Peggy Lee and The Dave Barbour Quartet (1950) - Why Don't You Do Right? [Americana]

Details

Description

Peggy Lee and The Dave Barbour Quartet were a groundbreaking combo that helped pave the way for jazz and pop. Both sophisticated and accessible, it continues to be enjoyed today.

While a member of Benny Goodman's orchestra in 1942, Goodman's guitarist, David Barbour, fell in love with lead singer Peggy Lee. They got married and moved to Los Angeles in 1943.

Barbour, who had joined the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1942, left the next year when his relationship with Lee first became apparent. (Goodman forbade band members from "fraternizing with the girl singer.") Lee stayed on briefly, to the end of her contract. She married Barbour in Los Angeles that year, and gave birth to daughter, Nicki. Lee would remember those months as the happiest time she had ever known.

Lee said, "I loved him dearly but eventually we began to come up against the problem of my career. You see, it is always very difficult for a man to be married to a career girl. She’s the one who gets all the attention." From 1946 to 1949, while performing, and recording, and promoting commercial songs, Lee cut 72 tracks for Capitol's Transcription Library Service, which produced records exclusively for radio airplay.

By 1950, the Barbour’s marriage was almost over; one of their last performances together was captured in 1950, before they divorced in 1951. In addition to Barbour, Lee married and divorced actors Brad Dexter and Dewey Martin and percussionist Jack Del Rio. Of these three later marriages, Lee said, "Each one could have been annulled. They were like costume parties."