Peggy Lee on YouTube 1962

Check out this performance on YouTube. Peggy sings Them There Eyes and But Beautiful and a duet with Andy Williams. Great stuff and I never seen this before.

[www.youtube.com]

Richard

Is this the first time Peggy started wearing wigs? It’s the Sugar and Spice album cover wig I think.

Personally, I love Peggy the most on You Tube in 1969. She was at the top of her game. Fantastic hearing the power of her voice and her singing style was superb. I truly adored the way she used her body as an instrument, no matter how small the gestures. Her eye movements added to her feelings in each song. Even how she touched the piano when singing gives me the "wows"! 1969. That was her year. I would give anything to have that concert on film. This is also the first time I heard her sing "Don't Explain". Now my favorite song of all time. I can watch and listen to her over and over.

Well said, Cate, all of it.

I love the sound of Peggy's voice during many different periods of her life, but my two top favorites are

a) definitely the Decca years
and
b) around the year that you singled out -- the late 1960s.

And I am another fan who loves the way she interprets "Don't Explain" on the documentary. In 1969, she made a fine studio recording of "Don't Explain" for Capitol as well, but the best version is this one from the concert ...

Mention of "pianissima Peggy" reminds me of a few other performances in which she sings right by a piano. One of her very best:

[www.youtube.com]

Ivan

Oh, the piano! Ivan, did you notice how she makes love to the piano before she starts singing? Every time I watch that I think "what an actress"!

That performance on the Steve Allen Show of "How Do You Erase a Memory" is one of her best indeed. She wrote "How Do You Erase a Memory". She should have recorded it. Love it.

Richard

Yes. For me, Peggy Lee's "How Do You Erase a Memory" medley epitomizes torch singing, and is deserving of being cited in any history of that music sub-genre.

Helen Morgan -- the 1920s vocalist who is often cited as the epitome of the torch singer -- popularized the act of interpreting love songs by the piano (or, in her case, while sitting on the piano): What Wouldn't I Do For That Man.





Ivan