Author Description

Peggy Lee helped redefine what it meant to be a female singer and songwriter, breaking barriers and blazing trails for generations of artists who followed her. Born in an era and working in an industry where women struggled for equality, she was a brave innovator who took risks when it was impermissible to do so. What she accomplished-both as a woman and a musician-is nothing short of extraordinary. From her abusive childhood in North Dakota, touring with Benny Goodman, her tumultuous marriages and frequent battles with illness, to a prized Oscar nomination and working with friends Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, Quincy Jones, and others, Peggy Lee tells her story with the honesty, unique style, and eloquence inherent in her music. Woven throughout the book are stories about her hit songs, including "Why Don't You Do Right?," "It's A Good Day," "Fever," "I'm A Woman," the score for Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp, and the Grammy award-winning "Is That All There Is?" Included in the 2022 reissue is Peggy's never-before-released book of poetry, Softly With Feeling, a comprehensive discography and recommended listening section by archivist Iván Santiago, and an epilogue by music historian and jazz critic Will Friedwald. With a foreword by Peggy's granddaughter, Holly Foster Wells, Miss Peggy Lee reads like an intimate journal, a poignant and honest autobiography. It is a life as only Peggy Lee could have written it, as courageous and alluring as the woman herself.