Peggy Lee Dies Of Heart Attack

Peggy Lee, the singer-composer whose smoky, insinuating voice in such songs as "Is That All There Is?" and "Fever" made her a jazz and pop legend, has died. She was 81.

Miss Lee died from a heart attack at her Bel Air home on Monday night, said her daughter, Nicki Lee Foster. Lee repeatedly battled injury and ill health, including heart trouble, in order to maintain a career that brought her a Grammy, an Oscar nomination and sold-out houses worldwide.

During more than 50 years in show business, which began during a troubled childhood and endured through four broken marriages, she recorded hit songs with the Benny Goodman band, wrote songs for a Disney movie and starred on Broadway in an autobiographical show, "Peg."

Her vocal flexibility and cool, breathy voice brought sultry distinction to big band showstoppers, pop ballads and soulful laments. She was considered in the same league as Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald and Bessie Smith.

Her hits touched generations of listeners. Miss Lee's more notable recordings included "Why Don't You Do Right?," "I'm a Woman," "Lover," "Pass Me By," "Where or When," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Hallelujah I Just Love Him So," "I'm Gonna Go Fishin"' and "Big Spender." The hit "Is That All There Is?" won her a Grammy for best contemporary female vocal performance in 1969.

Jazz critic Leonard Feather once remarked, "If you don't feel a thrill when Peggy Lee sings, you're dead, Jack."

And critic John Seagraves wrote: "Peggy Lee can do more for a song by a mere rolling of her eyes or with a quick, crooked smile than most pop singers can with all the vocal diction training possible and years of dramatic tutelage."

Miss Lee's sultry voice kept her a favorite in radio, on records and later in television. She became an accomplished songsmith, co-writing "Manana'' and "It's a Good Day'' with Barbour.

She recalled in a 1988 interview that her husband "thought of me as a jazz singer. I never did. I didn't know what I was. I just liked to think of interpreting.''

She collaborated with Sonny Burke on the songs for Disney's "The Lady and the Tramp,'' and was the voice for the wayward canine who sang "He's a Tramp (But I Love Him).''

Her work on that 1955 film led to a landmark legal judgment 36 years later when a California court awarded her $2.3 million after she sued for a portion of the profits from the videocassette sale of the movie. The case hinged on a clause in her pre-video-era contract barring the sale of "transcriptions'' of the movie without her approval.

In 1956, she was cast her as a boozy blues singer in "Pete Kelly's Blues,'' and she was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar. She also appeared opposite Danny Thomas in an update of "The Jazz Singer,'' but her film career was short-lived.

"My agents decided they could make more money from me on the road,'' she said.

She sang to standing ovations from New York to Australia. With her creamy-blonde hair anlanguid manner, she seemed to exude sex. She protested that it came naturally: "Anything that's forced comes over fake.''

She recorded more than 600 songs and wrote many others, including themes for such movies as "Johnny Guitar'' and "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.'' Her return to recording in 1988 after a hiatus of more than a decade netted her a Grammy nomination for "Miss Peggy Lee Sings The Blues'' in 1989 and another for "The Peggy Lee Songbook: There'll Be Another Spring'' in 1991.

© MMII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed