Peggy Lee - When the World Was Young (Judy Garland Show - 1963)

Peggy Lee's alluring tone, distinctive delivery, breadth of material, and ability to write many of her own songs made her one of the most captivating artists of the vocal era, from her breakthrough on the Benny Goodman hit "Why Don't You Do Right" to her many solo successes, singles including "Mañana," "Lover" and "Fever" that showed her bewitching vocal power, a balance between sultry swing and impeccable musicianship.
Born Norma Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, she suffered the death of her mother at the age of four and endured a difficult stepmother after her father remarried. Given her sense of swing by listening to Count Basie on the radio, she taught herself to sing and made her radio debut at the age of 14. She made the jump to Fargo (where she was christened Peggy Lee), then to Minneapolis and St. Louis to sing with a regional band. Lee twice journeyed to Hollywood to make her fortune, but returned unsuccessful from both trips.
She finally got her big break in 1941, when a vocal group she worked with began appearing at a club in Chicago. While there, she was heard by Benny Goodman, whose regular vocalist Helen Forrest was about to leave his band. Lee recorded with Goodman just a few days later, debuting with the popular "Elmer's Tune" despite a good deal of nerves. That same year, several songs became commercial successes including "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)" and "Winter Weather." In 1943, "Why Don't You Do Right" became her first major hit, but she left the Goodman band (and the music industry altogether) later that year after marrying Goodman's guitarist, Dave Barbour.
After just over a year of domestic life, Peggy Lee returned to music, first as part of an all-star jazz album. Then, in late 1945, Capitol signed her to a solo contract and she hit the charts with her first shot, "Waitin' for the Train to Come In." Lee continued to score during the late '40s, with over two dozen chart entries before the end of the decade, including "It's a Good Day," "Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" -- the most popular song of 1948 -- and "I Don't Know Enough About You." Many of her singles were done in conjunction with Barbour, her frequent writing and recording partner.
After moving to Decca in 1952, Peggy Lee scored with the single "Lover" and an LP, Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues recorded with Ella Fitzgerald (both singers also made appearances in the film). She spent only five years at Decca however, before moving back to Capitol. There, she distinguished herself through recording a wide variety of material, including songs -- and occasionally, entire LPs -- influenced by the blues, Latin and cabaret as well as pop. Lee also used many different settings, like an orchestra conducted by none other than Frank Sinatra for 1957's The Man I Love, the George Shearing Quintet for 1959's live appearance Beauty and the Beat, Quincey Jones as arranger and conductor for 1961's If You Go, and arrangements by Benny Carter on 1963's Mink Jazz. Barbour's problems with alcoholism ended their marriage, though they remained good friends until his death in 1965.
Peggy Lee was an early advocate of rock and made a quick transition into rock-oriented material. Given her depth and open mind for great songs no matter the source, it wasn't much of a surprise that she sounded quite comfortable covering the more song-oriented end of late-'60s rock, including great choices by Jimmy Webb, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Burt Bacharach, Randy Newman, Goffin & King and John Sebastian. She nearly brushed the Top Ten in 1969 with Leiber & Stoller's "Is That All There Is?" She continued recording contemporary material until 1972's Norma Deloris Egstrom From Jamestown, North Dakota brought her back to her roots. It was her last LP for Capitol, however. Lee recorded single LPs for Atlantic, A&M, Polydor UK and DRG before effectively retiring at the beginning of the 1980s. She returned in 1988 with two LPs for Music Masters that revisited her earlier successes. Her last album, Moments Like This, was recorded in 1992 for Chesky. Her voice was effectively silenced after a 1998 stroke, and she died of a heart attack at her Bel Air home in early 2002. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
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[@alanhodges8839]

Peggy singing songs like this makes life so much worth living. Obviously the best female singer of all time.

[@photo161]

Everything about this performance is so beautiful...the song, the arrangement, the set and lighting, the beauty of Peggy herself and her singing...can you imagine something so deep, so rich in emotional and musical value being shown anywhere on primetime TV today?!

[@forrestpreece3148]

To answer your last question, no, sad to say.

[@merkjanoosterhoff1590]

Have you heard Aretha's 1963 version of this song? Very beatiful too!

[@forrestpreece3148]

@@merkjanoosterhoff1590 Yes, it is marvelous.

[@alanhodges8839]

Peggy is number one.

[@filmmekker]

Could something this beautiful and profound really have been pop music once? can you imagine something like this on TV today?

[@slapmyfunkybass]

damn she's good... she doesn't sing a song, she tells you her life

[@dannystrat]

Stunning. Slightly unnerving. Moving. Beautiful.

[@brucerobbins6528]

Pegge's performance here leaves me breathless. She has put her entire heart and soul into this song, an older woman looking into her past, and missing it.Great Johnny Mercer lyrics from a French song.

[@kevinryan4857]

Beautiful song....FABULOUS Peggy Lee ❗

[@heliotrope3345]

She creates such a mood with her singing....such sadness and regret. She doesn't sing a song, she feels it.

[@sfden50]

You know, it took me a little while to get into Peggy Lee - I was hooked on Ella (still am), Dinah, and Sarah - but when I really LISTENED, she knocked my over and out. First of all, she is so subtle, sort of "holding back", then she swings! But what she can do with a ballad, My God! Her renindition of this song should be in a singing master class - I don't know when I hear this, where the song ends and her life begins-it's kind of frightening, the level of her vulnerability and sorrow. A Master

[@photo161]

Can you imagine a popular artist; anyone, anywhere, performing a song with such emotional intensity and honesty; so very personally and artistically on any National TV program today?!

[@PetravanNuis]

Of every exceptional song I've ever heard (or watched) her sing, this to me is the most exceptional. It is almost frightening how deeply she delves. She is completely raw and exposed!

[@davidanthonystone5165]

She was an amazing performer in her phrasing of the lyric

[@talentpageant]

[@garethmiller2024]

Absolutely superb . What a stunning performance , with all the subtlety and pathos that only Peggy could do ,

[@fkd1963]

The way she almost swallows the phrase “la grande femme fatale” is proof she’s an actress and singer superb.

[@nathanmaaka6792]

Beautifully in tune and no warbling screaming screeching wailing etc etc just plain warm syrupy timbre a voice you can listen to endlessly without ever ever ever getting bored appalled or worn out by!

[@ruthhildenbrandt449]

i always loved this song, and peggy is divine.

[@lucillemaese6379]

Perfect, simply perfect! 💓

[@SaxonC]

I read somewhere that this was Judy’s favorite episode of her series because she really loved performing Peggy

[@ralphewell8398]

Peggy was Judy's favorite female singer. You can hear and see why...such subtle emotion and no histrionics. ❤️

[@Harpurhey101]

Have just come to appreciate Ms Lee, for some reason I had failed to notice her (the failure was all mine). This is some performance, it's almost operatic, she seems to 'act' the song', not just sing it. I agree with D Harnett, she's "sort of "holding back" but that's part of her art, absolutely amazing

[@Josquinquin]

Devastatingly well done. .. Heartbreakingly beautiful..

[@patrickhicks9880]

this comes from the black coffee album one of the best albums i've ever heard the whole of it is as good as this song

[@eadler5929]

Thanks.

[@user-gt7xs1fc6g]

I saw Miss Lee at the old Empire Room in Chicago in the early 70's. She worked this kind of magic on every song over almost two hours. She was one of a kind and it is too bad that her "kind" will not be seen again as no one really values the emotional performance of a song any longer

[@marilynmichaels8358]

best interpretation ever.

[@GK-ev5rd]

What a wonderful song and one of the best singing it.....you felt part of the song and got pulled into it....the reality of it all as life moves faster than we ever imagined.

[@blanchdub]

One of the greatest singers of the twentieth - or perhaps any - century.

[@adrianappleby]

mesmerising

[@dilliekeane3484]

Stunning.

[@ralphewell8398]

Pop song becomes art song!!

[@halwilbursmith]

Agree. So utterly soothing!

[@sfden50]

Mort Lindsey - He was a master orchestra leader and arranger - He wrote the arrangement for all of Garland's solos and the Guest numbers (I have the CD of the show)

[@manuelfarinelli3839]

I love this interpretation!

[@Ursaminor31]

Wow

[@alangranville284]

I never thought anyone could match Frank Sinatra's version of this song but she does just that-with changes to the lyrics to suit a female.

[@samiun2]

This is fabulous

[@hackbritton3548]

Oh man! Oh man!

[@whobetwo]

no wonder it's a bit dated, it's older than me:-) and i'm no spring chicken either. it's grand and i thank you for posting it!

[@tbonemanfl]

Exactly! She tells u YOUR life, too!

[@slenderguy6666]

PEGGY WAS A MASTER....................

[@oeiras99]

Song of nostalgia and regret.

[@Rudipolt]

fine song! Aloha from Hawaii!

[@ElvisTranscriber2]

How lyrics are interpreted: She starts by playing presenting herself as as a happy self-assured person, but we know by her averted gaze to the camera that it's all a facade. Then the memories of her childhood ah the apple tree... Then the second time when she sings "sometimes a laugh a little to loud" you see the weakness of the character

[@Kasbahkabaret]

HOW DRAMATIC GIRL!

[@jansen_music]

Beautiful Slow waltz ...Wow

[@MySambear]

@SeekThePaleSeptember We don't have time for this kind of musicianship nowadays--seems like music today has to beat us over the head with its 'cleverness', or whatever. . . .What have you heard lately that tells this kind of story, in just this way? Listen to Mel Torme's or Nat Cole's versions--like Miss Lee here, they seem to have told us a whole life story in their song--each different, each compelling, each at his or her own pace, with the utmost respect for lyric and music and time.

[@laflame8548]

So that’s why scamp fall inlove🔥🔥😂😂😂❤️❤️❤️

[@wolfeatworld]

✭✭✭✭✭ Thank you, Kind Sir ;-)

[@MrRickywallace]

Be surE to listen to her version of "Is That All There Is?"

[@chatman2a]

“Is That All That Is” : One of my all-time favorites from a time when the world was young.

[@Rudipolt]

Fine song Miss Lee

[@petr-im2hk]

Ahhhhhh!

[@John1948Ten]

Pretty good for a little girl from Jamestown, North Dakota.

[@guscaldas2]

The arrangement isa masterpiece. Who is the arranger?

[@sunnyelaine999]

This was a favorite song of Natalie Wood. Just reading a biography of her's and looked up this song. Kind of sad.

[@Whitneyville1]

Are any of her studio sides of this and "Is That All There Is?" etc. extant? I used to listen to her and other "pop" singers in the mid 60's on the crystal radio I built when AM radio still was a musical format. I know she cut many sides with the Enoch Light Orchestra, but I can't find even badly abused LP's.

[@artsmart61]

It isn't by chance I happen to be, A boulevardier, the toast of Paris. For over the noise, the talk and the smoke, I'm good for a laugh, a drink or a jokeI walk in a room, a party or ball, "Come sit over here" somebody will call. "A drink for M'sieur, a drink for us all! But how many times I stop and recall. Ah, the apple trees, Blossoms in the breeze, That we walked among, Lying in the hay, Games we used to play, While the rounds were sung, Only yesterday, when the world was young. 2. Wherever I go they mention my name, And that in itself, is some sort of fame, "Come by for a drink, we're having a game, " Wherever I go I'm glad that I came. The talk is quite gay, the company fine, There's laughter and lights, and glamour and wine, And beautiful girls and some of them mine, But often my eyes see a diff'rent shine. Ah, the apple trees, Sunlit memories, Where the hammock swung, On our backs we'd lie, Looking at the sky, Till the stars were strung, Only last July when the world was young. Ah, the apple trees, Blossoms in the breeze, That we walked among, Lying in the hay, Games we used to play, While the rounds were sung, Only yesterday, when the world was young. 3. While sitting around, we often recall, The laugh of the year, the night of them all. The blonde who was so attractive that year, Some opening night that made us all cheer. Remember that time we all got so tight, And Jacques and Antoine got into a fight. The gendarmes who came, passed out like a light, I laugh with the rest, it's all very bright.

[@jimchick]

Peggy is wonderful, but please listen to Mark Murphy's version from "The Dream." It's on KZbin as well. Definitive!

[@Lightonahill25]

I can't find the Nancy Wilson one, though this is excellent, John Jarou

[@JohnCurry1]

Eartha Kitt for me

[@lotoffortune]

Mabel Mercer is my favorite!

[@waldolydecker8118]

Nat King Cole, June Christy....and by all means, that sweet trick (Larry Hart), Marlene Dietrich

[@woolfnotes]

I'd swear that's Jimmy Rowles providing the piano accompaniment for the verses

[@toyne38]

Sinatra's version the best, Though Peggy is my favourite female singer

[@mamatibborscassady9388]

No, for me it's Peggy, Dinah did a great one too.................

[@chrisn7259]

Morgana King's version is superb also. But this is something else again.

[@filmmekker]

Chris N She's not just singing this, she's acting it.

[@VictrolaJazz]

I call her bopadoodle--six cylinder music.

[@XX-gy7ue]

very dramatic !

[@johnjarou2357]

while i'm a big big fan of miss peggy lee, the best version of this song is done by nancy wilson.

[@John1948Ten]

Opinions vary.

[@johnjarou2357]

***** marlene dietrich?

[@johnnybajone9994]

try Aretha Franklin