Introduction To
The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography And Videography
by Iván Santiago-Mercado
Generated on Nov 28, 2011
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Inception And Development
The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography And Videography was begun during the last months of the year 1999. Not surprisingly, my main motivation for its creation was a deep admiration for the singer's artistry. Another motivating factor was my ready access to BRIAN, a discographical program created by Steve Albin in 1994. (It is named after pioneer discographer Brian Rust.)
The first edition of the discography (2000) was actually a joint enterprise between the creator of the discographical program and myself. After researching and organizing the data, I would send it to Steve, who would in turn enter it in the BRIAN database. Later on, as I became confident in my own abilities to handle the database, I began working solo. More than a decade (and many editions) later, this discography remains very active. It is a work in progress, and an ever-evolving one. Throughout, Steve has remained unfailingly available to listen to any BRIAN-related queries or suggestions that I -- and all other program users -- might have. I have also counted with the continued support of fellow fans from the Peggy Lee Bulletin Board.
Acknowledgments
In addition to Steve, there are various gentlemen who have made substantial contributions to this project. Both Jarl Ingves (in Sweden) and Lucas Tuinstra (in the Netherlands) shared with me their own discographical listings for Peggy Lee. Thanks to their kind help, I was able to doublecheck the accuracy of the data that Steve and I had previously entered, especially in the area of European issues. Kevin Koerper, another friend of mine and fan of Peggy Lee, kindly proofread one of the earlier editions of this discography. (Given the fact that I have re-written most of the discography's notes since then, any misspellings or general errors that you might find throughout are of my own creation, not Kevin's.) I am also very grateful for the expert assistance that I received from Ken Barnes, Jim Pierson, and Peter Stoller as I was constructing or revising specific sessions.
There are of course many other individuals -- some of them good friends, some friendly acquaintances, all of them generous souls -- who have supplied details of relevance to the Peggy Lee sessions: Theo Andriessen, Allen Bardin, Paul Bladon, Wayne Brasler, Bill Brooks, Mark Cantor, Stella Castellucci, Ed Chaplin, John Connors, Michael Cuscuna, Dave Dixon, Steve Dodd, Marvin Ekers, Will Friedwald, Cy Godfrey, Freeman Gunther, Oddbjörn Hedin, Roy Holmes, Rick Hough, George Hulme, Stephen Ley, Matthew Linfoot, Frank Lipsik, E. William Lohnes, Thomas Ludwig, George McGhee, Gareth Miller, Steve Naylor, William Naylor, Tony Nesbit, Bob Noakes, Gordon Sapsed, Linda Shafer, Peter Shorey, Michael Sparke, Julena Stinson, Mark Takasugi, Yvan Tarbouriech, Ernie Tong, David Torresen, Tom Wagner, Dave Weiner, Beverly A. West, Michael J. White, and John A.B. Wright. The theft of my previous computer (and consequent loss of copious data) prevents me from listing yet other individuals who deserve mention as well. If you are one of them, please contact me, so that your name can be incorporated -- in the interest of fairness, gratitude, and accuracy -- to this list.
I am pleased to add that my work counts with the approval of Holly Foster-Wells, from Peggy Lee Associates, LLC, and that this is the official discography of Peggy Lee.
Print Sources
I would also like to identify the main texts from which this discography has drawn, along with the individuals who either authored them or, otherwise, provided me with such helpful resources. David Torresen sent me basic data (about Lee's Capitol sessions) which he had in turn received from Will Friedwald. Ed Chaplin and Roy Holmes supplied me with pages which I was missing from old issues of Jazz Journal International -- pages that were part of a basic Peggy Lee recordings list, published by that magazine over various issues.
Among the various discographers whose work I have consulted, D. Russell Connor has earned my unqualified admiration. Over his lifetime, he published various updated editions of his impressive Benny Goodman bio-discography -- the latter a term that he coined. A reading of my discography's Goodman Years page should make it amply clear how strongly I have relied on his research for that particular section. I also want to express my admiration for the excellent -- and thus inspiring -- work of two men, one in Canada and the other in England: Billy May's discographer Jack Mirtle and Mel Tormé's discographer George Hulme.
As for authors of various-artists discographies, Walter Bruyninckx deserves special mention, all the more so since certain discographies have fully appropriated his research without giving much credit. Bruyninckx compiled extensive data in the areas of pre-1980s jazz and swing, and may have been the first to publish volumes exclusively dedicated to jazz and swing vocalists. Then there is Michel Ruppli, who has created an universe of record label discographies (Atlantic, Blue Note, Capitol, Decca, etc), all of them of considerable value for the creation of projects such as this one.
Finally, I must acknowledge the gentlemen who have preceded me in the publication of shorter, more basic versions of a Peggy Lee discography: Gino Falzarano, Brian Henson & Colin Morgan, Arthur Jackson & Andrew Cooper, and foremost among them, Ron Towe.
Objectives
One of the ultimate goals of this discography is the inclusion of every single extant Peggy Lee music performance. By "extant performance," I mean recordings, transcriptions, radio broadcasts, television broadcasts, film soundtrack performances, and live appearances that are known to have been preserved on audio (i.e., 78, 45, v-disc, transcription disc, EP, LP, cassette tape, reel-to-reel tape, 8-track tape, 4-track tape, CD, mini disk) or video (i.e., film reel, VHS, DVD).
I also aim at including every single Peggy Lee issue known to exist in every configuration, except MP3. Even if the issue in question is the 50th hits compilation by Lee on CD or LP, I am interested in making it part of this project. (As for MP3 issues, a few of special interest have been listed herein. Also listed are issues which are available as both MP3 files and on-demand Amazon CDrs, even if the quality of such issues tends to be sub-par.
Those exceptions aside, I have decided to avoid the MP3 configuration, due to its generally inferior sound quality and to the vast proliferation of illegitimate issues in that format. I may change my mind in the future, depending on how MP3 continues developing, improving, and dominating the music market.)
Yet another chief goal of mine is the construction of an annotated work of sufficient depth and accuracy to satisfy music fans, jazz-pop discographers, and academics in general. I have put a fair amount of thought and preparation toward the fulfillment of that goal.
Though this discography's scope might strike some readers as over-ambitious and excessive, I still hope that its wealth of material will prove more enlightening than overwhelming. I have certainly derived pleasure from researching, organizing, and analyzing the data.
Present And Future
First introduced in the fall of 2010, the current edition of The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography is a particular source of pride. For the first time, all of Lee's studio sessions are fully included and organized to my satisfaction. (The quality of the prooofreading is a few notches below my desired aim, however. Because this discography is far from finished, and because I am giving priority to the process of incorporating the data, re-reading and proofreading has still placed second in my ongoing labor. Some sentences and paragraphs would definitely benefit from rewriting. And, given the vastness of the text, it is not surprising that typographical and grammatical errors can still be found throughout. My hope is to gradually catch most errors and unintelligible phrasing through my weekly consultation of selected sessions.)
I am now preparing the second part of this discography: a pictorial gallery of Peggy Lee's album artwork. The gallery aims at being as complete as possible. To that end, I am covering not only Lee's original albums and reissues for Capitol, Decca and additional labels but also collaborations with other artists (Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman) and ventures into the related worlds of video, film, radio, and television. At the time of this writing (September 2011), I have finished about three quarters of this particular endeavor, which is slated to also include anthologies and Public Domain compilations.
As for what the future of this ongoing project shall bring, I still have a third discographical section to prepare. Slated to open next year, that last section will cover Lee's copious work in the realms of radio, television, concert, theatre, and film. With the listing of such media performances, I hope to draw this project to a fitting conclusion.
Errors, Educated Guesses And Corrections
Among the advantages of publishing this project on the worldwide web is the opportunity that the internet affords for instant feedback, including additions, corrections and suggestions.
The existence of errors in a project of this scope should not come off as a surprise, all the more so when you consider the fact that only one person is redacting it and putting it together. Because the present discography is still an ongoing project, I often find myself having to make a decision between continuing with the entry of data or pausing to do a more thorough (second or third) proofreading of recently entered data. Even though I do make such pauses periodically, I fully believe in the old adage about two pairs of eyes being able to see more than a single pair. My hope is to receive corrections or input from fellow fans and general readers, so that the process of completing this discography can be further accelerated.
I would be remiss if I failed to point out two discographical areas in which factual mistakes are a likelier occurrence than elsewhere. One area is that of issues (i.e., CDs, LPs, cassettes, etc.). Naturally, I have not listened to every single one of the hundreds of issues listed in this discography -- many of which happen to be digital releases in the Public Domain. While entering the track listing of some of those Public Domain CDs, occasionally I have had to resort to educated guesses. For instance, the received track listing of a given compact disc might indicate that "I Don't Know Enough About You" is included. If I do not own a copy of the CD, I am faced with the need to pick which performance of "I Don't Know Enough About You" is likeliest to be in it: the original Capitol recording, the Decca recording, other versions recorded much later, or one of the various versions from radio and television broadcasts that can also be found in certain LPs, cassettes, and CDs. In such cases, my estimates are based on a variety of factors, such as whether the CD's other tracks are studio recordings or broadcast performances, whether the company releasing the CD has ties to another which has released CDs with similar track listings, etc., etc.
(On a related matter, notice that my main source of information for non-owned Public Domain CDs is the internet, where reliability varies from one site to another. I give preference to large online vendors, but even some of their information can be off the mark -- most notably, release years, which do not always refer to the earliest pressing of the given CD.)
On a smaller scale, alternate takes constitute another area where factual errors are a significant possibility. The official documentation at my reach can be somewhat lax when it comes to mentioning the release of such alternates. In a handful of cases, I have discovered that, whereas the documentation's lists a certain issue under the master take, actual listening of the issue proves that that it contains an alternate. Assessing such cases is made all the more difficult when the performance under scrutiny was originally released on 78, because I do not own copies of the original 78s. (This is a situation that I hope to rectify in the near future.) Fortunately, some fellow listeners at the Peggy Lee Bulletin Board (www.peggylee.com) are 78 owners, and have kindly shared a few findings. I doubt that there are many more still to be found, or still left unmentioned herein. But, if you are aware of any instances, I hope that you will contact me, and let me know. Thank you in advance.
Contact Addresses
We welcome queries. For anything pertaining to Peggy Lee data, please contact me at ivansantiagomercado@earthlink.net
For questions and comments about BRIAN (the free computer database used to create this online discography), please contact webmaster Steve Albin at steve@jazzdiscography.com
For links to other online discographies created with BRIAN, please visit the JazzDiscography web page.
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