As
a blues-influenced jazz singer, Lee’s restrained
yet soulful subdued singing style has been compared to
Billie Holiday. Her long singing career virtually encompassed
the history of American popular music between 1940 and
1970. In addition, she acted in films and revealed herself
to be an accomplished songwriter.
Born
on a farm, Lee sang with the Four of Us in small clubs
in the Midwest and California before being discovered
by Benny Goodman in Chicago in 1941 and joining his band
as replacement for Helen Forrest. Her first recordings
with Goodman, including Irving Berlin’s "How
Deep Is the Ocean" (Columbia, 1941), were merely
competent, but her 1942 recording of "Why Don’t
You Do Right?" revealed an individual style. Written
by Lee herself [sic], it was based on a blues song by
Lil Green. In 1943, after her marriage to Goodman’s
guitarist David Barbour, she left the band and retired
to raise a family, only occasionally recording [sic].
Among her first solo hits were "Mañana"
(Capitol, 1948), written with Barbour; "Bali Ha'i"
(Capitol, 1949) and "Lover" (Decca, 1952), her
spectacular mambo version of Lorenz Hart’s and Richard
Rodgers’ waltz with an orchestra backing supplied
by Gordon Jenkins.
In
the early fifties, Lee formed a songwriting partnership
with the Hollywood composer Victor Young, which produced
"Where Can I Go Without You?," among other songs.
In 1955, she demonstrated her versatility when she was
nominated for an Oscar for her performance as the fading
singer in "Pete Kelly’s Blues" and lent
her voice to Walt Disney for his first [sic] full-length
animated cartoon, "Lady and the Tramp," in which
she sang her own compositions "He’s a Tramp"
and "The Siamese Cat Song." On record, her material
ranged from show tunes like "Mr. Wonderful"
and "Joey, Joey, Joey" (Decca, 1956) to big
band blues such as "Alright, Okay, You Win"
(Capitol, 1959), based on Joe Williams and Count Basie’s
interpretation. She also sang rhythm and blues including
a fine version of Little Willie John’s "Fever"
(Capitol, 1958) and Ray Charles’s "Hallelujah,
I Love Him So" (Capitol, 1959), and recorded immaculate
collections of popular ballads, such as "The Man
I Love" (Capitol, 1957), which included her celebrated
rendition of Jerome Kern’s "The Folks Who Live
on the Hill" and her album with George Shearing,
"Beauty and the Beat" (Capitol, 1959).
Lee’s
openness to so many forms of music – she even recorded
an album of folk songs, "Sea Shells" (Decca,
1956) – led her to become one of the first mainstream
performers to record material by The Beatles and other
contemporary songwriters. In 1969 she returned to the
Top Twenty with her highly formal version of Leiber and
Stoller’s "Is That All There Is?," arranged
by Randy Newman. It was taken from an album of the duo’s
songs, "Mirrors" (A&M) [sic]. Throughout
the seventies and eighties she toured intermittently.
