Women in Jazz: Peggy Lee

My boyfriend, Rian, is the film curator for the American Jazz Museum.

His job recently had him working with our city's film festival, to showcase rare clips from various jazz artists in history. We attended the screening last week and it was pretty bad-ass.

Through Rian, I've learned a lot about jazz, regarding the history and lesser-known artists.

So, I thought I would highlight a few fabulous female jazz singers in a series.

Our first lady is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Peggy Lee.

Peggy was born in 1920 in North Dakota.

Having lost her mother when she was four, Peggy suffered a difficult childhood, putting up with an alcoholic father and abusive stepmother.

After graduating, she packed up her bags and moved to Hollywood, desperate to leave her miserable small-town life behind. Unfortunately, it didn't work. After spending months as a waitress, and even a carnival worker, Peggy went home, tail between her legs.

She started singing on a local radio station, which led to offers in other parts of the country. Soon, the 20-year-old beauty found herself traveling the country, playing at small venues.

She was performing in a ritzy Chicago nightclub in 1941 when Benny Goodman, a very famous bandleader, took notice. He asked her to sing in his orchestra, and not long afterwards, they began working in the studio.

She ended up releasing a couple of number one hits which not only sold more than one million copies, but made her an instant household name.

It was during this time that Peggy fell in love with Dave Barbour, a guitarist in Benny's band. The two married in 1943 and had a daughter. Unfortunately, Dave assumed that Peggy would gladly give up her singing career to stay at home and be a dutiful wife and mother.

Peggy obliged to his wishes for a few years, but could not help her itch to continue her career. She wrote songs in her spare time and in 1947, released several more songs that flew to the top of the jazz charts.

Her hunger for success and passion for music could not keep Peggy at home. She ended up divorcing her husband in 1951. Her career skyrocketed. She released numerous number hits, sold millions of albums, and even dabbled into acting.

What separated Peggy from her contemporaries is that during the 1950s, she was one of the only old-school jazz singers to embrace rock and roll. While her peers despised the new musical form, she loved it.

By the late 1950s, her obsessive workload began to take a toll on her health. She continued to record music, produce theater productions, and actively participate in charity work until her death, from diabetes, in 2002.

Here is Peggy's most famous song, Fever:

What do you think of Peggy's style and her music?