaps he was referring not to the actual recording sessions, but to rehearsals for them.)

Peggy Lee (ldr), Tom Mack (pdr), Gene DiNovi (hps), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

The Sea Shells Album Sessions (Cross-references)

1. A Date With Stella Castellucci And Gene DiNovi
2. A Date With Nicki Barbour
The sessions that resulted in the album Sea Shells took place on February 7, 1955 and March 31, 1955. During the first day, four sessions were actually held, of this this one is the fourth. Details about the first session have already been given above, too. The second February 7 session consisted of only one master, recorded by Peggy Lee's daughter Nicki Barbour. The third session comprised three masters, all of them instrumentals interpreted by Stella Castellucci. (Those three instrumentals were included in Lee's album Sea Shells, too. Further details can be found below, under Masters.)

Since the second and third February 7 sessions did not include Peggy Lee vocals, I have not entered them in this discography's database, but further details about them can be found in subsequent paragraphs.


Songs And Songwriters

1. "The Legend Of The Well"
2. The Ted Heath Orchestra
"The Legend Of The Well" was authored by two members of The Ted Heath Orchestra, arguably the most commercially successful of the British big bands. The lyrics were written by Heath's wife Frances Ash, who also used the professional name Moira Heath. Officially credited with the melody is Heath's arranger, Laurie Johnson, who in later years went on to compose themes for film and TV shows such as The Avengers and Dr. Strangelove. Some sources also credit Ted Heath among the songwriters, but his name does not appear in the music sheet.

Here is a transcription of the Moira Heath lyric, courtesy of David Torresen: "I threw a pebble into the well and closed my eyes to pray / That a lonely child, through the magic spell, would find happiness that day. / And as the water circled wide, a tear fell from above / And standing there beside me was a child in search of love. / I knew a moment of ecstasy, as smiling through his tears, / He held out his arms, beseeching me to love him through the years. / I took his hand in mine and gently kissed his hair. / I knew thrill divine; then he suddenly wasn't there. / All through the years hereafter I have loved that child. Who can tell / If the music I hear is laughter each time I throw a pebble in the well."


Masters

1. "The Legend Of The Well"
All the songs that Peggy Lee recorded for Decca have been released, with one exception: "The Legend Of The Well" has never made an appearance on 78, 45, LP or CD.

In 2008, when harp player Stella Castellucci was asked about "The Legend Of The Well," she clearly remembered loving the song during its rehearsal but had no recollection of having actually recorded it thereafter. Castellucci's response raises the possibility that, although a master number was reserved and entered in Decca's files, Lee and company could have ultimately abandoned their plans to record "The Legend Of The Well."

2. Non-Lee Masters
As previously mentioned, the February 7 Sea Shells sessions included a performance by Nicki Lee Barbour, titled "Au Clair De La Lune" and identified as master L 8162. Since it has never been issued, I do not know if it is a vocal or an instrumental.

Also recorded during the February 7 Sea Shells sessions were these instrumentals:

a) Master L 8163, "Chaconde" ("Le Bon Petit Roi D'Yvetot")
b) Master L 8164, "Greensleeves / The Happy Monks"
c) Master L 8165, "The Maid With The Flaxen Hair" ("La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin")

All three instrumentals were performed by Stella Castellucci on harp, with Gene DiNovi on harpsichord in some of the numbers.

For the original LP (Dl 8591), Decca split master L 8164 into two tracks (#4 and #6). All later issues have followed suit: this medley has never been issued as an unity.

A second, hitherto unissued version of the same medley was recorded during the next Sea Shells session, dated March 31, 1955.


Arrangements And Compositions

1. Peggy Lee
2. "Greensleeves / The Happy Monks"
Although the medley "Greensleeves / The Happy Monks" features no singing from Peggy Lee, she still had a prominent role in its making. Lee is credited as the arranger of the medley's first song ("Greensleeves") and as the composer of its second song ("The Happy Monks").

2. Marty Paich
Credit to Marty Paich for the arrangement of "The Legend Of The Well" is based on the fact that a Paich score for that song was kept by Peggy Lee in her music sheet library. However, the credit must be deemed tentative: due to the loss or non-existence of the Decca master, there is no easy way to corroborate that Paich's arrangement was used at the auctual session.

3. Sonny Burke
4. Head Arrangements
Stella Castellucci is my source for the arranging credits to Sonny Burke in this session and in the one dated March 31, 1955. Castellucci also remembers that no charts were written for any of the other numbers that were released in the album Sea Shells.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sonny Burke, Gordon Jenkins, Sy Oliver (con), Unknown (acc), Peggy Lee (v)

The Lady And The Tramp Sessions (Cross-references)

1. A Lady And The Tramp Semi-Session
This was the third of five Peggy Lee sessions dedicated to songs written for the Disney movie Lady And The Tramp. The others: December 6 and 20, 1954; December 20, 1956; and January 10, 1957.

Actually, this date was only partially dedicated to material from the aforementioned movie: two of the session's masters are related to the film, and two aren't. Strictly speaking, this was a singles session.


Songs

1. "Ooh, That Kiss"
2. Ella Fitzgerald
Originally written in 4/4, "Ooh, That Kiss" was turned into a cha cha number by Peggy Lee and company. The recording earned a "rave review" from Ella Fitzgerald when it was played for her during a 1955 Down Beat MagazineBlindfold Test: "Five stars!!! I heard this record before in Detroit, and when I heard it, I tried to buy it right away. I think it's the cutest thing; the beat, the arrangement, and the way Peggy sings it. Of course, Peggy is something to me like Jeri Southern. Just certain songs they sing, they get that sexy feeling in their singing. This seems like it was just written for her. No complaints at all."

2. "He's A Tramp": The Two Versions On Decca Records
This singles version of "He's A Tramp" substantially differs from the album version recorded on December 20, 1954. The vocalist and her musicians tackle the song in a more adult-oriented manner. No spoken comments, no barks and no howls are included.

3. "The Siamese Cat Song": The Two Versions On Decca Records
Each Decca version of "The Siamese Cat Song" contains a few lyrics that that were not included in the other version. Exclusive to this session's version are choruses about baked pies and about a bird "living in [a] wire house." A chorus about a "baby crying" and about milk to be stolen is heard only in the earlier performance (December 20, 1954). Shared by both the 1954 and the 1955 masters are a chorus about a fish "swimming 'round and round" and also the introductory chorus -- although a couple of lines differ slightly.


Personnel (Conductors)

1. Sy Oliver
2. Gordon Jenkins
3. Sonny Burke
Oddly, my sources list three conductors for this session.

According to Decca's master files, Sy Oliver is the conductor of "Oh! No!" The files do not identify the other songs' conductor(s).

The notes of the MCA issue Perfect-Lee credit Gordon Jenkins with conducting "Ooh, That Kiss."

Meanwhile, the notes of both The Best Of Peggy Lee (Decca LP 7164) and The Best Of The Decca Years (MCA CD 11571) list Sonny Burke as the conductor of "He's A Tramp" and "The Siamese Cat Song." He is also credited in Decca's 45 single 9 29427 ("The Siamese Cat Song" / He's A Tramp").

I am inclined to believe that Burke and Oliver were present at the session, and that Jenkins was not. In my estimation, Burke would have been present mainly to play and preside over the songs that he co-wrote with Lee. Being Decca's in-studio conductor, and being also a brass player, Oliver would be a likelier candidate to have presided over the making of the brassier numbers -- "Oh! No!" and "Ooh, That Kiss." Nevertheless, lack of any conclusive information has led me to include all three men in this session's credits. For another case in which three conductors are curiously attached to one date, see notes under session dated September 14, 1953.


Arrangements

1. "He's A Tramp"
2. Billy May
Peggy Lee's sheet music library includes an arrangement of "He's A Tramp." That arrangement was written by Billy May. It is not known, however, if May's arrangement is the same one used for this session's version of the song.


Masters And Issues

1. The 1954 Masters Versus The 1955 Masters Of "He's A Tramp" And "The Siamese Cat Song"
In addition to this session's versions of "He's A Tramp" and "The Siamese Cat Song" (recorded for release on a Decca single), Peggy Lee did versions of these same songs for inclusion in the film soundtrack of Lady And The Tramp and on Decca's album of the same title. (Naturally, and as already discussed above, the soundtrack versions were recorded first on December 20, 1954.)

Generally, the 1954 masters are the ones that can be found in Decca LP issues, especially those which have an early date or which are reissues of the original Decca LP (Songs From Walt Disney's Lady And The Tramp). The 1954 masters also turn up on most issues with a Disney logo, independently of whether they are 45s, LPs or CDs. (There are exceptions, however. Issues on Disney's Buena Vista label use the 1955 masters instead.)

On the other hand, the 1955 masters can be found in Decca singles (45s, 78s), in most Decca CDs, and in some Decca LPs, especially those which are compilations.

2. Two Versions Of Decca #29427 [Single]
Oddly, Decca single #29427 was issued in two versions. One version (#2) features this date's re-recordings of "He's A Tramp" and "The Siamese Cat Song." The other version (#1) contains the original recordings (1954). Visually, the two versions can be told apart by the personnel credited on the physical label of the single. Version #2 credits an orchestra directed by Sonny Burke. Version #1 identifies "He' A Tramp" as a vocal with 'The Pound Hounds" and rhythm accompaniment, the flip side as a vocal with Oliver Wallace & The Disney Studio Orchestra. (I have not actually seen copies of version #1, except online. The online photos show only the "He's A Tramp" side of the single. My information about the "Siamese Cat Song" side is based on word of mouth.) My thanks to the late Ron Towe, in whose discography I first read about this oddity, and to Jim Pierson, for confirming that both versions do exist.

3. Discographical Errors In Decca's Files (And In Some MCA CDs)
Some CDs released by MCA and its affiliates make inaccurate statements about the versions of "He's A Tramp" and "The Siamese Cat Song" which they contain. Those CDs identify the songs as being "from the movie Lady And The Tramp" and give them the date of the soundtrack versions (1954); however, aural inspection proves that the included versions are the ones from this 1955 session. The producers of those CDs were probably relying on the data found in Decca's master file. Unfortunately, the files contain erroneous information about the songs in question. Specifically, there is misidentification of the issues in which each version appears. To wit:

- The files incorrectly list single #29427 under the 1954 masters. Under this session's version of "He's A Tramp," the single is not listed. (Yet the single is correctly listed under this session's "The Siamese Cat Song" -- thus duplicated. )

- Although MCA LP #1632 (The Best Of Peggy Lee) is correctly listed under the 1955 version of "The Siamese Cat Song," it is incorrectly listed under the 1954 version of "He's A Tramp."

- Brunswick LP #8355 (the British version of Decca LP Dl 5557) is listed under both masters of "He's A Tramp." In reality, the Brunswick album contains only the 1954 master. (As for "The Siamese Cat Song," Brunswick LP #8355 is correctly listed under the 1954 master.)

In this discography, I have corrected all three errors found in the Decca files.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Tom Mack (pdr), Gene DiNovi (hps), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Peggy Lee (v)

The Sea Shells Album Sessions

Dates: February 7 and March 31, 1955. For further details, see notes under February 7 sessions.


Songs And Songwriters

1. "The Wearing Of The Green"
"The Wearing Of The Green" is an Irish ballad that has been in circulation since the early nineteenth century. A later, revised and well-known treatment by playwright Dion Boucicault exists, but Peggy Lee sings the more traditional version.


Masters

1. Non-Lee Masters
Also recorded during this session was master L 8272, which is a second version of "Greensleeves / The Happy Monks," an instrumental medley that Stella Castellucci and Gene DiNovi had previously recorded on February 7, 1955 (master L 8164). Lee is credited with the arrangement of "Greensleeves" and with the composition of "The Happy Monks."


Dating And Issues

1. Black Coffee/Sea Shells [CD]
The notes of the CD twofer Black Coffee/Sea Shells (MCA #19363) wrongly state that the Sea Shells sessions took place in 1956, rather than in 1955.

Milt Gabler (pdr), Harold "Hal" Mooney (con), Julian "Matty" Matlock (cl), Eddie Miller (ts), Dick Cathcart (t), Dick McDonough (g), Nick Fatool (d), Peggy Lee (v), Unknown (bkv)

The Pete Kelly's Blues Album Sessions

Peggy Lee's May 6 and May 10, 1955 sessions were dedicated to songs from the Warner Brothers' film Pete Kelly's Blues. Both Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald appeared in the movie and sang in its soundtrack. Taking advantage of the fact that both were also under their contract at the time, Decca released an album titled Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues which contains numbers sung (separately) by the two vocalists. Nine of the interpretations are by Lee, three by Fitzgerald. Aside from some exceptions that will be noted below, the album contains fresh versions of the soundtrack's songs, rather than the soundtrack versions themselves.

In the film, Peggy Lee played a dramatic role that earned her a Film Critics award and a Movie Audience award. She also received an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress. For further details, see not only notes under these May 1955 sessions but also the corresponding notes in this discography's page for movie soundtrack performances, once it opens for viewing.


Masters And Cross-references (Film)

1. 'Typecasting'
For the film Pete Kelly's Blues, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee were cast as vocalists. Although both of their roles are actually dramatic parts with a fair amount of dialogue, the true-to-life casting also allows them to sing during a few pertinent scenes.

2. Non Lee Masters By Ella Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald's film numbers are "Pete Kelly's Blues," "Ella Hums The Blues," and "Hard-hearted Hannah."

The Decca album Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues contains those exact same Fitzgerald soundtracks. In his book Ella Fitzgerald: An Annotated Discography, J. Wilfred Johnson corroborates that the album tracks are indeed "the actual soundtrack recordings, the right of which were purchased from Warner Brothers." In Stuart Nicholson's Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography Of The First Lady Of Jazz, producer Milt Gabler is quoted on the matter, too: "we took [Ella's] numbers off a tape. They were from Pete Kelly's Blues out of L.A. ... We got the tape and put them out from that."

According to Decca's master files, all three Ella Fitzgerald performances were recorded on May 3, 1955. They were included not only in the LP Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues but also in a separate Fitzgerald EP titled (Decca Ed 2269).

2. Peggy Lee's Masters: Film Soundtrack Versus Decca Album
Lee's film numbers are "Sing A Rainbow," "Somebody Loves Me," "He Needs Me" and "Sugar." Those four titles are also found in the Decca LP.

If Ella Fitzgerald's masters were taken from the movie soundtrack's tapes, how about Lee's output? Decca's files do not clarify the matter, but an aural comparison does: Lee's soundtrack versions are different from those heard in the Decca album. Heard when her character has gone mad and regressed into childhood, Peggy Lee's soundtrack version of "Sing A Rainbow" is clearly different from the beautifully phrased Decca recording. Ditto for "Somebody Loves Me," which her movie character sings briefly and with a slur, while in an intoxicated state. (Incidentally, the film runs those two songs together, seemingly editing parts of them. Thus, unlike the album's versions, the soundtrack versions are not featured in their entirety.) As for Lee's two other numbers, their respective Decca and soundtrack versions may sound superficially similar, but close listening reveals differences in tone and vocal texture.

The Decca album also includes five more numbers sung by Lee. All five of them are featured in the movie, but as instrumentals: "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry?," "I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now," "Oh, Didn't He Ramble," "I Never Knew," and "Bye Bye Blackbird."

In conclusion, five of Lee's nine Decca album masters are studio versions of the movie's instrumentals, and four are new versions of the songs that she does on film. Only Ella Fitzgerald's three album masters are the same ones heard in the movie.


Personnel And Cross-references (Film)

1. The Lucky Seven
2. Matty Matlock
3. Jack Webb
Pete Kelly, the movie's titular character, is a cornet player played by Jack Webb, who was also the movie's director and producer. A musician he was not, however. Hence Matty Matlock was enlisted to "overdub" him -- i.e., to play cornet, unseen onscreen, during the scenes in which Webb is supposedly doing so.

The movie's main character has his own band, known as Pete Kelly's Lucky Seven. Jack Webb aside, that onscreen band is comprised of actual musicians, not actors. (Their names are given in the next paragraph.)

It's also worth noting, in passing, that The Lucky Seven was not a newly formed group, nor had it been put together for film purposes. On the contrary, this septet was the same one which had played in the 1951 radio show that inspired the movie. The radio show and the movie were not their only projects. Following the release of the film in 1955, the same ensemble went on to play on yet another Pete Kelly's Blues installment: a television series. (n.b.: Naturally, the septet underwent some personnel changes as it shifted from one medium to another.)

4. The Lucky Seven's (Or 'The Lucky Four's') Dates With Peggy Lee
For Peggy Lee's Pete Kelly's Blues Decca sessions, half of Pete Kelly's Lucky Seven members were recruited: Dick Cathcart, Nick Fatool, Eddie Miller, and Matty Matlock.

Not taking part in Lee's dates were pianist Ray Sherman, trombonist Moe Schneider, bassist Jud DeNaut, and guitarist George Van Epps. (DeNaut and Van Epps are the movie's players; in the radio show, the bassist was Marty Cobb and the guitarist Bill Newman.)

Also playing in Lee's sessions were guitarist Dick McDonough and conductor Harold Mooney. Neither was a member of the regular Lucky Seven lineup,

5. Ella Fitzgerald's Accompaniment
The trio heard in Ella Fitzgerald's numbers (Don Abney on piano, Joe Mondragon on bass, Larry Bunker on drums) did not participate in Peggy Lee's sessions. They probably were Fitzgerald's regular traveling musicians. (Bunker Mondragon also worked with Lee in other time periods.)


Issues And Collectors' Corner

1. The LP Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues In The Music Charts
This joint effort by Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee fared well commercially: it peaked at #7 and spent 10 weeks in Billboard's Best-Selling Popular Albums chart. Even though both singers had other LPs of greater longevity in the album chart, during the rock era Pete Kelly's Blues was actually the highest-peaking album of their respective careers. (By rock era, I mean the chart period that begins in 1955 with "Rock Around The Clock," the smash by Billy Haley And His Comets. Before 1955, one of Lee's albums had actually peaked at #2 -- Rendezvous With Peggy Lee.) For the album chart entry that predeced the one currently under discussion, see session dated April 10, 1954. For the next such entry, see session dated April 10, 1957.

2. Ella Fitzgerald's Pete Kelly's Blues EP
Besides the Lee-Fitzgerald LP, American Decca also issued an all-Ella Fitzgerald EP, which contained the same three numbers found in the LP. Meanwhile, British Brunswick released three EPs -- two by Lee and one by Fitzgerald. Images of all those items can be found in the Main Decca Albums page of this discography's photo gallery.

3. Various Pete Kelly's Blues LP Versions
In addition to Decca, three other record companies released original albums connected to Pete Kelly's Blues: RCA, Columbia, and Warner Brothers. With the exception of the Decca LP, all these albums bear the imprint "A Mark VII Limited Production." Mark VII was Jack Webb's company.

When it was originally issued, RCA's Pete Kelly's Blues (LP Pm 1126) deceptively posed as the original soundtrack. It is not. Recorded on October 19, 1955, this recreation of the music from the movie combines narration by producer Jack Webb (under record contract with RCA at the time) with music played by the same ensemble that is heard in the film. It contains instrumentals only; no vocals. On CD, this RCA album has been issued by Collectors' Choice Music, as Ccm 55 (1999). Earlier, during the vinyl era, RCA had also reissued the album in a version from which Webb's narration was excised; its catalogue number is Pm 2053. More recently (2008), a British Public Domain company released in a twofer CD which combined it with the Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues Decca album by Lee and Fitzgerald.

On Columbia, Music From Jack Webb's Pete Kelly's Blues (LP Cl 690) features Matty Matlock with His Jazz Band and Ray Heindorff with The Warner Brothers Orchestra. Whereas the eight Matlock tracks are re-recordings, the four Heindorff numbers are said to actually be from the movie's soundtrack. This album's front cover bears the legend "presented by Warner Brothers." It was also issued as an EP with the photo on the front cover, but a different background color.

Warner Brothers' The Authentic Music From The Television Production Pete Kelly's Blues (LP Ws 1303) stars Pete Kelly's Big Seven, which is alternatively billed as The Tuxedo Band in some of the performances.

The track listings of those albums partially resembles, partially differs from the contents of the Decca LP. In the case of the Columbia and RCA issues, two songs ("Sing A Rainbow," "Ella Hums The Blues") are replaced with other numbers ("Breezin' Along With The Breeze" and "Smiles"). The Columbia album omits "He Needs Me," too. As for the LP on Warner Brothers, its title clearly indicates that is not directly based on the movie; hence the one and only song that it shares with the Decca LP is the titular "Pete Kelly's Blues."

Common to all the aforementioned albums, including the Decca LP, is the presence of Matlock, Miller, Cathcart, and Fatool. (Playing guitar in the non-Decca albums is George Van Epps. Also playing in the non-Decca albums are trombonist Moe Schneider, pianist Ray Sherman, and bassist Jud DeNaut. Added to the ensemble heard in the Warner Brothers album is Frank Beach on trumpet. Also, in the Warner Brothers album, Cathcart plays the clarinet as part of the ensemble -- just as he had done in the original radio show and in the movie.)

Webb struck a deal with Capitol as well. Capitol joined the race with two singles of the movie's eponymous song: a hit instrumental performed by Ray Anthony and His Orchestra, and a vocal by June Christy with Pete Rugolo.


Arrangers And Arrangements

1. Harold Mooney
The credit to Harold Mooney as this session's arranger relies on the fact that copies of his arrangements are extant in Peggy Lee's sheet music library.

Milt Gabler (pdr), Harold "Hal" Mooney (con), Julian "Matty" Matlock (cl), Eddie Miller (ts), Dick Cathcart (t), Dick McDonough (g), Nick Fatool (d), Peggy Lee (v), Unknown (bkv)

The Pete Kelly's Blues Album Sessions (Cross-references: Film)

This is the second of two sessions dedicated to songs from the movie Pete Kelly's Blues. For further details, see session dated May 6, 1955, and, once it opens for viewing, see also this discography's page for Movie Soundtrack performances.


Personnel

1. Background Vocals
Unknown background vocals, by an all-male chorus, on "Bye Bye Blackbird" only. Chances are that this chorus is comprised of musicians from the session.


Collectors' Corner

1. The Two LP Covers of Pete Kelly's Blues
In England, Brunswick issued the LP Pete Kelly's Blues with a cover different from the original one on American Decca.

The original Decca cover has an overwhelmingly white, spare background. Shown against that background are images of Peggy Lee and Jack Webb. Both images are probably taken from a movie still; Lee is dressed as Rose, her character in the movie, and Webb is playing (or pretending to play) the cornet, as he did in his Pete Kelly movie role.

The Brunswick cover has an appealing blue background. It too shows both Peggy Lee and a cornetist. However, the cornet player is seen only as a shadow, and the photo of Peggy is not from the movie. (Her photo could be from a TV still, since her looks resemble those that she sported in a few TV shows around 1955.) This Brunswick cover was later reproduced on British reissues such as Jasmine LP #1026.


Arrangers And Arrangements

1. Harold Mooney
The credit to Harold Mooney as this session's arranger relies on the fact that copies of his arrangements are extant in Peggy Lee's sheet music library.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Dave Barbour (con), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v)

Personnel, Arrangements And Cross-references

1. Dave Barbour At Decca
2. Jeri Southern
This is one of two Peggy Lee Decca sessions in which her ex-husband Dave Barbour is known to have conducted, presumably at her request. The other session is dated February 18, 1953.

Decca's master files list Dave Barbour as conductor of "Me" only. No conductor is listed for "Pablo Pasablo."

At Decca, Barbour also conducted for Jeri Southern, a friend of Lee's who reportedly joined the label through Lee's recommendation.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Gene DiNovi (con), Julian "Matty" Matlock (cl), Eddie Miller (ts), Emmanuel "Manny" Klein (t), Shelly Manne (d), Jim Backus (v, spk), Peggy Lee (v), Session Musicians (bkv)

Personnel (I) And Cross-references (TV Cartoons)

1. Mr. Magoo
2. Jim Backus
In these two masters, Jim Backus impersonates his famous cartoon character Mr. Magoo.

3. Animation Soundtrack?
Both of this session's masters qualify as special material. Were there plans to feature them in a Mr. Magoo project (a cartoon or a show in his honor)? Although I have found no evidence to prove it, I would not be surprised if such was the case.

4. Gene DiNovi
This session's personnel is not identified in Decca's master files. Fortunately, Gene DiNovi was asked about it in May 2002. He remembered all the musicians' names, which I have entered above.


Personnel (II) And Songs

1. "Mr. Magoo Does The Cha Cha"
"Mr. Magoo Does The Cha Cha" is a duet sung by Backus and Lee. Backus also speaks some of the lines.

2. "Three Cheers For Mr. Magoo"
"Three Cheers For Mr. Magoo" is more of an ensemble number or chorus piece, played to circus-like music. Lee and company -- presumably, the session's musicians -- sing the titular cheers. Mr. Magoo is also present, although he does not sing. Instead, he speaks at the beginning and often through the song, as he reacts to the cheers or shares with us one or two of his "terrible adventures."


Issues

1. Brunswick #05549 [Single]
According to word of mouth (passed along by one of the session's participants), Peggy Lee had no intention to have these masters commercially released. They were mistakenly sent to England, and issued there only. The intention behind Lee's recording of the masters is not known; see my speculative comments above, under personnel notes.

Bing Crosby (ldr), The Buddy Cole Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee (v)

Issues

1. Bing Sings, No. 2 [LP]
This British album on Brunswick appears to have been the original issue of "The Possibility's There." In America, the song had to wait almost half a century for its release.


Masters

1. Non-Lee Masters
2. A Holiday Session (Partially So)
Also recorded during this Bing Crosby session were three solos by him: "Christmas Is A-Comin' " (master L 8805), "The First Snowfall" (master L 8807) and "The Next Time It Happens" (L 8808).

Obviously, one of the purposes of this date was to record numbers for the holiday season. Both "The First Snowfall" and "Christmas Is A-Comin' " were indeed made available during the winter period. "The First Snowfall" was paired with this date's "The Next Time It Happens" (Decca single 29777). "Christmas Is A-Comin' " was paired with a later master (L 8820), "Is Christmas Only A Tree?".

For reasons unknown, American Decca left "The Possibility's There" unissued. The song's qualifications (or lack thereof) as a holiday tune cannot be considered reason enough. After all, one of the above-mentioned holiday singles includes a lyric that qualifies even less. (A song about falling in love, Hammerstein and Rodgers' "The Next Time It Happens" has no connection to the Christmas period.) Although "The Possibility's There" is by no means a holiday number, it still evokes a mood of cozy bliss that fits right in with the season's emphasis in warmth and intimacy.

For an earlier Crosby-Lee duet which definitely qualifies as a holiday offering, see "Little Jack Frost, Get Lost," recorded on November 17, 1952.


Cross-references (Radio As Source)

Crosby discographer J. Roger Osterholm states that this session's numbers were "recorded from radio broadcasts." Indeed, the presence of Buddy Cole on all tracks suggests that they could have been transcribed from The Bing Crosby Show, a nightly (Monday through Friday) program that ran on CBS from November 22, 1954 to December 31, 1956. Buddy Cole's Trio provided the regular accompaniment. (Then again, Buddy Cole's presence does not automatically prove radio origination: he also participated in some of Crosby's Decca studio sessions.)

Unfortunately, I have yet to come across any corroboration that "The Possibility's There" originated in Crosby's radio program. The song's title is nowhere to be found in a list of songs performed in The Bing Crosby Show that I consulted. The list in question was not complete, however; it covered episodes #1 to #167, the latter dated September 16, 1955. The song could have been broadcast in one of the later episodes, for which there does not seem to be easily available information. (The list was prepared by the excellent Crosby discographer Lionel Pairpont, who in turn relied on research originally conducted by Russ Rullman and Larry F. Kiner. Sadly, Pairpont passed away before he covered the missing episodes.)

For further Decca masters that might stem from original radio broadcasts, see also sessions dated May 16, 1952 and November 17, 1952.


Personnel

1. The Buddy Cole Trio
In his 1955-1956 radio shows, Bing Crosby was accompanied by The Buddy Cole Trio, which consisted of Cole on piano, Don Whittaker on bass, Nick Fatool on drums and, on guitar, two men: Perry Botkin, Jr. during the earlier shows, Vince Terri during later ones. Obviously, most of those men might very well be participants in this session.

2. Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires
The Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires are heard in some of this session's masters, but not in "The Possibility's There."

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sy Oliver (con), The Sy Oliver Orchestra (acc), Other Individuals Unknown (unk), Peggy Lee (v), Session Musicians (bkv)

The Miss Wonderful Sessions

Of the eight songs recorded during this session, all but one were included in the LP Miss Wonderful. Completing that album's 12-track collection were five songs from a later date (June 8, 1956).

Originally, the two dates were singles sessions: long before they were collected on vinyl, all but two of these songs ("Wrong Joe" and, from the other date, "Take A Little Time To Smile") had appeared on 78 and/or 45.


Issues

1. Miss Wonderful
Despite the six-month lapse between dates, these twelve songs do feel like they are all of a piece. The involvement of the same conductor and his use of similar instrumentation throughout are largely responsible for the album's cohesiveness. (Could it be that these sessions were originally scheduled with the album in mind, yet Decca ultimately decided to issue the resulting masters on singles, perhaps due to Lee's plan to leave the label?)

Since Miss Wonderful was not released until three years after Peggy Lee had left Decca, her input during the creation and preparation of the album might have been limited at best.


Masters

1. Number Of Sessions Held On January 6
2. Dates With More Than Four Masters, 1956
Due to contractual stipulations, the maximum of masters that could be included in one studio session was four. For the purposes of documentation kept by the American Federation of Musicians, dates with more than four masters were usually divided into multiple sessions. (Or so indicate various secondary sources at my reach.)

In Decca's master files, most of Peggy Lee's 1956 dates show six to eight masters. If the dating assigned in the files is correct for all such masters, the most logical assumption is that Decca preferred to list all of them together in its paperwork. However, the AFM documentation presumably splits a date such as this one into at least two sessions. (Unfortunately, I do not have access to the AFM reports, which should clarify the matter.)

In any case, the recording of six to eight masters on a daily basis is in itself unusual for Lee. It points, at the very least, to a change in her recording routine.


Songs And Cross-references (Issues)

1. "Mr. Wonderful" In The Music Charts
2. Sarah Vaughan
3. Teddi King
Originating in the 1956 Broadway musical of the same title, "Mr. Wonderful" was Lee's 10th Top 40 chart hit for Decca Records. It made its debut during the week of June 7, 1956. Peggy Lee had competition from Mercury's Sarah Vaughan and RCA's Teddi King, whose respective versions also made Billboard's various charts.

In the Top 100 chart, Peggy Lee's version climbed to #23, Teddi King's to #32, and Sarah Vaughan's to #38.

In the Jockey (airplay) chart, Sarah Vaughan peaked at #13, Peggy Lee at #14, and Teddi King at #18.

In the Bestseller chart, Peggy Lee reached #25. King's and Vaughan's versions did not make the Bestseller list.

Lee's version stayed in Billboard's charts for 10 weeks, Vaughan's for 7, and King's for 2.

The versions by Peggy Lee and Sarah Vaughan made the charts in England, too. According to the Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles, 1952-1980, Lee's version was by far the most successful in English territory: it peaked at #5 and received airplay for 13 weeks.

4. "Joey, Joey, Joey" In The Music Charts
This song from the 1956 Broadway musical The Most Happy Fella was introduced on stage by Art Lund, who had been, coincidentally, Lee's duet partner during her years with Benny Goodman. "Joey, Joey, Joey" was a minor chart hit for Peggy Lee. Released on the week of May 5, 1956, her version peaked at #76 and stayed in the Top 100 for six weeks.

"Joey, Joey, Joey" was Lee's eleventh and last hit on Decca, raising the total count (Decca, Capitol, Columbia and Okeh) to 47 hits. (Her next hits would be on the Capitol label.)

5. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
For Peggy Lee's other recordings of this song, see Capitol sessions dated October 17, 1946 and January 29, 1947. See also transcription session dated June 11, 1946, located in this discography's page for Capitol Transcriptions.

6. "I Don't Know Enough About You"
7. Dream Street [LP]
Peggy Lee first recorded "I Don't Know Enough About You" for Capitol, on December 26, 1945. This session's re-recording was issued by Decca not only in the LP Miss Wonderful but also in British editions of the LP Dream Street, where it replaced the song "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face." For a more detailed explanation, see notes under session dated June 7, 1956. As shown above, Decca released "I Don't Know Enough About You" as a single, too.


Songs And Songwriters

1. "The Come Back"
2. Memphis Slim
3. L. C. Fraser (Frazier)
4. Peter Chatman
Whereas Decca credits L. C. Fraser as the songwriter of "The Come Back," other sources identify Peter Chatman as the song's author. At BMI's online site, clicking on either Peter Chatman or L. C. Fraser (spelled there and elsewhere as "Frazier") sends the user to a list of songs written by Memphis Slim. All three names seem to refer to the same person.

Memphis Slim's birth name was John Len Chatman, but he often used the name Peter Chatman in official records, and even claimed that it was his birth name. Peter Chatman was actually his father's name.

As for "L. C. Frazier," I assume it to be a pseudonym whose full spelling should be "Len Chatman Frazier." (Perhaps "Frazier" was his mother's maiden name?)


Arrangers And Arrangements

1. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
2. Neal Hefti
3. Dave Barbour
4. Peggy Lee
My sources for the "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" arranging credit to Peggy Lee and Neal Hefti are Lee's sheet music library (where a copy is kept) and Sean Connors' list of the singer's compositions at http://www.peggylee.com/solos/writer.html . Lee's library actually contains two arrangements of this song. The second is credited to Billy May.

The Decca LP set The Best Of Peggy Lee (Dxb 164) erroneously credits this arrangement to Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee. Perhaps annotator Leonard Feather confused the song's versions. (During the 1940s, Lee had recorded for Capitol various versions of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and the arrangement of at least one of those versions is indeed credited to Barbour and to her. This 1956 Hefti-Lee arrangement is vastly different from those heard in the earlier versions.)

5. "You've Got To See Mama Every Night"
6. Benny Carter
7. Mickey Ingalls
Also found in Peggy Lee's music library are two arrangements of the song "You've Got To See Mama Every Night." One of them is credited to Benny Carter. I do not know if the library's arrangement is the same one that was used for this session; hence the credit to Carter must be deemed tentative. (Carter worked as music director of Lee's concert appearances during the early 1960s, and she did sing "You've Got To See Mama Every Night" onstage then. The arrangement at Lee's library could well be from that later time.)

As for the second arrangement of "You've Got To See Mama Every Night" in Lee's library, Mickey Ingalls wrote it decades after this recording session took place.

8. "Mr. Wonderful"
9. "I Don't Know Enough About You"
10. Sy Oliver
11. Lenny LaCroix
12. Peter Moore
Credit to Sy Oliver for the arrangements of this session's "Mr. Wonderful" and "I Don't Know Enough About You" is based on the existence of copies in Peggy Lee's sheet music library. Lee's library also holds two additional arrangements of "Mr. Wonderful," both written many years after the one used at this recording date. One is by Lenny LaCroix, the other by Peter Moore.

Peggy Lee (ldr), Sy Oliver (con), William "Bill" Pitman (g), Buddy Clark (b), Lou Levy (p), Larry Bunker (vib, d, per), Stella Castellucci (hrp), Unknown (tri), Peggy Lee (v)