Compilation of the Best of Peggy Lee's Decca Recordings Features ``Lover'' and the ``Lady and the Tramp's'' ``The Siamese Cat Song''.

Entertainment Editors/Music Writers

LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--May 2, 2002

Peggy Lee, with her soft, sultry, come-hither manner, was one of the greatest song stylists to ever step in front of a microphone. When she passed away on January 21, 2002, at age 81, music lost a truly unique presence and voice.

Though she spent most of her career on Capitol, Lee was signed to Decca from 1952 to 1957, recording more than 120 songs. Twelve of her greatest tracks from that period have been brought together, each digitally remastered, on "The Best Of Peggy Lee" edition of "20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection" (MCA/Decca/UME), released May 21, 2002. The package also includes notes by David Torresen, editor of PeggyLee.com.

Miss Peggy Lee was piqued when Capitol refused to release her sensuous take on Rodgers & Hart's "Lover," despite a decade of hits that had made her one of the most popular artists at the label. Having recently divorced songwriter-musician Dave Barbour, Lee decided it was time to move on in life and music.

In 1952 the Decca-released "Lover" spent months on the charts, peaking at #3 (and heard in the film "Love Me Tonight"). Her first sessions also yielded the hits "Be Anything (But Be Mine)" and the Cole Porter classic "Just One Of Those Things" from the musical "Jubilee." One of pop's first female songwriters, Lee also co-penned "Sans Souci" that year. In 1953, her first original LP, "Black Coffee," a masterpiece among jazz-inflected pop albums of any era, included its title track.

Lee was a movie star too, most notably in a remake of "The Jazz Singer" and in "Pete Kelly's Blues," the latter earning her an Oscar nomination. The songs in "Pete Kelly's Blues" -- performed by both Lee and Ella Fitzgerald -- included '20s standards (Gershwin's "Somebody Loves Me") and new songs ("He Needs Me"), and appeared on the 1955 LP "Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues." She was heard but not seen in other films, co-writing and singing the theme for "Johnny Guitar" and providing speaking and singing voices to characters, including two dastardly cats, for the Disney animated classic "Lady And The Tramp," among whose songs was her co-written "The Siamese Cat Song." Also featured on "The Best Of Peggy Lee" is a revisiting of an earlier hit with Barbour, "I Don't Know Enough About You," as well as "Let Me Go, Lover" and "Mr. Wonderful" (from the musical of the same name).

In 1957 she returned to Capitol, and two of her best-known hits would follow, "Fever" and "Is That All There Is?" Virtually defining the "torch song," the legacy of Miss Peggy Lee today still shines bright.

The series "20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection" features new "best of" albums from the most significant music artists of the past century.