The Best Of Peggy Lee

The Best of Peggy Lee, but without 'Fever', her most famous song? This alone might incline one to scepticism about this 1981 compilation, but the packaging doesn't help either. The design is rudimentary, the sleevenotes perfunctory and uncredited, with the pictures on the inner sleeve of other titles from the "MCA Special Price Nostalgia Series" resembling bad photocopies. Fortunately, though, the mastering & pressing are quite adequate and the music itself is marvellous.

The record opens in atypical style with the hot-blooded melodrama of 'Lover', where Lee's full-on vocal delivery overlays a boldly percussive arrangement. Elsewhere the singer's voice is oftener more of a croon, and the emotional temperature is cooler (though the version here of Cole Porter's 'Just One Of Those Things' has something of that same energy). Track 2, 'Apples, Peaches And Cherries', is a twee number partly played for laughs; track 3 'Love Me or Leave Me' swings jazzily; and track 4, 'I Don't Know Enough About You' is a mellower shuffle that's one of four songs on the album to showcase Lee's prowess as a songwriter.

Two more songs here she co-wrote, 'He's A Tramp' & 'The Siamese Cat Song' were famously featured in Disney's 1955 Lady and the Tramp. I love the former, but have never been fond of the latter, even without considering its racism. Conveniently it's the closing track on side A and is easily skipped. Some of these numbers were tackled better by others: Julie London is a more convincing soubrette on 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy', despite her weaker voice; and Billie's take on 'They Can't Take That Away From Me' outshines Peggy's - but Lee's talents as an intelligent & versatile interpreter are amply demonstrated throughout.

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