Fever, The Music of Peggy Lee (Capitol). This quasi-documentary sketches Peggy Lee’s life and career. Its greatest contribution is the use of performance clips, interviews and informal films to create a portrait of a gifted artist whose human warmth matched her talent. She was terrific even in a shampoo commercial. Her first husband, the guitarist Dave Barbour, remained her great love even beyond their divorce. The bonus clip of Lee singing “I Only Have Eyes for You” to Barbour as he accompanies her underlines the heartbreaking story better than the script does in the main section.
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
I remember Peggy;I loved her voice, her style, just as I did Ella and Jeri…Mel Torme, Frank and the Four Freshmen. Except for Jeri Southern, I saw them all in concert over the years…Mel four times, the Freshmen three and Sinatra in five concerts. I miss them all.
But most of all, I miss the radio station that brought them to me…WNEW-AM, 1130 New York. I could be in Montreal for Chinese food – or Boston for the Red Sox – and still get their signal loud and clear…back in 1960. William B. Williams, Jack Lazar (The Milkman’s Matinee), Big Wilson and Jazz Beaux Collins all made that wonderful music even more memorable. WNEW-AM shut down their transmitter in 1990.