Singer Peggy Lee dies
Peggy Lee, the singer-composer whose smoky, insinuating voice in such songs as "Is That All There Is?" and "Fever" made her a jazz and pop legend, has died at the age of 81.
Lee died from a heart attack at her Bel Air home, said her daughter, Nicki Lee Foster.
The singer repeatedly battled injury and ill health, including heart trouble, in order to maintain a career that brought her a Grammy, an Oscar nomination and sold-out houses worldwide.
During more than 50 years in show business, which began during a troubled childhood and endured through four broken marriages, she recorded hit songs with the Benny Goodman band, wrote songs for a Disney movie and starred on Broadway in a short-lived autobiographical show, "Peg."
Her vocal flexibility and cool, breathy voice brought sultry distinction to big band showstoppers, pop ballads and soulful laments.
She was considered in the same league as Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald and Bessie Smith.
Her hits touched generations of listeners. Lee's more notable recordings included "Why Don't You Do Right?," "I'm a Woman," "Lover," "Pass Me By," "Where or When," "The Way You Look Tonight," "I'm Gonna Go Fishin"' and "Big Spender."
The hit "Is That All There Is?" won her a Grammy for best contemporary female vocal performance in 1969.
Jazz critic Leonard Feather once remarked, "If you don't feel a thrill when Peggy Lee sings, you're dead, Jack."
Whitney Balliett, longtime jazz critic for The New Yorker, wrote: "Many singers confuse shouting with emotion. Peggy Lee sends her feelings down the quiet center of her notes. ... She does not carry a tune; she elegantly follows it."
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