When Peggy Lee wasn't stuffed into elaborate ball gowns with cinched waists and forced to appear on TV with a glazed, ice-queen expression, she could be downright soulful and bluesy. Personally, I never cared much for Fever or any of the other hyper-stylized slow-burn songs that turned Lee into an emotionless caricature of herself. I much more prefer the down-and-dirty Peggy Lee, the "barefoot" singer who could let it all out with emotion and feeling. Here are five videos of the Peggy Lee I love most...
Here's Lee singing Yes Indeed at the Oakland Naval Hospital in 1961. Watch how she raises the spirits of convalescing sailors (the video has a slow start, so bear with it)...
Here's Non Dimenticar and My Romance. Like a great actress, Lee fully understood the camera and how to use her face while singing to charm an audience...
Here's Lee at the Hollywood Bowl in the early 1950s singing From This Moment On. This was Lee free and easy, providing a sense of who she was deep down...
Here's Lee singing Misty. Watch her mouth contort on notes as her eyes move from left to right and back, like search lights...
And here's Lee singing I Love Being Here With You. Again, free, loose and without airs...
